To the editor:
All of us know about the tragic series of events that took place in Lewiston, Maine in October 2023.
However, I have always remembered Lewiston for a completely different reason. In 1965, a heavyweight title fight between Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali at the time took place in Lewiston. A year earlier, on Feb. 25, 1964, Cassius Clay (he wasn’t yet Muhammad Ali then) astounded the boxing world when he scored a technical knockout over the heavily favored Liston, who was the heavyweight champion at the time.
There wasn’t any cable television in 1965, so if boxing aficionados wanted to see the rematch, they had to pay $25 to see it at the City Hall auditorium in Lynn. The fight started at 8 p.m. but it was over in less than a round. Liston took a proverbial “dive” and it became apparent he took the rematch for the money.
As bad as the fight was, the one thing everyone always remembers was that Robert Goulet, a star of movies, Broadway, and television, forgot the words to the national anthem when he attempted to sing it.
After the fight, Goulet’s popularity declined and he died a few years later.
As for Liston, he tried to make a comeback, but it was a futile attempt and he retired. At the end of 1970, he was found dead in his Las Vegas home.
Ali, on the other hand, continued to fight for several years.
Today, he is considered by many to be the greatest fighter of all time.
Sincerely,
Edward Julian
Lynn
