When the impossible isn't

Cassius Clay defeats Sonny Liston in Miami

There is a particular kind of roar that rumbles up from a crowd of spectators when what is unfolding before their own eyes is not something they even dared consider or imagine. You could clearly hear it, even through the imperfect background sound seeping into the ringside video recording the first Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston Heavyweight Championship match on this very day in the Miami Beach Convention Center some 62 years ago.

It was barely into Round Three that the loudmouth, upstart, braggadocio-prone challenger from Louisville, Kentucky actually put his fists where his mouth had been in the months and weeks before and also during the first two rounds of the title fight.

The combatants were in the center of the ring, the 31-year-old champion Liston already showing signs of frustration, continually lunging and missing the nimble challenger when Clay suddenly cut loose with a stunning series of punches, left, right, left, right, 17 unanswered blows as fast as you could throw ‘em (I had to put the film in slow-motion to count them all), opening an ugly cut under Liston’s left eye.

The champion was rocked to the ropes as that thrilling, “I-can’t-believe-I’m-seeing-this” roar rose up from the Miami Beach audience. The noise, and certainly the idea that he could be beaten sparked a desperate, wild-swinging and missing series of punches from the champion who, for the first time in a long time, knew he was in a real scrap.

It was perhaps the first time that this athlete, who would go on to become a transcendent figure in American sports, had seemingly done the impossible. Almost none of the ringside experts gave the Louisville Lip a snowball’s chance in August at Miami’s South Beach beforehand. Red Smith from the New York Herald Tribune: “Liston inside three.” Melvin Durslag of the Los Angeles Times: “Obviously I’m picking Liston but I think it could go as long as eight rounds.” Shirley Povich of the Washington Post: “Sonny Liston in a hurry, two rounds, three at the most.” Arthur Daley of the New York Times: “I can’t see the fight lasting any more than three rounds with Liston the winner.”

Only John Carmichael of the Chicago Daily News seemed to think Clay even had a chance. “I’m going to tell you this thing. If the fight goes past five rounds, I think Clay will win it. That’s the best I can do for you.”

When ABC’s Howard Cosell asked the great former champion Joe Louis if there was any way Clay could win, Louis laughed. “If he could take Jim Brown (former Cleveland Browns’ star running back) in the ring with him. No other way.”

On this day, 62 years ago, Cassius Clay made Sonny Liston quit in his corner.

Happily, there are surprises in this world and Cassius Clay, soon to become Muhammad Ali in a couple of days, provided at least a couple of dandies; going on to defeat Liston here, the champ quitting in his corner after six rounds. He then flattened Liston with a single, perhaps spurious punch in Lewiston, Maine 15 months later, then knocked out then-heavyweight champion George Foreman a decade later, in October of 1974. Making the impossible possible.

In watching the Clay-Liston I fight once again courtesy of YouTube, what strikes you from the start is Ali/Clay’s imposing size. Liston had looked invulnerable in winning and defending the championship from Floyd Patterson, who was truly a light heavyweight, weighing 189, surrendering 25 pounds to the champ but here, facing someone taller and broader and infinitely faster, Liston was constantly swinging, reaching and missing.

According to various accounts, realizing he was in a fight he might well lose, before the fifth round, Liston had instructed his trainers to “load up” a glove by smearing a substance called Monsel’s Solution, a solution typically used for helping close cuts. Should it get in a fighter’s eyes — by accident or intent — it can be blinding. Former Liston opponent Eddie Machen said later that Liston had used that tactic in their bout, which Liston won by a unanimous decision.

Blinking furiously between rounds, Clay complained about the burning in his eyes and asked for his gloves to be cut off. Instead, trainer Angelo Dundee hustled him off the stool when the bell rang, saying “This is for the championship!”

His vision blurred, Clay was able to use his legs and his long reach to somehow elude Liston for the entire round, leaving the champ a heaving mess as he slowly returned to his corner at round’s end.

Liston fought just one round more, calling a halt to the bout and his reign as champion, claiming a left shoulder injury suffered earlier in the fight. Later, one of his handlers admitted to author David Remnick, “[The shoulder] was all BS. We had no return bout clause with Clay, and if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot."

As soon as Clay spotted Liston spitting out his mouthpiece between rounds, meaning he was done for the night, Clay stood in his corner, thrusting his arms high, opening a new, exciting and unpredictable chapter in American sport. What might happen with this guy on any given night? We had to tune in to find out.

The Miami Beach crowd, as you could hear it over the YouTube replay, cheered as if they’d never seen anything quite like it.

And they hadn’t.

HERE IT IS, CLAY-LISTON I - from Miami Beach

John Nogowski is the author of six books, including two on baseball, “Diamond Duels” and “Last Time Out,” two books on music: “Bob Dylan: A Descriptive, Critical Discography” and “Neil Young: A Descriptive, Critical Discography” (due later this year), a book on teaching “Teaching Huckleberry Finn” and one on politics “Nashua: How Ronald Reagan led us to Donald Trump.” All are available on Amazon.