I just posted my memories of the night of the fight, but I would like to compliment Mr. Araton on a terrific piece of writing -- integrating sport and sociology to a remarkable degree. If he hasn't already, Mr. Araton might read 'Empire Falls' by RIchard Russo, as Araton's portrait of Lewiston reminded me of that fictitious city in Maine.
3
I had a friend who in advertising. He knew someone at ABC. We went over to an ABC TV facility on the West Side, where someone had figured out how to tap into the closed circuit, black and white, telecast from Lewiston. We watched it on a monitor. The other guys were incredulous, but I saw that Ali had his full weight behind that short punch and that Liston had been moving into it. I still believe Liston fell legitimately and was stunned. No one will ever know if he could have gotten up at ten or if he tanked at that point. Had Liston gotten up sooner, the fight continued, I believe Ali would have given him a severe beating and before long Liston would have wound up flat on his back and out of it, just like George Forman did years later. The picture tells the story.
3
i used to live on a little street over looking the Colisee. the patrons of the heavy metal and rap concerts, all night raves, and other ill behaved young people drove my wife and me to leave Lewiston for a more quiet life in the country, within easy commuting distance to Portland. We have a small child and both decided long ago that Lewiston schools were no place to be. We're relatively young, both graduate level educated. There was very little holding us to Lewiston. It's unfortunate to see a city struggle. This article paints a rosy picture of a city that is filled with the exceptionally poor and uneducated. The suggestion is that the down town area is beginning to thrive. the reality is that there are still many unoccupied store fronts. It's certainly not a place I would want to be alone at night. The older Franco inhabitants are stuck in the ways of 50 years ago. The Somali immigrants are just trying to make a go of it. it's really a sad, sad town.
1
On our way from Montreal to the Maine coast, with French-Canadian, Jewish and Somali genes in our car, we were puzzled by the Auburn-Lewiston dichotomy: Auburn a scene of boarded-up monstrous red-brick shells, while across the river in Lewiston someone, somehow, was making a valiant effort to keep the pulse of the community beating. Little did we know of the storied fight, but this excellent story makes me feel that we passed through sacred ground. Next time, we'll join the pilgrims on Birch Street.
3
great story...thanks!!
5
What a great piece - insightful and beautifully written. I never look at the Sports pages, but I'm an Ali fan - our family is from County Clare, Ireland, as is part of his (our late Dad called him "Cousin Muhammed"). This article was an absolute winner.
6
Excellent piece by an excellent reporter. Not to be left unmentioned, however, was Ali's take away prediction quote from the day before promising an, "interesting, exciting, shocking, dreadful fight." [TUESDAY, MAY 25, 1965, P. 49, NYTimes].
The article mentions that the people in Lewiston still insisted on referring to the champ by his given name, ''Cassius Clay,'' as opposed to his recently adopted, ''Mohammed Ali.'' This resistance was not peculiar to the boondocks of Maine. In this paper of record, by friend Robert Lipsyte, who was assigned coverage of Ali originally through a lucky break earlier in the career of both, when no one else was interested, continued that relationship by following up with a page one above-the-fold account of this fight. 'Cassius Clay' is the name the Times decided to go with throughout the piece. The only references to 'Ali' were in the context of his being guarded by Black Muslims due to assassination rumors that he would be shot in retaliation for the recent shooting of Malcom X. The only mention of the public using 'Ali' in the piece is when a Lewiston youth, jeering when Ali enters the ring first, ''Hey Muhammad, your camel's double parked.'' Lipsyte went on to write ''Free to Be Muhammad Ali'' in 1978 and is generally acknowledged to be the first mainstream reporter to accept Ali's convictions on his beliefs and the War in Vietnam.
The article mentions that the people in Lewiston still insisted on referring to the champ by his given name, ''Cassius Clay,'' as opposed to his recently adopted, ''Mohammed Ali.'' This resistance was not peculiar to the boondocks of Maine. In this paper of record, by friend Robert Lipsyte, who was assigned coverage of Ali originally through a lucky break earlier in the career of both, when no one else was interested, continued that relationship by following up with a page one above-the-fold account of this fight. 'Cassius Clay' is the name the Times decided to go with throughout the piece. The only references to 'Ali' were in the context of his being guarded by Black Muslims due to assassination rumors that he would be shot in retaliation for the recent shooting of Malcom X. The only mention of the public using 'Ali' in the piece is when a Lewiston youth, jeering when Ali enters the ring first, ''Hey Muhammad, your camel's double parked.'' Lipsyte went on to write ''Free to Be Muhammad Ali'' in 1978 and is generally acknowledged to be the first mainstream reporter to accept Ali's convictions on his beliefs and the War in Vietnam.
6
As a Lewiston native, I am always pleased to read about my home town. But I have to correct one impression, Harvey. Lewiston-Auburn did in fact have a substantial Jewish population at the time. There were two active synagogues, a Jewish Community Center and about 1,500 Jews (about 2% of the population of the two cities which was closer to 70,000). It wasn't exactly Vilna meets Montreal but it was interesting to hear my grandfather speaking French with a Yiddish accent.
5
I remember listening on the radio. Robert Goulet sounded drunk.
New York Times sports writer Red Smith said it best when commenting on how Sonny Liston threw the Lewiston fight, writing that Liston took a dive that raised the level of the Androscoggin River by a foot
1
Great article! I recall seeing a frame by frame video of the sequence leading to the knockout. In it, Liston was throwing a left jab and had all of his weight going forward on his left foot. Ali was standing, as he typically did, with his arms down at his sides. In the time it took for Liston's fist to go from his shoulder to within 6 inches of Ali's face, Ali brought his right fist up to Liston's jaw. The force of his uppercut lifted Liston's weight-bearing left foot several inches off the mat. That was no mystery punch, it was a bell ringer.
6
I heard it on the radio. That's how you got the fights in Nebraska then. I've read tons about it. The only really interesting character in either fight is Liston. Frankie Carbo's property & Blinky Palermo's protege. My position is Jack Newfield's, referring to the total Liston-Clay/Ali experience.
Did Liston dump one fight or two? Jimmy Cannon of the Post was at ringside for the 2nd fight. Said he saw the punch and it would not have crushed a grape. As for the first encounter, Ali was trying to quit in the 5th, but Bundini & Dundee wouldn't let him. Liston mysteriously sat on his stool after the uneventful 6th.
Did Liston dump 1 fight or 2?
Did Liston dump one fight or two? Jimmy Cannon of the Post was at ringside for the 2nd fight. Said he saw the punch and it would not have crushed a grape. As for the first encounter, Ali was trying to quit in the 5th, but Bundini & Dundee wouldn't let him. Liston mysteriously sat on his stool after the uneventful 6th.
Did Liston dump 1 fight or 2?
1
I have seen film of this fight (which I listened to on radio as a boy when it happened). Liston got up -- with referee Walcott having turned away to communicate fecklessly with the timekeeper. If he was waiting for the count of 8 (as boxers having been knocked down will do to gain a breath) he was out of luck because Walcott had abandoned the count, and Liston's view! Surely more than 10 seconds had elapsed, especially as Ali had, as noted, first eschewed the retreat to a neutral corner so a count could begin. However, when Liston did get up he returned to fighting Ali. When Walcott shockingly walked away from them again, the two fighters glanced at his back and then continued to stalk and attack. Jersey Joe, who never officiated a big fight again, soon returned, separated them and held up Ali's glove, signaling the end. Liston always said when the fight was stopped, he was on his feet fighting, and that's true. But if he threw the fight, why didn't he just stay down until he heard the "10" count? For that reason I don't think this second fight was fixed. I could certainly be wrong. But people at the time of their first fight argued it was fixed just because they didn't understand who and what Ali was yet.
8
I was about to post the same exact thoughts. I never knew that Liston got up and returned to fighting, without being sure he was counted out. Now the idea that he threw the fight is silly to me.
2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8DR0P0PV5c
Here is the whole thing on YouTube...the end of the fight is about 12 minutes in. Ali seems to deliberately obstruct the start of the count by running around the ring (again, not his style once he was respected). But you'll see Liston struggle with difficulty to his feet and fight again. Not the action of a guy trying to get out of there
Here is the whole thing on YouTube...the end of the fight is about 12 minutes in. Ali seems to deliberately obstruct the start of the count by running around the ring (again, not his style once he was respected). But you'll see Liston struggle with difficulty to his feet and fight again. Not the action of a guy trying to get out of there
2
The whole event was bush beyond belief! Surreal......Everyone in the place knew that the fix was in. Lewiston, Me? Liston was a pawn. Always, everywhere, every time. See Gay Talese, Dean Tosches. Following his mob bosses.Ali's legacy, ironically is that he cleaned up the fight game for 20 years. The guy was incorruptible! The Greatest!
2
A fascinating story! I can add something to it. I was an American student in London at the time of the fight. It was one of the first events, if not the first, televised live across the Atlantic, by means of a satellite called the Early Bird. There were two British commentators. When the fight ended so abruptly and mysteriously, one of them said "The Early Bird brought two worms!"
2
The fight was held in Lewiston, Maine, because it had a stench about it, and no big, legit house would have it. Remember that the Miami fight between these two gladiators (sic) ended with Liston sitting on his stool and failing to answer the bell to start the eight round. The cognoscenti (not those of us who got our boxing news from the papers and from Howard) knew this was going to be another stinker. Sonny took two dives. The historians just don't agree as to why.
1
David, Liston was going down regardless of what he intended or didn't intend to do. He just wasn't in Ali's league. Even the doubters at the time had eventually to come around to the recognition that Ali was simply one of the very best fighters to ever grace a ring. You think maybe his Olympic gold medal was the result of a fix too? But Ali was robbed of some of the best years of his professional life because of his entirely correct opposition to the Vietnam war.
3
I must agree. I thought Liston would be Champ forever. He took the dives for the "short money". See "On the Waterfront". Ali was scared to death of him! See my previous comments
Thank you Sir!
Thank you Sir!
1
I grew up in Lewiston and Auburn (neighboring towns) and went to grade school with Charlie Hewitt (way to go, Charlie!). In May, 1965, I was just finishing my freshman year at a Massachusetts college which drew many of its students from Boston and New York. In the brief run-up to the fight, the NY Times ran an article or two about that hick town, Lewiston, where the fight was improbably going to be held, mentioning its couple of movie theaters and the fact that a big night out involved some guys piling into a pick-up truck to go to Boston for a Red Sox game. I can't say it wasn't true, but at the time I was mortified! Araton has done a great job of capturing the essence of Lewiston; its interesting ethnic make-up then and now, its working-class sensibility, its economic decline and the role of Bates College in the town. I'm glad to hear that the college has in recent years become more a part of the community - I walked by the campus every day on my way to Lewiston High School, and almost never had the occasion or opportunity to enter a college building or meet anyone from Bates, even though I was one of the (relatively few) college-bound kids at LHS. I would love to see Charlie's film - is it available anywhere?
9
Ali, literally and figuratively, will always be the champ. I was seventeen at the time of the fight and it impacted me and countless others to follow Ali for years to come. The poems and the nick-names were all part of the Clay/Ali persona but along the way he championed a movement in this country.
We were bunch of baby boomers living outside Philadelphia and along with the Lewiston fight came the draft and of course the Vietnam War. You can use the Stepin Fetchit punch or what ever move you wish, but for us it was the start of a series of blows that would forever change the way we view the U.S..
Ali was pilloried by the post war establishment and it backfired.
They didn't teach him a lesson; he stood for what he believed and took a generation along for the ride.
The 'disgrace' of David Susskind became the image of a better way for those who doubted the direction of this country. To live through those times and see something of an affirmation of the man and the legend makes us all better. The saddest part of the path taken by Ali are the 'reminders' of the blows he carries to this day. He will forever be the Champ.
We were bunch of baby boomers living outside Philadelphia and along with the Lewiston fight came the draft and of course the Vietnam War. You can use the Stepin Fetchit punch or what ever move you wish, but for us it was the start of a series of blows that would forever change the way we view the U.S..
Ali was pilloried by the post war establishment and it backfired.
They didn't teach him a lesson; he stood for what he believed and took a generation along for the ride.
The 'disgrace' of David Susskind became the image of a better way for those who doubted the direction of this country. To live through those times and see something of an affirmation of the man and the legend makes us all better. The saddest part of the path taken by Ali are the 'reminders' of the blows he carries to this day. He will forever be the Champ.
15
There was no mystery punch. Ali hit Liston fast and clean, and down he went.
9
Nothing brings out the barstool experts like stories about old boxing matches. These comments are a hoot.
7
You are quite right, my dear. We old fools only fight the old, dead long forgotten battles! This article is the best sports story I've read since Frank Deford retired Or did he?
Regards,
Jim Brennan
Regards,
Jim Brennan
2
John Jenkins is the go-to speaker for many high school graduations in the L-A area. I lived on Vale St. in the early 2000s before moving here.
Would have liked a bit more about the brain drain and the fact that many of us plan to move back when we retire or get married and raise kids. Auburn is a nice town.
Would have liked a bit more about the brain drain and the fact that many of us plan to move back when we retire or get married and raise kids. Auburn is a nice town.
5
To put it mildly, Lewiston was an unlikely site for the fight. Ali's victory in Liston I was a huge upset. Whether he could do it twice was dubious. When they decided to fight in what can only be deemed an incredibly obscure location and we later learned of the phantom punch -- as far as I know there was no TV coverage -- it all seemed very suspicious. To this day, I have no idea what happened in that ring in Lewiston.
1
An upset? Are you nuts? Ali (as Cassius Clay) had already beaten Liston decisively once. His record after the second Liston fight (before he was stripped of his titles for his refusal to go into the Army) speaks for itself. Ali was an Olympic gold medal winner and a VASTLY better fighter. Period. Liston was just a lumbering untalented Ox.
The Ali-Liston fight also helped inspire a local young boxer who began his training at Lewiston's Gamache Boxing Gym, starting in on the sweet science at the tender age of 14 at a truly heavy weight of 260. Tomas Smith, now 21 and a 6'3" 201-pound junior at Syracuse, this April won the collegiate-level heavyweight national title, as profiled in a recent Lewiston Sun Journal feature -- www.sunjournal.com/news/local-sports/2015/05/10/boxer-tomas-smith-drops-... -- and is back for daily workouts at Gamache's this summer. I'm his aunt; every year at Christmas I make sure to give him another boxing book, from the A.J. Liebling classics to Tom Hauser, from Joyce Carol Oates "On Boxing" to David Remnick's great Ali bio, to the now-classic anthology selected by George Kimball. His favorite story, though, is the one you recount here: about the time those great heavyweights came to his hometown, inspired his own coach to train son Joey Gamache to a world featherweight championship, and then hang in there long enough to guide Tomas to the sport he now loves. Lewiston boxing and the Gamache Gym, where the clippings of Ali's trips to town adorn the walls (and will soon be joined by this NYT story, and this young boxer's own recent profile from the local Sun Journal) changed not just Tomas's physique but his life.
6
My dad grew up in Lewiston, one of seven children of millworkers. I lived in Lewiston in 1955, and visited it in 1960 and 1985. I love it, but I don't recall that it was ever anything but a hardscrabble place; it's probably been that way since the mills went overseas, and will probably remain a backwater unless climate-change makes it an easier place to live.
3
Why would that Times print this version of Ali standing over Liston.
Neil Liefer took the iconic image in color and Rooney happen to be standing behind him and captured basically the same image in B & W. This image isn't what it seems or what people have been commenting on - including the supposed caption to the photo. Do the research and you will learn differently. Wow time does alter history.
Neil Liefer took the iconic image in color and Rooney happen to be standing behind him and captured basically the same image in B & W. This image isn't what it seems or what people have been commenting on - including the supposed caption to the photo. Do the research and you will learn differently. Wow time does alter history.
2
One has only to travel through Maine and its Canadian frontier to realize the abysmal failure of American oligarchic plutocratic capitalism. Fifty years ago the US was the promised land to so many of us. The Maine Quebec and Maine New Brunswick border could have been a show piece for how high the US style free market economy could take impoverished unemployed Quebecers living in ultra conservative church run Quebec with its lowest in North America taxes and drown in the bathtub government.
Forty years after our quiet left of center revolution Maine seems third world as our healthy, bright eyed young people seem ready to tackle the world and their family members on the wrong side of the US/Canada frontier are pretty well stuck in their free market xenophobic and closed society.
As Quebecers plan their trips to Europe, the Carribean and Asia their Mainer family member cannot even contemplate a visit to family members 20 miles away because they don't have passports. I think Maine is the ultimate proof that whether it is rural or urban the results of poverty by design have no genetic or racial component.
Forty years after our quiet left of center revolution Maine seems third world as our healthy, bright eyed young people seem ready to tackle the world and their family members on the wrong side of the US/Canada frontier are pretty well stuck in their free market xenophobic and closed society.
As Quebecers plan their trips to Europe, the Carribean and Asia their Mainer family member cannot even contemplate a visit to family members 20 miles away because they don't have passports. I think Maine is the ultimate proof that whether it is rural or urban the results of poverty by design have no genetic or racial component.
17
In order to understand the Lewiston fight, you have to understand the rules of boxing, especially as they were a half century and more ago. When Jersey Joe Walcott lost his heavyweight championship to Rocky Marciano, he had thrown everything he had into the fight. He knocked the Rock down in the first round with a left hook that would have felled a tree, but the Rock got up. He out boxed, out smarted and out moved Marciano for thirteen rounds until, half blind, and having absorbed a pounding, Rocky landed one of the most devastating knockout punches ever thrown. Jack Dempsey at ringside said "I never threw a punch that hard". In the rematch, Jersey Joe was guaranteed a princely sum to get back into the ring. He would have been a fool to turn it down. But he knew that everything he had wasn't enough against the younger newcomer. So, in round one as soon as Rocky hit him on the chin with a grazing blow, Joe went down and took the count. Smart move, And one that Liston copied. The "big bad mean bear" knew after the first fight that this newcomer was employing tactics that Joe Louis called "a heavyweight Sugar Ray Robinson". A rematch with a guaranteed purse for a former champ who knows he can't win is a gyp to the fans, a moneymaker for the promoters and a bonus to a washed up fighter. That's all it was. To attempt to claim there was a "phantom" punch learned from Stepin Fetchit is as ludicrous today as it was 50 years ago.
6
This interpretation has occurred to me too. But Liston kept fighting for several years after. Why? Again, the Mob.
1
Nice article, perhaps neglecting to mention that the famous punch, as Ali told the world, was "the anchor punch" which had been devised and used by Jack Johnson, and which, indeed, did incorporate the advance of the opponent upon whom it was rained as a component of its efficacy. He's still the greatest, in my humble opinion.
4
Look I love him too! I saw him @O'Hare on my way home from the Marine Corps. He was buried in a sea of black-suited Black Muslims. 1972. I waved and yelled "Hey Champ" and he waved back from the midst of his entourage. MY biggest sports moment! He WAS and IS boxing! Nobody can touch Him!
1
What a photo! Many of us tend to recall Ali for his speed, but this shows that he was powerfully built as well. I worked then in a factory with many African-Americans and the intensity of their love for Ali was unforgettable. This was magnified by the comparison to Liston, who was seen as an embarrassment as a public face of the Black community. Ali's refusal to be drafted was heroic and his being stripped of his title and the rest were shameful. He won over the thuggery of Liston and the thuggery, writ large, of the American right.
14
I used to work in Lewiston as a social worker on the psych ward at St Mary's hospital in the early 1990s. I commuted from Portland, which was over an hour away, using the turnpike. The Lewiston-Auburn area is actually an outpost of civilization in what is the start of the western part of the state. The town of Poland is not too far away.
Lots of blue-collar people of French-Canadian ancestry live around there, and lots of poor people in the hinterlands. New England weather is some of the best in the country in the summer and fall, and some of the worst after October. Spring is called 'mud season' and is cold and overcast until June.
I was once caught in a blizzard driving back to Portland in January. A tractor-trailer passed me on the left and I was in a white-out condition for 15 seconds, which is an eternity at 60 miles an hour. I got visual bearings as my car was running along the left-hand side guardrail. I could have easily died right there in a one car accident.
Lewiston-Auburn is like many old New England towns with rivers running through them. The rivers gave them a source of power which to run the factories of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Once logging came down here because of the abundant pine forests in the South, and manufacturing of textiles and shoes could be done more cheaply elsewhere, it was all over for those parts of New England.
One prize fight, even of that caliber, couldn't replace what history had undone decades earlier.
12
Ali was a great great boxer and athlete and one of the most exciting sports presences I ever saw. He was also a great man in terms of some of the social issues he took on, at a time when that was not welcome from an athlete. But there were other aspects of his character too...
The taunting of a guy lying on the map depicted in this photo suggests another, darker side... Ali also taunted and verbally brutalized George Frazier and George Foremen, including having the crowd chant in Zaire ("Ali kill him" in Zairi), which Foreman commented on later as intimidating. Ali also taunted Frazier as "ugly," a "gorilla" and "an Uncle Tom," all vicious things way beyond the pale--and beyond the boxing ring.
Not something to be ignored or swept away as part of his "showmanship". Like many greats, Ali had many facets, some ugly.
The taunting of a guy lying on the map depicted in this photo suggests another, darker side... Ali also taunted and verbally brutalized George Frazier and George Foremen, including having the crowd chant in Zaire ("Ali kill him" in Zairi), which Foreman commented on later as intimidating. Ali also taunted Frazier as "ugly," a "gorilla" and "an Uncle Tom," all vicious things way beyond the pale--and beyond the boxing ring.
Not something to be ignored or swept away as part of his "showmanship". Like many greats, Ali had many facets, some ugly.
20
Is there any chance Ali thought a fix was in and his punch shouldn't have put him down? All the fighters who fought him, including Frazier, gave a pretty good remembrance of him in the latest documentary. That documentary in hearing these really tough men recall ALI brought me to tears as it did them. My uncle worked with Ali when he was a kid and said he was the fastest puncher he had ever seen. My uncle said he could cross punch faster then you could possibly count. The guy was great period.
7
George Foreman has had the last laugh. In good health and very rich with his grill. Funny how things turn out.
Lewiston is yet another American city victim of automobile industry 'progress'. Much of the downtown is reduced to lots, the city sprawls in all directions with the cars running like rats across the landscape.
Jobs = automania: fast food, junk-dollar stores, Walmart, gas stations, flea markets, etc. Work is done in China, retail is what remains, aimed at those with no income (the government borrows in their names).
As for Ali - Liston, who cares? It is America that is down for the count.
Jobs = automania: fast food, junk-dollar stores, Walmart, gas stations, flea markets, etc. Work is done in China, retail is what remains, aimed at those with no income (the government borrows in their names).
As for Ali - Liston, who cares? It is America that is down for the count.
16
Eight count and continuing...
3
Ouch. Five years ago, I'd have agreed with you about Lewiston. But it's coming back, and the Somali and Jamaican populations are making a tremendous difference. Hydro power may well be coming back, particularly in Maine. Don't count out this town, or our country, quite yet.
7
I've lived in Lewiston-Auburn for more than ten years. Your verbal description does not match reality and is essentially false. Lewiston-Auburn thrived on textiles and shoes, now gone as in many New England mill towns, not on the automobile industry. The two downtowns today, however, are filled with new and renovated buildings, not lots. Cars do not run like rats. That image is libelous. Lewiston's main street, Lisbon Street, has had a commercial art gallery, until just recently, as well as an art gallery at Bates, and now has gourmet wine, gourmet food, and specialty shops. Lewiston has excellent restaurants. It has a symphony orchestra, two major medical centers, three theater groups, three dance programs one of which is internationally recognized, three thriving political or community action organizations, four colleges, four shopping centers, numerous social action programs, vital religious centers, and considerable light industry and commerce. The people are wonderful, good, caring people---typical of Maine. Lewiston-Auburn folks are proud of what has been accomplished in the past three decades since the mills closed. Lewiston-Auburn is not without issues, like all American cities, but if you want to find an example of America suffering or dying, kindly look elsewhere.
7
I was a ninth grader at a boarding school outside of Boston and I remember listening after lights out on the radio to Robert Goulet mangle the National anthem and Ali knock Liston out with his mysterious and long disputed anchor punch. A really well written article that took me right back to that strange night 50 years ago.
4
If I have not said so already, Yes, great story. Worthy of Talese
1
I was only 5 and too young to know much about the fight when it happened (I do remember my mother told me they were very rough men not to be emulated - she didn't think much of boxers), but a few years later when I idolized Ali, it became part of his legend in my mind not so much different than David and Goliath. At least, that is the way it then seemed to me then. Years later, in retrospect, of course he knocked him out easily. This article really fleshed out so much that I did not know. Great piece.
3
I was 16 years old and loved the fights. This was not Ali's finest hour in the ring but he was a great champion. Years later I paid $300 to see Tyson knock out Leon Spinks in less time in Atlantic City. I blinked and it was over. But boxing lacks competitive and great fighters now. No Sugar Rays, Durans, Hearns, Ken Norton, Jimmy Young, Cooney, Hagler.......there was once really great competitive interest in the sport and now we get Floyd on his bicycle.
1
This was not a great fight, nor a great story. It's significance is about zero to negative numbers. The story as written is a sort of testimony to just how inconsequential it was. It was a rematch. Probably required under the original signed contract, but the article leaves this out, with only a strange reference as to why Boston might have ditched it. The country was already on the way down hill by then, and it would never turn around, Lewiston, included.
2
Hudson Vitamins, the company I worked for summers when I was in school, paid $500,000 to sponsor the radio broadcast of the fight. Their commercials were going to run between rounds, but there were never any rounds to air between. The ads ran during the post-fight commentaries. Whether anyone was listening is another story.
2
Let's remember that Ali's personality inside the ring was entirely stage managed. If you look at Ali now, you'll see he's in the same misfit condition as his namesake city. He earned it, and he spent it. End of case. Maine must help its own down-and-out cities, not New York or Montecita. - The Colonel
Today 5/19/15 is the 90th birthday of Ali's mentor Malcolm X.
As-salamu alaykum
As-salamu alaykum
9
The fight was broadcast--live--at the Van Nuys Drive-In Theatre. I watched from the top of a tree on a street beside the Drive-In. There was quite a crowd on the street and ambient audio coverage of the fight from many transistor radios. Liston was expected to slaughter Clay (Opp's--almost said Ali) so the crowd hung on every round as the upstart made a real fight of it. I remember it like it was yesterday.
Later in life I worked with inner city youth. The three people that most impacted that culture were Ali, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jackson. I suppose each presented their rendition of Showtime.
Later in life I worked with inner city youth. The three people that most impacted that culture were Ali, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jackson. I suppose each presented their rendition of Showtime.
3
What a well-written and well-researched story. As someone who grew up in his own Lewiston, but in West Virginia, this all rings true. This could actually be an engaging non-documentary film. Thanks for the article.
11
My uncle, Barney Felix, was the referee for the first Liston / Clay fight. At that time, he was the senior boxing referee in New York State. When the Lewiston bout got close I asked if I could go with him. He was going there because the ref was not decided on until the last minute and he was being considered. "I'd love to take you, but I'm not sure it would be safe. The mob has put a 'hit' out on Ali", he told me.
5
The beginning of showboating and self boasting. The end of sportsmanship.
7
When was boxing ever about sportsmanship?
It's about cutting one's opponent over the eye and then jabbing the cut with leather gloves until the fight is stopped. It's Benny Peret getting killed after taking 20 punches in 20 seconds.
It's about cutting one's opponent over the eye and then jabbing the cut with leather gloves until the fight is stopped. It's Benny Peret getting killed after taking 20 punches in 20 seconds.
1
I think you have a selective memory. Don't worry, it happens to lots of people as they age.
Boxing is also about shaking hands during the pre-fight instructions, as well as during the promotional press conferences leading up to the fight, it's about touching gloves as an apology after an accidental low blow. It's about the two combatants embracing after the fight is over. These acts of sportsmanship happen OFTEN in boxing. Only each fighter can fully appreciate what they go through to perfect their craft, hence a special mutual respect develops between them.
3
It's time to put the past aside and get on with this country's future. Even an old coot like me knows that.
6
Ali remains a hero to me - what an incredible athlete; truly an icon. But he is a hero not for exploits in the boxing ring (awesome, incredible as they were) but for his brave, principled, and heroic stand on civil rights - all at immeasurable cost. What a hero, what a man? Where today can we find such athletes?
I still remember Tiger Woods, Michael Jordon (to name a few), both of whom declined to take a stand against child/slave labour. A simple word from these mega-rich men could have potentially changed the lives of millions of children. And it would have cost them nothing - they would still have been rich beyond dreams.
I still remember Tiger Woods, Michael Jordon (to name a few), both of whom declined to take a stand against child/slave labour. A simple word from these mega-rich men could have potentially changed the lives of millions of children. And it would have cost them nothing - they would still have been rich beyond dreams.
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Pat Tillman
3
Thank you, Harvey Araton. It's stories like this that make the NYTimes.
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Agreed. Been a subscriber for 11 years, reader for most of my adult lifetime. I have tried to quit the TIMES on numerous ocassions. Stuff like this is why I read the TIMES!
1
Is the credit on the knockout photograph correct? The story mentions Neil Leifer several times, but the credit says "John Rooney/Associated Press." So either that's an error, or ... is it possible that someone else got basically the same exact shot as Leifer did but zero historical credit for it?
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Thanks for your question. The credit on the knockout photo is correct. Neil Leifer's photo is certainly the iconic one. Leifer's photo is practically perfect -- Ali's triumphant expression and hand motion, the face of the other photographer peering through Ali's legs, the crisp color.
It looks from the images like John Rooney was just to the left of Leifer. So while his is a terrific photo -- and one that any photo editor would be thrilled to run -- it doesn't have quite the power of the other. In the Rooney photo, the timing is right, but the framing is not quite as ideal, and it loses some of its punch in black and white. The fact that Leifer's photo ran in Sports Illustrated surely helped it find its way into the canon of all-time great sports photos.
But a perfect photo of an important moment commands a high price. Leifer's photo was not within our budget.
It looks from the images like John Rooney was just to the left of Leifer. So while his is a terrific photo -- and one that any photo editor would be thrilled to run -- it doesn't have quite the power of the other. In the Rooney photo, the timing is right, but the framing is not quite as ideal, and it loses some of its punch in black and white. The fact that Leifer's photo ran in Sports Illustrated surely helped it find its way into the canon of all-time great sports photos.
But a perfect photo of an important moment commands a high price. Leifer's photo was not within our budget.
6
If it is the same fight we are talking about, Ali didn't knock out Sonny Liston.
Liston would not get up off his stool during the early rounds (maybe the 2nd) and the fight was over. Ali was clearly in charge from the start and landed some heavy punches. I was there. And as your article states, the arena or whatever it was called was more like a plane hanger. I know that too as I was up on a scaffolding with my friend getting a better view. We had just recently come from Ireland. The Irish Ambassador was at the fight and had to wait until we climbed down off the scaffolding to be introduced to him. My friend Tom Dunphy and I were part of an Irish 7 piece band, the Royal Showband. After the fight, I hauled Tom up ringside where I got Eamon Andrews' attention. He was an Irish Broadcaster. He interviewed us and it went out transatlantic where people watching the fight in Ireland heard us (at that late hour for them). A moment in time never forgotten.
Liston would not get up off his stool during the early rounds (maybe the 2nd) and the fight was over. Ali was clearly in charge from the start and landed some heavy punches. I was there. And as your article states, the arena or whatever it was called was more like a plane hanger. I know that too as I was up on a scaffolding with my friend getting a better view. We had just recently come from Ireland. The Irish Ambassador was at the fight and had to wait until we climbed down off the scaffolding to be introduced to him. My friend Tom Dunphy and I were part of an Irish 7 piece band, the Royal Showband. After the fight, I hauled Tom up ringside where I got Eamon Andrews' attention. He was an Irish Broadcaster. He interviewed us and it went out transatlantic where people watching the fight in Ireland heard us (at that late hour for them). A moment in time never forgotten.
2
There were two fights: Ali-Liston I and Ali Liston II. Arguably both fixed.
2
Fight fans are suckers.
You were there? Liston failed to answer the bell for the 8th round of the first fight, not exactly an early round of a possible 15. If that is the fight you were up in the scaffolding for. Maybe the view wasn't so great, even if the moment is never to be forgotten
1
Fantastic article, beautifully written. Thanks.
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Great story, very well written.
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I was in high school living in Queens. I remember turning on radio at night in my room and listening to the fight. It was pandemonium. I think it was Dan Dunfy who did the ringside. So exciting! I'll always remeber. By the way, what a great B&W photo with this story.
2
I liked the old Ali in terms of his boxing abilities before the rope-a-dope (that's not boxing), but seeing that picture again of him standing over Liston and taunting him - in my life, that was the beginning of the end of good sportsmanship, civil behavior, the beginning of open trash talk on and off the "field", of self-celebration. He'd say that he was trying to hype the fight, add some color, but the effect went beyond that, unfortunately.
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you must not be much of a boxing fan if you think that was the beginning of boxing taunting. Read the history of the boxers at the turn of the previous century , right through the '30s.
3
It's the only time Ali ever did anything like that when his opponent was down. On the other hand he taunted Ernie Terrell and Floyd Patterson while they were standing, but losing. I think it should be pointed out that these men all belittled him before the fight, either with contempt (Liston) disrespect for his name (Terrell and Patterson) and plain condescension (Patterson) so while the prefight antics of Ali were at times ugly (towards Frazier, who had been helpful to him when he wasn't allowed to fight) if Ali acted the bully in the ring it was usually with cause. If the opponent left his name (and thus his religion) out of it he was generally all business. I think it's unfair to hang the end of some "sportsmanship era" on him. Taking his right to compete away over politics, now that was "unsportsmanlike" conduct, and at the time, most folks, well white folks, were in favor of it
3
Still celebrating the brutality of professional boxing?
2
That bout was neither professional nor boxing.
1
The glory that was Muhammad Ali will be celebrated forever.
12
I was born in Lewiston in the early 60s and lived in Auburn until leaving for college in the early 80s. My father worked for the local ABC television station, then housed at the old Poland Spring Inn (long before its namesake water became ubiquitous), and he considered himself lucky to have attended the fight as part of the TV crew that night. A devoted boxing fan, my father even had a chance to chat with Mr. Ali during some backstage downtime and described him as gracious and friendly; completely unlike his bombastic TV personality. It is a treasured memory from his younger years.
28
I graduated from Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine in 1963. There were textile mills in Auburn - I worked the night shift in one the summer between my first two years of college - the Hill Mill a Division of Bates Manufacturing (also in Auburn). Both Hill and Bates made uniform material for the Vietnam War. Bates Mill was famous for its chenille bedspreads, especially the Martha Washington Design.
3
This is the most iconic sports photo, news photo or historical photo ever taken.
12
I guess you've never seen the finish of Secretariat's Belmont Stakes win?
9
Really? For one among others that I'm sure will be mentioned here, I would add Joe DiMaggio's famous farewell moment, the most poignant ever for a truly great sportsman. Not some screaming showman...
2
Agreed, Bruce. But the one most commonly shown is the almost identical photo taken by Neil Leifer for Sports Illustrated: http://www.si.com/longform/neil-leifer/
If you've seen the movie footage, Ali's right arm moves so fast I'm astounded that both Rooney and Leifer were able to capture it at that instant. Great anticipation by both men, and probably a little luck as well.
If you've seen the movie footage, Ali's right arm moves so fast I'm astounded that both Rooney and Leifer were able to capture it at that instant. Great anticipation by both men, and probably a little luck as well.
4
Great history and great writing! Thanks Harvey Araton.
7
As I remember it was the actor Stepin Fetchit who taught Ali that punch, and that he had learned it from Jack Johnson. Let's not forget that Ali was a baby (at most) when Jack Johnson died, so he couldn't have "taught" it to Ali. One thing I misremembered was that Ali was to have said "Get up you Bum!" I guess I was wrong.
2
Great story. Ali said he hit him not with a phantom punch but the anchor punch learned from Jack Johnson. I remember Ali training in Chicopee which he always called Chick-O-pee.
2
"Liston’s troubles with the law did not help. He had recently been charged with speeding, careless and reckless driving and carrying a concealed weapon."
Meanwhile, fast forward, Floyd Mayweather makes at least $100 million after beating 4 or five wives/girlfriends.
Guess the times have changed.
Meanwhile, fast forward, Floyd Mayweather makes at least $100 million after beating 4 or five wives/girlfriends.
Guess the times have changed.
40
And that's what you took from this? Not the prose? Not the chhracters? Not Ali?
1
I was in boarding school, turned on the radio - and the fight had just ended! Totally wild, great hubbub of voices, no one could believe that the fix wasn't in...
11