HEAVYWEIGHT BOXING CHAMPION FIGHT – LISTON VS. CLAY

This February 1964 issue of The Ring magazine has an illustration of Sonny Liston and Cassius Clay on the cover ahead of their first fight that would take place on February 25^th in Miami Beach.

Although Clay was named fighter of the year for 1963, he was a massive underdog in the upcoming title bout. At the time, Liston was widely considered one of the best heavyweight fighters of all time. There was an impression amongst many people that Liston may be damaging the sport because he was unbeatable. As a result, Clay was an 8-1 underdog.

Clay was a young 22-year old mouthy challenger who enjoyed his time in the spotlight. By comparison Liston was an experienced champion. He was powerful and so intimidating that some fighters wouldn’t get in the ring with him. There were 46 sportswriters at ringside and 43 of them picked Liston to win by knockout.

Everyone, including Sonny Liston, didn’t give Clay much of a chance as a challenger. In fact, Liston didn’t train nearly as much as he should have for the fight. He believed the that he could knock out Clay within the first two rounds and that’s what he prepared for. He only ran one mile per day and reportedly had a diet that included hot dogs and beer. In addition to his lack of conditioning, Liston was so dominant in previous fights that he only fought a total of under seven minutes in almost three years. His previous three fights were all first round knockouts.

Cassius Clay knew that he wasn’t going to be taken seriously. He said, “I knew that Liston, overconfident that he was, was never going to train to fight more than two rounds. He couldn’t see nothing to me at all but mouth.”

Clay took the bout and his training very seriously. He was younger, faster and conditioned to go further. More than just physically preparing, Clay studied Liston. He watched old footage of Liston fights and sought to detect weaknesses that he could later exploit. He also played psychological games with Liston to make him angry and distract him. Clay put on such a show at the pre-fight weigh in that his heart rate was 120 beats per minute and his BP was 200/100. The chief physician of the Miami Boxing Commission, determined that Clay was “emotionally unbalanced, scared to death, and liable to crack up before he enters the ring.” There was thought that the fight may need to be cancelled if Clay’s blood pressure didn’t return to normal prior to the fight.

Clay weighed in at 210+1⁄2 lb (95 kg) and Liston was several pounds over his prime fighting weight at 218 lb (99 kg).

The fight itself was amongst the most controversial in history for several reasons. As the bout proceeded, Clay was able to withstand Liston’s power and land some good combinations of his own. One combination left Liston with a large bruise under one eye and a cut under the other. However, in the fourth round Liston seemed to dominate while Clay kept his distance. When Clay got to his corner at the end of the round, it was complaining that he couldn’t see because his eyes were burning. The trainer touched Clay’s eye and then touched his own and felt an intense burning sensation which indicated some type of caustic substance.

Clay returned to the ring for the fifth round but later noted that he couldn’t see anything. He stayed alive by moving and avoiding the shadow that was Liston. In the sixth round Clay’s vision had finally cleared and he began hitting Liston with combinations at will. Liston then failed to answer the bell for round seven.

Clay was the winner in a major upset at the start of the seventh round by TKO.

There were many rumors about why Liston quit, if the fight was fixed and if Liston’s team was responsible for the substance in Clay’s eyes. Liston’s claimed he quit because his arm was too injured to continue. This claim was supported by eight doctors at the Miami Hospital who found he had a torn tendon that had bled down to the bicep and was causing his arm to be swollen and numb. With regards to a fix, there was an investigation, the investigation didn’t uncover evidence of a fix. The source of the substance that impaired Clay’s vision was a little less clear. One idea was that it was a result of the substance being used to treat Liston’s cut. It could have been transferred in a clinch. There was also a theory that Liston’s team purposely applied a substance to Liston’s shoulders in between rounds and then Liston transferred it to Clay’s face in a clinch. One other heavy weight contender, Eddie Machen, reported similar symptoms when fighting Liston, but he didn’t report this until after the Clay/Liston fight. Instead, he had previously reported another injury as the reason for his loss.

Considering that Liston was much older, injured and undertrained it is amazing to think that in 1975 Clay said that the first Liston fight was his toughest ever.