FBI suspected1964 Ali-Liston fight rigged

Hmmm…..what about their rematch in ‘65 then:

When Muhammad Ali floored Sonny Liston in their title-bout rematch in Lewiston, Maine, on May 25, 1965, a legend was born. Or, perhaps more accurately, a legendary boxing controversy was born. Ali (the former Cassius Clay, who had taken his now-famous Muslim name after defeating Liston in their first title bout in 1964) knocked Liston out with a first-round right hand to the head that, all these years later, is still known as the “phantom punch.”

After all, an awful lot of people who were at the fight that night never saw, or later claimed that they never saw, the punch that floored Liston. Others, including Sports Illustrated‘s Tex Maule, were adamant that the punch was hardly a phantom, but instead was a perfectly timed blow that legitimately rocked the former champ.

In the years after the fight, various theories have been floated in order to explain what some fight fans simply can’t or don’t want to accept — namely, that Ali beat Liston, period.

But Liston was in debt to the Mafia and threw the fight to pay it off, some say. Or: Liston was frightened that Black Muslim extremists, gunning for Ali (who had had a falling out with Malcolm X before the latter’s assassination in February 1965) might kill him by mistake. All very fascinating and even, in a sordid way, kind of romantic. But sportswriters like Maule, Lou Eisen and others are just as sure that the one punch in question was more than enough to rattle the older, out-of-shape and, frankly, undisciplined Liston.