'THE GREATEST' STOPS SONNY LISTON IN SEVEN

All the crow in China wouldn't be enough to satisfy the appetites of the cognoscenti of the boxing world tonight as young Cassius Marcellus Clay demolished the legend of Sonny Liston with a seven-round TKO.

The stolid, power-punching Liston threw in the proverbial towel before round seven began; Sonny suffered a probable shoulder fracture sometime during those six rounds.

Liston claims the injury occurred in Round One. Although the champ was not noticeably crippled until the fourth or fifth, Cassius Clay undoubtedly won his crown from a disabled Sonny Liston.

Despite Liston's injury, Clay's victory was no fluke; the quick and classy Clay was more than a match for Liston. He obviously carried rounds one, four and six with a combination of dazzling footwork, and a hall of deceptive jabs.

Close to the canvas himself in the third and seemingly helpless in the fifth, Clay entered the sixth round obviously stronger than the 31 (sic)-year-old Liston. Clay was never hit with the full impact of Liston's awesome left hook, but he withstood considerable punishment and retained the speed and deceptivenss which rendered Liston sluggish and frustrated by the sixth.

In Round One Cassius was a dancing master, ducking, slipping and backing away from a barrage of Liston lefts. Gloves near his waist, Clay seemed to be taunting Sonny to connect; Sonny never did. Sometime during this first round Liston claims to have injured his shoulder trying to block a Clay punch; it was not apparent to the viewers. Liston stalked Clay from the moment the bell sounded, connecting with hard shots to the body, but more often missing with ferocious jabs. Clay scored with a volley of six punches to Sonny's head and capped them with a sharp right and left. The round was Clay's.

Liston Wins Round

The second round saw a more poised and potent Liston, who landed an assortment of jabs and hooks and finally battered bobbing and weaving Clay to the ropes with crushing blows to the body. The round was Liston's.

Clay opened Round Three with a damaging flurry of punches which opened a deep gash under the champ's left eye. Fully aroused by Clay's audacity and perhaps remembering that this was the round he had chosen for the KO, Liston tore fato Clay with a vicious array of blows. Sonny landed a left and a right to the body, a hard left to the jaw and followed this with a rare right uppercut. The third round was the only one in which Liston displayed the lethal effectiveness of his Patterson triumphs. That he did not lay Cassius low in the third provides some substance to Liston's contention that his left arm was already badly injured. Crippled or not, Sonny obviously took the round.

Those of us who were expecting Sonny to flatten Clay in four were rudely surprised when a vigorous and confident Cassius answered the fourth round bell. Advancing against Liston for the first time in the fight, Cassius began to dominate the action with stinging left jabs thrown from every angle. Liston delivered a solid left and right to the jaw, but the punches dented neither Clay's jaw nor his confidence. Liston was plodding by the end of the round; Clay was faster than ever. Round to Clay.

Round Five may always remain a questionmark. An apparently sightless Clay, who has alternately claimed that he was gouged by the champion's thumb and blinded by liniment on Sonny's gloves, managed to hold off the lumbering Liston with no more protection than a stiff left arm. Liston landed ponderous hooks to Clay's body and head but their lack of visible effect made the spectators wonder for the first time whether there was indeed something wrong with the champ. Clay seemed to recover his sight late in the round, but the round was Liston's.

Cassius Wins Round

The bell sounded for Round Six. Clay was now stalking Liston. The challenger was moving in and out at will, snapping solid blows to body and head. Clay's shots were annoying Liston more than hurting him, but without his left, the big gun in Sonny's arsenal, the Liston attack was limited to a few weak jabs and an occasional right. Clay won the sixth practically by default.

As the bell rang for the seventh the crowd was treated to the sight of Cassius dancing to the center of the ring in a comic display of shadow-boxing. Liston sat sullenly in his corner as doctors and trainers hovered over him. For a moment it was not clear what had happened. Then, suddenly, Cassius leaped into the air, arms raised, screaming like a madman, "I won, I won, I won, I am the greatest, greatest, greatest." Jack Nilon, Liston's manager, had stopped the fight. Nilon later explained that the injury to Liston's left shoulder in the first round had become progressively worse with each round until, in the sixth, Sonny could not even raise his left arm. "There was nothing to do but stop the fight. Sonny was simply defenseless," said Nilon.

Meanwhile, back in the ring, Cassius was extolling his greatness to a still disbelieving world. "Eat your words," Clay howled at the shaken sportswriters. "Liston is in the hospital and here I am, still pretty as can be. That big bear was an amateur. He was scared of me. He couldn't even hit me when I was half blind. If he wants to fight me he will have to work his way up. I can beat any fighter in the world. I am the greatest. I am the prettiest."

Clay Expounds

Flanked by his spiritual adviser, Bundini Brown, the new champion and sometime Black Muslim revealed that God was getting credit for the victory. "I have been talking to God," Clay said. "I know the only God."

Like the Dempsey-Tunney long count and Jack Johnson's infamous dive against Jess Willard, this Liston-Clay fight will remain a subject of continuing controversy. Could a healthy Sonny Liston have made good his promise to cool Cassius in rounds two or three? This question can only be answered by a rematch.

One thing is certain. Cassius Clay deserved better than 7-1 odds for this fight. The gash on Liston's face and the dislocated shoulder prove that Cassius is not the impotent puncher that his critics had labeled him. If Cassius showed that he can hand out some punishment, his weathering of Liston's third round attack also proved that he can take it. Clay has been maintaining for some time that he is the fastest heavyweight ever. Few would doubt him now.

Clay's defeat of Liston by no means makes him the greatest heavyweight ever. I suppose he is the prettiest.