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That was a hatchet job by the referee, Jersey Joe Walcott. After Ali had dropped Liston Ali was standing over Sonny telling him to get up and Walcott could not get him to a neutral corner. After finally getting him there he was either counting or on his way to count (don't remember) when Nat Fleischer called him over and said the fight was over because Liston had been down longer than a 10 count. Walcott than waived the fight off. Why he listened to Fleischer is anybodies guess since Nat wasn't in any way affiliated with the fight except as Ring magazines editor. Its my opinion Walcott dropped the ball in that fight. Liston was never given a full count and did what any hurt fighter would do and waited for one to begin. I don't think he would have won either way, but he deserved the opportunity to be given a count to see if he would have gotten up.
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A boxing count should be in English, specially if the fight was held in America and the boxers competing are both foreigners. There's only one syllable for each number from 1 to 10 on the English language except the 7, while there's 2 syllables for 7 out of those 10 numbers in Spanish, it might not mean much, but it only needs a second difference between a KD and a KO.
If by a some strange twist of fate Marquez scored a KD on Pacquiao, will Cortez count in Tagalog too for fairness sake? For the uninitiated, 9 out of the 10 numbers have two syllables in Tagalog, except for the number 2, it has 3 syllables.
Musta na 'pre?Comment
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My pleasure, and it's probably because I can count in English, Spanish and Tagalog, any subtle differences from counting is very noticable to me and could spell the difference between a KO, or a draw, in the case of the Pac/Marquez I.
About the Ali/Liston II, there were rumors that Liston had mob ties back then, it wasn't proven though because there were no paper trails and a snitch back in the 60s won't get to live a day longer to give his story. Liston used to train at the Thunderbird Casino, which is known to be run by a New York mob (Ashe Resnick)...Comment
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Liston had ties to organized crime. In 1952, after serving two years in prison, he was paroled to a team of boxing handlers with ties to John Vitale, a St. Louis underworld figure. Six years later, Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo, top Mafia figures in the Northeast, became the majority owner of Liston's contract. Carbo was later indicted on conspiracy, multiple counts of undercover management of prizefighters and unlicensed matchmaking. Liston fought 12 fights under their control.
By the time of the Ali fights Liston's ties with organized crime were gone. Im sure he was still acquainted with some of them, but they were no longer part of his boxing career as far as I know.Comment
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