Quote Originally Posted by fan johnny View Post
I couldn't quite understand the stoppage and they didn't explain it really well. It looked like the ref. was counting but I'm not sure because when Liston was up and ready the refs head was turned away from the fighters as if he was listening to someone else in the other corner and didn't really say go but just left them and when they started back fighting. The ref then came back in and said the fight was over. But it could also have been he was stopping the fight because Liston was starting to get blasted but then it looked premature. So I'm wondering if he was actually counted out?
He got counted out. Because Ali was running around the ring Walcott didn't begin the count straight away as he was trying to get Ali to the neutral corner. I don't even think Walcott started a count as by the time he was ready Liston was up.

The official timekeeper at ringside had already counted up to about 14 by the time Liston got up, so when Walcott went off after wiping Liston's gloves it was because someone had gotten his attention to tell him Liston had been counted out. At least that's how I've always seen it described whenever I've read about it

Thanks for posting that video armyash, that's the first time I've heard Marciano and Dempsey speak. Very interesting to see.