Sonny Liston vs. Howard King (2nd meeting)

Sonny Liston 220 lbs beat Howard King 204 lbs by TKO at 0:53 in round 3 of 10

• Date: 1961-03-08
• Location: Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
• Referee: Cy Gottfried

"Sonny Liston of Philadelphia, who scored his 25th straight victory Wednesday night on a repeat knockout over Howard King, plans to challenge for the heavyweight crown next week. Liston will challenge the winner of Monday night's Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johansson title fight and will file the challenge with the NBA, manager Joseph (Pep) Barone said today. Sonny floored King for a count of eight in the 2nd round and for the full count in the 3rd round of their 10-rounder at the Miami Beach Auditorium." - United Press International

Notes

• King substituted for Young Jack Johnson. King was sparring with Johnson four days before the fight and opened a cut inside Johnson's mouth, which forced him to pull out of the fight.
• After defeating King, Liston said he would fight the winner of the Patterson-Johansson rubber match "for nothing just to get a shot at the title." Liston complained, "From the way Cus D'Amato (Patterson's manager) talks, I guess I'll never get Patterson. Johansson, I don't know about him. When he didn't have the title, he said he would fight me. When he won it, he wouldn't fight me. I don't know how he would feel if he wins this time."