Description
On May 25th 1965, at Central Maine Civic Center, Lewiston, Main, USA. Sonny Liston fought Muhammad Ali for the World Heavyweight Championship. Prior to the fight, the WBA stripped Ali of his title after he agreed to give Liston a rematch. It was a violation of the WBA’s rules to give return title fights. On March 5th 1965, Ernie Terrell and Eddie Machin fought for the vacant WBA World Heavyweight Championship which Terrell won on a 15 rounds unanimous points decision and became the WBA World Heavyweight Champion.
The rematch between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston became one of the most controversial fights in the history of boxing. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab, Ali countered with a fast right hand which landed cleanly and knocked Liston onto his back. He rolled over, got up to his right knee then fell on his back again. The referee, Jersey Joe Walcott tried to get Ali to a neutral corner but Ali insisted standing over Liston telling him to get up. Liston got to his feet, Walcott wiped Liston’s gloves, then left the fighters and went over to the timekeeper Francis McDonough, who was waving both of his hands shouting, ‘I counted him out, the fight is over.’ Walcott rushed back over to the fighters who were fighting again and stopped the fight.
Skeptics called it a fix and named the punch a “Phantom Punch” as many didn’t see it land. Ali called the punch “The Anchor Punch” which was taught to him by Stepin Fetchit who learned it from the great Jack Johnson. Ali beat Liston on a 1st round knockout and held onto his WBC World Heavyweight Championship.
After the fight Ali said, ‘The punch jarred him. It was a good punch but I didn’t think I hit him so hard he couldn’t get up.’ Liston said, ‘It was a good right hand punch, it made me groggy. I got to my knees but fell the second time because I was off balance. I could’ve got up but I didn’t hear the count.’
