Sonny Liston vs Floyd Patterson

Sonny Liston retained the world heavyweight championship by knocking out Floyd Patterson after two minutes and ten seconds of the first round at the Las Vegas Convention Centre on July 22, 1963. Patterson was knocked down three times before referee Harold Krause completed the count over him. The result differed little from their first meeting at Comiskey Park ten months earlier, when Liston had taken the championship in two minutes and six seconds. The additional four seconds in Las Vegas were largely accounted for by the mandatory eight counts administered after the first two knockdowns. Liston weighed 215 pounds and Patterson 194, giving the champion a 21-pound advantage, along with a longer reach and greater physical strength.

The return contest had been required under the contract for the first fight, which gave Patterson the right to meet Liston again within a year and prevented the new champion from defending against anyone else beforehand. The agreement provided that each boxer should receive 30 per cent of the gate and 20 per cent of the closed-circuit television receipts. The match was originally scheduled for April in Miami Beach, but Liston injured his left knee, and the date was rescheduled. A recurrence of the injury led to a further postponement, and a proposed June date in Las Vegas was abandoned when Patterson underwent an operation for the removal of a benign tumour from his right hand. The contest was eventually fixed for a Monday evening in July and transmitted by closed circuit to 143 locations in 109 cities.

Although Patterson had previously recovered from a crushing defeat to regain the championship from Ingemar Johansson, there was little confidence that he could repeat that achievement against Liston. The champion started a four-to-one favourite, and 51 of 64 sportswriters questioned in a United Press International poll selected him to win. A crowd of 7,816 paid a gross gate of $286,190, then a Nevada record. The air-conditioned hall was close to its capacity of 8,000, with tickets ranging from $20 to $100. Patterson remained the more sympathetic figure, but the reception was divided when he entered the ring. Liston was loudly and almost unanimously booed. Cassius Clay, already an insistent claimant for a championship opportunity, was introduced before the bout and amused the spectators by approaching Liston before retreating from the ring in exaggerated alarm. Shortly before the opening bell, a vendor was heard calling, “Last round, folks.”

Patterson appeared in excellent physical condition and was five pounds heavier than he had been for the first contest, but the proposed tactical changes were not apparent once the bell sounded. Cus D’Amato had maintained that Patterson’s error in Chicago had been to remain in front of Liston rather than use his speed and movement. In Las Vegas, Patterson again found himself within the champion’s punching distance almost immediately. Liston did not spend the opening minute studying him, as he had done in their first meeting. He advanced at once behind a hard straight left to the face. Patterson was shaken and driven backwards as Liston followed with punches to the body. When Patterson attempted to hold, the champion freed his arms and struck him around the ribs and abdomen. When Patterson bent low, Liston continued to punch underneath and around his guard.

The first knockdown came when Patterson moved into a right uppercut. He went down and received the compulsory count of eight while Liston waited in a neutral corner. Patterson rose and attempted to fight back, appearing to send a right hand towards Liston’s jaw, but examination of the film showed that the punch merely glanced away. He was unable to establish his customary leaping attack or obtain the room needed to deliver the left hook that had brought him many of his best victories. Each clean blow from Liston disturbed his balance and forced him out of position. The champion remained close, applying pressure without haste and striking with both hands whenever Patterson tried to duck, retreat or clinch.

Patterson was put down a second time and again rose after the mandatory eight count. His recovery was no more than temporary. Liston resumed the attack before the challenger could clear his head or regain his stance, and Patterson was driven to the floor for the third time. He made an effort to rise as Krause counted, but regained his feet one second too late and was counted out at 2:10. Even had he beaten the count, his condition left little prospect that he could have continued safely. He had not landed a damaging punch, while Liston was unmarked and had been in control from the opening exchange. The fight had contained more action than their first meeting, with Patterson knocked down three times rather than once, but it confirmed the same decisive difference in strength, reach and effectiveness.

Liston’s victory made him the first heavyweight champion to record successive first-round knockouts in championship contests. He showed little outward satisfaction after the result and told reporters that the hostile reception had merely encouraged him to settle the matter. When asked about Patterson’s future, he declined to advise another boxer to retire. Unlike after his first defeat by Liston, Patterson did not leave the arena in disguise. He appeared before the press, accepted that Liston had been the better fighter and said that he had felt capable of winning until he was hit. He ruled out another return match but refused to retire, declaring that he would go back to the bottom of the rankings and begin again. D’Amato attributed the defeat to Patterson’s failure to move, adding that there had been no interval between rounds in which the corner could correct him.

The contractual arrangement surrounding the two contests later contributed to a change in boxing regulation. On August 21, 1963, the World Boxing Association voted to suspend any member jurisdiction that approved a championship contract containing a compulsory return-bout clause. Delegates cited the conditions Liston had been required to accept before receiving his first opportunity against Patterson. The regulation came too late to prevent the Las Vegas return, which had produced a substantial gate and wide closed-circuit distribution but no competitive improvement upon the first contest. Across the two championship fights, Patterson had remained in the ring with Liston for a total of four minutes and sixteen seconds. The second result left no reasonable argument for another meeting and established Liston, for the time being, as the dominant heavyweight of the period.