Quote Originally Posted by The Fightfan View Post
Very true but I will always look at the facts there is a reason this fight( the second one) which was the biggest fight at the time held in a gymnasium that would sit no more than 2000 people. There is a reason there is only 2 camera's one that does not show the knockdown and one that does. When the punch was landed Ali's back leg was in mid-air thus losing alot of force and Liston who was well known at one time been beaten simultaneously beaten by five cops with billy clubs, still stood his ground but in this instant he is rolling around as the poster above wrote "like he had been shot by a shotgun. While Liston was rolling on the ground he gets up appearing to be groggy but when Jersey Joe listens to what the timekeeper says and walks away Ali lunges forward Liston throw's his hands up to protect his temples in a blink of an eye. Appearing to me whatever cloudiness was in his head was gone. Then Walcott comes back over ,waves the fight off and Liston hangs his head and walks back to his corner. The punch Ali landed in my mind was half force and a grazing arm punch and I will always feel Liston threw the fight.
To be fair though I was watching something on ESPN classic (UK) and Bert Sugar talks about the punch then shows some photo's where the spray is flying off liston's head, not saying it was a KO punch but that coupled with the refereeing debacle makes a reasonable arguement that the fight was not thrown. Then again, Liston was heavily involved with gangsters who are notorious for fixing fights for the benefit of gambling, so who knows?