Sonny Liston vs Wayne Bethea // Highlights

Sonny Liston 204 lbs beat Wayne Bethea 204 lbs by TKO at 1:09 in round 1 of 10 Date: 1958-08-06 Location: Chicago Stadium, Chicago, Illinois, USA. “Sonny Liston of Philadelphia slammed New York’s Wayne Bethea with a quick barrage of heavy rights and lefts for a 69-second TKO victory Wednesday in a scheduled 10-round heavyweight bout in Chicago Stadium. Liston dropped Bethea for the first time in his career with a savage series, starting with an explosive right to the jaw. Bethea wobbled back into action after a mandatory eight count, but then was sent reeling helplessly across the ring under another furious assault by Liston. Referee Bernie Weissman mercifully called it a TKO in 1:09 of the opening round.“ - Associated Press. The UPI stated that Wayne Bethea lost 7 teeth during the one round fight. Sonny Liston’s trainer, Jimmy Wilson, 54, died the night before this bout in Philadelphia due to a heart condition. Immediately after this bout, International Boxing Club President Truman Gibson said he would offer Heavyweight Champion Floyd Patterson a $250,000 guarantee to meet Liston in Chicago. Immediately after this fight Frank Gilmer summoned Tony Vone, Bethea’s co-manager, to a hearing to explain his accusations levelled at referee Bernie Weissmann. On September 18th, finding no evidence of improprieties in Weissmann’s actions and the fact that Vone did not appear, Gilmer revoked Vone’s corner license with the state of Illinois. Post fight comments: “It was in the bag - I could see it in your eyes.“ - Tony Vone, Bethea’s co-manager, accusing referee Bernie Weissmann of improprieties while stopping the fight prematurely in Liston’s favor. “I can say right now when a boxer is hit and turns completely around and makes no effort to face his opponent and staggers off to the side and gives every appearance of not having his faculties, there is nothing a referee can do but stop the fight to protect the fighter from possible injury. If I had been the referee, I’d have done the same thing Weissman did.“ -Frank Gilmer, chairman of the ISAC, answering charges by Tony Vone.