New Unseen footage-Sonny Liston Speaks ! (1967)

[Caractacus]

just now came across this-( from the Bay Area Televison Archive)
Sonny Liston talks to a Television reporter in 1967 about his second fight with Muhammad Ali.
and never seen him so animated !
from KIPX Eyewitness NEWS -San Francisco
check this out.

http://diva.sfsu.edu/collections/sfbatv/bundles/228187

[goose 5]

Just classic ! A great find-thanks for it .

[BoxBuzz]

From Liston's words and body language, (admittedly out of context here) One does not get the impression that Liston was anything but annoyed with the outcome of the fight. No hint of nervousness, embarassment or expressed fear of the mob or the nation of Islam.....almost as if he feels it was Walcotts ineptness, and nothing more that played out here. He does not seem "satisfied" with the outcome.....which might be expected had he in any way faked the moment.

He did not believe or realize or want to admit that he was at all compromised.

I don't think Sonny was a complicated enough fella to "act" that out. So.....I'm even more inclined to believe that what you see is what you get in that KO/TKO. Sonny was stunned, for real.....and then what followed was some very inept officiating. But nothing artificial from Sonny.

[Caractacus]

yeah, he definately wanted to continue.
He just sort of looked embarresed when Walcott stopped the fight.

[Ambling Alp II]

I have had various thoughts over the years of what exactly happened. I agree that Walcott was clueless. However, at this point, I do think that Liston threw the fight.

What really looks suspicious is the way he is rolling around on the ground. That just looks fake. He may have legitimately been knocked down, but but wasn't hurt very badly. (Also don't think he would have won the rematch anyway.)

The other thing that for some reason nobody ever talks about is what happened after the fight.

If Liston didn't throw the fight and really was angry about the officiating, then why didn't he officially protest the decision? It seems very possible that the verdict would have been changed to a no-contest.

[bwu]

For anecdotal reasons, I think Liston tanked the second fight. Alp’s last paragraph is an interesting one; I’ve never considered that before.

Buzz, respectfully, I don’t think you’re giving Liston enough credit. I think he was way more complicated than you believe.