Breaking News from 1955
Posted by julie on July 7, 2009
“Did you see or hear the fight last night? We listened to it on the radio. Pretty good, wasn’t it?”
Also,
“I must go on a diet, and put out some more slug bait.”
Life changes, but some things are eternal…
-o.o-
walt said
Rocky Marciano was the only Heavyweight Champion to retire undefeated: 49 wins, 0 losses. In those days, boxing was HUGE.
mushroom said
That’s true. My dad loved boxing and could usually score it about as well as the ringside judges. I well remember watching the Friday Night fights sponsored by Gillette — back in the days of safety razors. I also remember sitting hunched up by the AM radio listening to call of Clay versus Liston. We didn’t think much of Sonny Liston as a boxer — more of a brawler, but we were kind of shocked that the mouthy Cassius Clay beat him. Though, if I remember correctly, the first bout ended with a TKO.
walt said
Yes, a TKO in the 7th round; Liston didn’t answer the bell. I saw the fight in a theatre in black and white. When the referee signaled it was over, Clay went nearly berserk — heh, along with the crowd. I still have the next morning’s paper. Clay was a pip.
When they met in a rematch in Maine, Liston trained against a big guy named Nightrain Lincoln, and there were a lot of death threats relative to the Black Muslims. All parties were nervous. Liston told Lincoln he intended to take a dive, and get out of the line of fire early. Clay (now Muhammed Ali) knocked him out with a “phantom punch” early in Round 1.