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I Don't Believe In The Phantom.
I have heard so many people claim that Sonny Liston threw the rematch with Ali in Lewiston. Most people, though, seem like they read it somewhere and now parrot whatever they heard some guy say on TV. They say it like it is the FACTS. Even people that have never even so much as seen a tape of the fight like to call it "the phantom punch." One guy told me today that Liston didn't get up, and he threw the fight, because "Liston was scared to death of crazy people and he didn't want to be in there with a crazy man like Ali."
They say it was a "phantom punch" that felled Sonny.
Now, anybody that follows boxing even a little bit knows that this guy got that "scared of crazy people" theory from listening to Angelo Dundee give that as his Liston- theory in some Ali special on TV that we all watched. It's just another case of someone hearing something somewhere and repeating it so many times that it becomes accepted as truth.
Just like with the fight being fixed and every other claim made about that night in Lewiston, I ask this... How do YOU know? Did you know Liston? He confided in you his stance on crazy people? Were you there at the fight? Were you there when they called Sonny on the phone and asked him to take a dive? Did the bad guys call you as soon as they hung up with Sonny to tell you "OK, it's done."
The best one is when they say "Ali landed a weak punch that couldn't have dented a g****." (They steal that line from the boxing magazines, too) My thing is this... the guy that originally said that was not a fighter and wasn't in the practice of taking punches to even know better. Anyone who says they didn't see Ali land a punch in the Liston rematch is either crazy, blind or just a plain old liar. I have seen that fight sequence several times and the right that snaps Liston's head to the right side is very, very clear. And if you have ever been hit with those small gloves then you know that a punch doesn't have to look vicious to be vicious. Anybody can land a punch on anyone else and if the circumstances are right then the man will be hurt. You can say Ali wasn't a puncher but that doesn't mean anything in an isolated instance when a man happens to get through with his best shot. The same way it didn't when Michael Nunn absolutely crushed Kalambay with a single punch in their unification fight and the supposed light hitting Calvin Grove wrecked the always super tough Jeff Fenech with one punch. It happens. The punch doesn't have to look vicious either and you can look at George Foreman's simple, turn-over right hand that he dropped on Michael Moorer back in 1994, a short shot that had vicious results even though it looked not half as wicked as the punches he dropped Frazier with in Kingston.
I have heard so many people claim that Sonny Liston threw the rematch with Ali in Lewiston. Most people, though, seem like they read it somewhere and now parrot whatever they heard some guy say on TV. They say it like it is the FACTS. Even people that have never even so much as seen a tape of the fight like to call it "the phantom punch." One guy told me today that Liston didn't get up, and he threw the fight, because "Liston was scared to death of crazy people and he didn't want to be in there with a crazy man like Ali."
They say it was a "phantom punch" that felled Sonny.
Now, anybody that follows boxing even a little bit knows that this guy got that "scared of crazy people" theory from listening to Angelo Dundee give that as his Liston- theory in some Ali special on TV that we all watched. It's just another case of someone hearing something somewhere and repeating it so many times that it becomes accepted as truth.
Just like with the fight being fixed and every other claim made about that night in Lewiston, I ask this... How do YOU know? Did you know Liston? He confided in you his stance on crazy people? Were you there at the fight? Were you there when they called Sonny on the phone and asked him to take a dive? Did the bad guys call you as soon as they hung up with Sonny to tell you "OK, it's done."
The best one is when they say "Ali landed a weak punch that couldn't have dented a g****." (They steal that line from the boxing magazines, too) My thing is this... the guy that originally said that was not a fighter and wasn't in the practice of taking punches to even know better. Anyone who says they didn't see Ali land a punch in the Liston rematch is either crazy, blind or just a plain old liar. I have seen that fight sequence several times and the right that snaps Liston's head to the right side is very, very clear. And if you have ever been hit with those small gloves then you know that a punch doesn't have to look vicious to be vicious. Anybody can land a punch on anyone else and if the circumstances are right then the man will be hurt. You can say Ali wasn't a puncher but that doesn't mean anything in an isolated instance when a man happens to get through with his best shot. The same way it didn't when Michael Nunn absolutely crushed Kalambay with a single punch in their unification fight and the supposed light hitting Calvin Grove wrecked the always super tough Jeff Fenech with one punch. It happens. The punch doesn't have to look vicious either and you can look at George Foreman's simple, turn-over right hand that he dropped on Michael Moorer back in 1994, a short shot that had vicious results even though it looked not half as wicked as the punches he dropped Frazier with in Kingston.
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