Ali vs Liston - Fight 2 - 1st Round Knockout

My dad got me up early to watch this in the UK. As the pictures came through he said, ‘I’ll go a make a cup of tea.’ By the time he got back the fight was over.

I will never understand how someone can think this fight was genuine. Liston most definitely took a dive. This is a true tragedy in sports history.

"Some say the bear took a flop, they couldn't believe it when they saw him drop."

You can see the shame in Sonny's face as he was absolutely coherent during this dive.

Its been said by Ali himself that the fight was rigged for Liston to lose. Liston made a deal with the mafia to go down in round 1. That famous picture you see of Ali standing over him, beating his own chest is actually him telling Liston to stand up and fight him

Liston Took a DIVE!

Ali is my boxing idol but damn that knockout looks like a nominee in the Oscars.

Ali "Get up you bum. Nobody is going to believe this". Ali knew the punch was no good and Liston had taken a dive.

Sonny should have been given an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1965.

And the Academy Award goes to...Sonny Liston!

My brother and I listened on the radio. Couldn’t believe it.

OMG...Ali had the greatest footwork in the ring I've ever seen. He would put his opponents to sleep with it. If you pause to catch your breath trying to keep up with him you give him the only opening he needs.

Such movement and timing has never been seen Ali beat Liston he was the best of his scene

I'd always heard that Liston had to take the fall. After watching this I believe he did. There's no way that a fighter of his caliber would get knocked out by a 6-inch rabbit punch. The fix was in and the rest is history.

The flash at exactly 2:43 is one of his most famous photos ever. So dope!!!

I attended the closed circuit of this “fight”. Liston threw the fight. Vegas repaid him by keeping him up for years before they killed him off.

I remember getting up at 3am British time, to watch this so called 'Fight of the Century' and when Liston went down, we waited for him to get up, take a breather and resume the fight, he did get up, but I think the fight was over, the referee, I think was Jersey Joe Walcot, had lost the count, and had to jump in and stop Clay punching Liston, oh what an absolute shambles! The rumours going around later, were that Liston, who had actually promoted this fight, yes, he did! Bet heavily on himself to lose, maybe in the first round, professional boxing was really never the same after this farce! As for Liston, he retired, but the stench of this 'fight' never left him!

Bullshit ..that man was not hurt ..all that drama .he clearly took a dive

So much being said and done in-between the obvious observable moments. Fantastic.

I never really knew if the fight was thrown or not until I just saw this video. I now firmly believe Liston took a dive. Yes, there was definitely a punch that landed by Ali but look at listen's reactions when he was down & then rolled around on the canvas. Look at it closely & it was more than enough to convince me that Liston took a dive.