52 YEARS SINCE ALI KO’D LISTON

It’s been 52 years since Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in their second and highly controversial so called “Phantom punch” dust up.

It all ended in the first round with  Ali landing a piston like short right counter on  Liston, sending him sprawling to the canvas.

Ali was captured in an iconic photo, standing over a felled  Liston, demanding that he get up and get on with it.  Sonny did, but perhaps not in the prescribed time, so in the ensuing confusion Referee and former champion Jersey Joe Walcott stopped the combat.  Many thought Sonny was just too tough and formidable to be decked by such a punch. Others argue that it was perfectly timed, Sonny walked right on to it and was stunned.

Photographer Neil Leifer captured the most famous image of the “King of Boxing”, being the number one cover that Sports Illustrated dedicated to the best sports photography of the century.