Rob Sneddon - The Phantom Punch: The Story Behind Boxings Most Controversial Bout

A ny work of narrative history is a mosaic, made of thousands of tiles from many sources. A suggestion here. A fact there. A direct quotation from a first-person interview. A detail gleaned from a newspaper photograph.

No writer can assemble that mosaic without plenty of assistance. What follows is a partial list of those who helped me.

Thanks to Down East Books editor Michael Steere for suggesting this book, and to former Down East magazine editor-in-chief Dale Kuhnert for green-lighting my original story proposal. Thanks to Phil Nadeau, deputy city administrator for the City of Lewiston, who provided sufficient background information, contacts, and enthusiasm to get me started in the right direction, and for showing me the old City Hall Auditorium. Thanks to former Lewiston mayor Robert Couturier, who invited me to his office a decade ago to talk about the fight. I was sorry to learn that he had died by the time I began working on this book; Im sure theres so much more he could have told me about Lewistons mid-60s political climate. Thanks to Norm and Irene Bureau for inviting me into their home and sharing their differing opinions on the outcome of the fight.

Thanks to Bill Johnson for sharing his memories of what went on behind the scenes at Listons training camp at Poland Spring (and for showing me his copy of Alis Im the Greatest album). Thanks to Mike Feldman for sharing an eight-year-olds perspective on Sonny Liston, and to Dr. Michael Boulanger for telling me how the fight looked from the perspective of a twelve-year-old boy in the cheap seats. (And while I disagree with Dr. Boulanger and trooper Bureau that Liston took a dive, I respect the steadfastness of their convictions.)

Thanks to Fred Gage for providing the Howard Cosell Comes to Lewiston story that the book needed. Thanks to Dr. William Heinz for providing a modern medical experts opinion on the phantom punch. Thanks to Neil Leifer for sharing his memories of May 25, 1965, and for his insights into why his photogaph became an icon. Thanks to Terry Nilon for sharing his memories of the men behind Inter-Continental Promotions. Thanks to Bob Russo of the Portland Boxing Club for sharing his memories of his late uncle, Maine Boxing Commission chairman George Russo. Thanks also to Norm Rosseau, Bob Pacios, Ray Lebrun, Guy Nadeau, Fern Masse, Bob Gardner, and to everyone else I might have overlooked who returned a phone call or answered an email. Thanks also to the staffs of the public libraries in Portland and Lewiston, at the former Holiday Inn in Auburn, and at the Colise for assisting me during my visits. Thanks to everyone who posted old fight films on YouTube, which allowed me to study Ali and Liston (and even Gorgeous George) in detail.

Thanks to my son Will for sharing his offbeat theories on the phantom punch. Thanks to my wife Tammy for her support throughout this projectand for being from a large French Canadian family, which enabled her to speak with authority about important matters like creton sandwiches. Thanks also to Tammys father, Jeff Francoeur, a boxing nut whose offhand comment during an Ali marathon on ESPN first prompted me to dig deeper into the reasons why a world heavyweight championship fight ended up in Lewiston.

And thanks especially to John Michael, Sam Michaels son, for sitting through my lengthy interviews, for answering my frequent emails, and for taking me on a tour of Lewiston, both present and past. It was mostly through Johns assistance that Sam Michael became more to me than just a name in some old newspaper clippings.

Published by Down East Books

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Copyright 2016 by Rob Sneddon

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available

ISBN 978-1-60893-365-5 (cloth : alk. paper)ISBN 978-1-60893-366-2 (electronic)

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Printed in the United States of America

For Sam Michael, who believed in Lewiston more than Lewiston did.

I n 2009 someone with the handle okano186 posted a ten-second YouTube clip from the second AliListon fight, at Lewiston, Maine. The infamous phantom punch shown in slow motion, okano186 wrote. Do you still think Liston dived?

The video seemed to have the desired effect on a couple of viewers. I came here to see if it was faked or not, believing it probably was, wrote one. Now I realize it was definitely a short, legit punch Liston didnt see. I call this KO legit.

For the most part, however, the video did little to sway people. As of this writing the clip has had almost 700,000 views and generated almost 700 comments. Most said, in effect, that the clip confirmed what the viewer believed. Heres a sampling:

The punch landed. It just didnt have the power to KO a bantam-weight much less Charles Sonny Liston.

Clear hit to the temple, face shook, POINT CONCLUDED.

If you think that punch was hard enough to knock Liston out, then youre a fool that clearly does not know anything about boxing, the history of our country, or the culture of the times.

Looked like a straight right to the temple to me... lights out.

He took a diveits clear as day. I dont know how anyone could dispute that.

Its pointless to call it a dive when he clearly took a hard punch to the face. You can see the shockwave through his entire body.

A shockwave through his entire body? Are we watching the same video? Lol. It doesnt matter. This fight is history.

[Yes], this fight is history... and look at the views it has. Dumbass.

Typical Internet stuff. But Ive seen that same basic argument play out face to face, between the unlikeliest adversaries. Take, for example, an exchange between retired Maine state trooper Normand Bureau and his wife, Irene.

I interviewed the Bureaus on a rainy summer morning in 2014. We sat in their living room on a quiet Lewiston street, not far from the building once called the Central Maine Youth Center but now called the Colise. It was about two months before the Bureaus sixtieth wedding anniversary. Normand said that they had been together through seven kids, eighteen grandkids, and five or six great-grandkids. (I liked the lack of specificity on that last one.)

Normand joined the Maine State Police in 1959. One of his more memorable details was the AliListon fight on May 25, 1965. Normands regular beat was patrolling the Maine Turnpike. But because he lived in Lewiston and had spent so much time at the Central Maine Youth Centerfirst as a hockey player, later as president of the LewistonAuburn Hockey Associationhe was a logical choice to work security at the fight. His lieutenant, who also lived in Lewiston, told the other troopers on the detail, You want to know anything, go see Norm.