<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of Fox News at:</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/02/25/ali-vs-liston-50-years-after-greatest-shocked-world/">http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/02/25/ali-vs-liston-50-years-after-greatest-shocked-world/</a></span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> </span></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 id="article-title" itemprop="name" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; font-size: 36px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 38px; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: -1px; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">Ali vs. Liston: 50 years after 'The Greatest' shocked the world</h1><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Back in 1964, America was just getting to know Cassius Clay, a brash 22-year-old from Louisville who four years earlier in Rome had won Olympic boxing gold.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But on Feb. 25, 1964 — 50 years ago today — the world would come to know "The Greatest."</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">That night in a packed Convention Hall in Miami Beach, Clay stood in the ring waiting for the reigning world heavyweight champ, Sonny Liston, to answer the bell for the seventh round of their title bout.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Instead, Liston threw in the towel, launching Clay — who would soon convert to Islam and change his name to Muhammad Ali — into international superstardom and status as one of the 20th century's most enduring cultural icons</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"When Cassius Clay changed his name to Muhammad Ali, it became a newsworthy event that found its way onto the front pages," Thomas Hauser, author of "Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times," told <a href="http://FoxNews.com">FoxNews.com</a>. "And the more important Ali became as a social, political and religious figure, the more important the fight became. If Cassius Clay hadn't beat Sonny Liston, the things he said and did afterwards wouldn't have had the same impact."</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Six years later, Ali was perhaps the most recognizable man on the planet, a symbol of the anti-war movement, the equal of the sweet science's greatest fighters and a pioneer of the audacious, trash-talking style so prevalent in modern sports. Liston, in stark contrast, would be dead, a broken alcoholic whose suspected heroin overdose prompted rumors of a mob hit.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Prior to the bout, which was named the fourth-greatest sports moment of the 20th century by Sports Illustrated, the cocky young fighter from Louisville, Ky., had been favored by just 3 of 46 reporters. Liston, known as "Big Bear," boasted a record of 35-1 with 24 knockouts, and a glower that left opponents intimidated even before they entered the ring. But Clay, who was 19-0 as a pro, was anything but frightened.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"If you wanna lose your money, then bet on Sonny," Clay taunted before the fight, foreshadowing the maddening poetry he would use throughout his career to ridicule opponents, rendering them too angry to stick to their fight plans.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">When the bell rang, Clay's blend of speed, footwork and power proved to be too much Liston. New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte wrote that night that Clay had control of the fight from the beginning of the opening round.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“The tall, swift youngster, his hands carelessly low, backed away from Liston’s jabs, circled around Liston’s dangerous left hook and opened a nasty gash under Liston’s left eye,” Lipsyte wrote. “He never let Liston tie him up for short, brutal body punches, and although he faltered several times, he refused to allow himself to be cornered. His long left jab kept bouncing off Liston’s face. From the beginning, it was hard to believe.”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The 8,297 spectators at ringside for one of boxing’s most anticipated fights in years could not have known they were witnessing the birth of a legend. To this day, Ali, now 72 years old and addled by Parkinson's syndrome — brought on by blows to the head during a 20-year career that saw him win the heavyweight championship three times — remains arguably the sport's most beloved figure.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Nobody had a clue that Clay was as good as he was or how great he would become," Hauser said. "Sonny Liston, at that point, was regarded by some people as possibly the greatest heavyweight of all time. He was thought of the way [Mike] Tyson was thought of before he was knocked out by Buster Douglas. He was Godzilla; he was going to reign for a thousand years."</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hauser, who interviewed more than 200 people for his best-selling book after being approached by Ali and his wife in 1988, said the initial bout undeniably changed history as the United States was still mourning the assassination of President John F. Kennedy just three months earlier.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"If Ali doesn't beat Sonny Liston, the course of history is different," he said. "It was the fact that he was heavyweight champion of the world that gave those acts on his part national importance."</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Clay would later change his name to Muhammad Ali before the rematch with Liston on May 25, 1965, in Lewiston, Maine. The culmination of that match, which Ali won in the first round with a "phantom punch," resulted in one of the most iconic sports images of all time, as Ali stood over a fallen Liston while yelling: “Get up and fight, sucker!”</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Three years later, Ali refused to be drafted for the Vietnam War, citing his religious beliefs. The U.S. government then refused to recognize him as a conscientious objector and Ali was eventually found guilty of draft evasion. He was ultimately stripped of his title and did not fight again for nearly four years until 1971, when his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court on a technicality.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Ali later returned to ring on Oct. 26, 1970, defeating Jerry Quarry in three rounds. He went on to regain the title in 1974 and then again in 1978.</span></p><p style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">--------------------</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Feb. 25, 1964: A crowd of 8,297 saw a brash 22-year-old named Cassius Clay live up to the oversized hype he created ahead of the world heavyweight title fight against champion Sonny Liston in Miami Beach, Fla. Clay, who later became Muhammad Ali, won when Liston's injured left shoulder kept him from answering the bell for the seventh round. <i style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sports Illustrated</i> has named the fight the fourth-greatest sports moment of the 20th century.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px none; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><img src="cid:9578FFF5-CCA4-4137-965C-4B0318E84EE7" alt="image.jpeg" id="9578FFF5-CCA4-4137-965C-4B0318E84EE7" width="640" height="359"></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>