text:
Talk:List of species in fantasy fiction

older discussion
I think the name of this article would be more descriptive and useful as fantasy bestiary. The creatures have more to do with the fantasy setting of certain RPGs than the fact that it is a role-playing environment. Then it could cover these very same critters that appear in all the other media for presenting fantasy settings, not just D&D ;-). --Mrwojo

 * A fair amount of this data is reproduced at Monster, and at mythical beast as well; perhaps these articles should be combined? -- IHCOYC

 * Ah, that would probably be a good idea. What should it be called then? I was thinking that supernatural creature might be a good name for the combined article. Any better names? --Mrwojo

 * That, or perhaps legendary creature. Monster seems to have the greatest number of links, and is the most generic term, but doesn't really cover pixies and unicorns.  Mythical beast isn't really spot-on for creatures like Godzilla.  Role-playing bestiary will have to cover invented creatures like mimics and grey oozes that were invented specifically for games.  == IHCOYC

 * SC or LC would be fine with me. I was going through the same thought process you described. --Mrwojo

A quick Google for "Ka'Dalun -wikipedia" reveals that this is likely to derive from the Artemis Fowl books: can anyone confirm? --Phil | Talk 10:42, Jul 23, 2004 (UTC)

Sigh, this page needs a serious cleanup. I found Mashadar and Machin Shin in the list. Chtulhu is there too and I don't think that he is a species. I have deleted all three of them. And several of the general entries that are used in a lot of fantasy litterature is credited to a specific fnatasy universe. And then there are lots of things that I never have heard of without anything indicating from which book they are from. Jeltz 12:17, 2004 Nov 24 (UTC)

Somehting has to be done with this list but I don't know what. Jeltz 13:52, 2004 Nov 24 (UTC)

 * We should go through and verify that each entry is not BS. I think the cited work should be the fiction that introduced or popularized the species in fantasy.  For example, the list cites Shadowbane for Half-Giant, which is obviously not the first mention of half-giants in fantasy.  In that case, Dungeons & Dragons would be a better cite, or move it to List of species in folklore and mythology if it can be found in myth.

 * Perhaps we should go through each heading and use a special edit summary to signify that it's been cleaned up, like:

/* A */ verified
 * --Mrwojo 16:32, 24 Nov 2004 (UTC)

 * Should this list include mythological species or not? Generally I think that they shouldn't be included, but if mythological races aren't included what about dragons, dwarves and elves? Jeltz 19:07, 2004 Nov 24 (UTC)

 * I'm thinking the mythological creatures should be removed, unless there's specifically a fictional work that popularized them. For example, trolls should probably be excluded, because they date back to Scandinavian folklore, not D&D or Warcraft or anything.
 * --Nichenbach 05:56, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

Wheel of Time
There are a lot of entries about creatures from The Wheel of Time, and I don't think that many of them deserve to be listed. Some are just mentioned once and nothing other is known about them than their name. This list can't mention every damn made up creature. I haven't read the latest book in the series yet but I don't think that this is any problem.

WoT-creatures that I found in the list.
 * Aelfinn
 * Cafar - single mention
 * Capar - single mention
 * Corml
 * Cosa - single mention
 * Darkhound
 * Dornat - single mention
 * Draghkar
 * Eelfinn
 * Forger
 * Gholam
 * Grolm
 * Jegal - single mention
 * Jumara
 * Lopar
 * Mountain king - single mention
 * Myrddraal
 * Nym
 * Ogier
 * Raken
 * Stick - single mention
 * To'raken
 * Trom
 * Trolloc

Of these I think that Trolloc, Myrdraal, Darkhound and Ogier are the most important ones. I think that I will just remove all those that just are mentioned once from this lsit, but what about the others? - Jeltz 19:37, 2004 Nov 24 (UTC)

 * I'd just remove all of the red links except trolloc and gholam and any other species equally notable as the bluelinked articles (I stopped reading the series around book six and never got into any of the supplemental material). -Sean Curtin 01:17, Nov 25, 2004 (UTC)

 * I have removed all creatures that are of no importance at all. That just exists in name. Jeltz 11:39, 2004 Nov 25 (UTC)

 * Now I have removed all the Seanchan beasts and minor shadowspawn. I think that that is best so people later can readd them if there are anything interesting to write. Jeltz 19:25, 2004 Nov 29 (UTC)

 * Now it's just Aelfinn and Eelfinn that might not belong on this list. Jeltz 20:28, 2004 Nov 29 (UTC)

Dragonball Z
I thought Dragonball Z is science fiction and that (most of?) the species listed are aliens? Perhaps list of aliens would be a more appropriate place for them?
 * defenitely not science fiction. i dont know what all those manga shite would be...an odd mutilation of fantasy i guess, but dragonball z has little science fiction. aliens, yes, but based on extrapsychic abilities rather then extratechnology.--Lygophile 03:29, 12 November 2006 (UTC)
 * Early Dragonball was based more closely on Chinese fable (or fantasy) with several science fiction items thrown in, but from Dragonball Z, it became more of science fiction with magical items thrown in. However, the key item throughout the series, Dragonballs are magical items with no technological explanation. Also, the important plot line of being brought back from death cannot be done by anything but Dragonballs makes it a fantasy. --Revth 08:53, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Category?
On another note, this list is quite crufty, arbitrary, and possibly mostly inaccurate. It would be better handled by just the category system (Category:Fictional species). --Mrwojo 20:56, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)
 * I don't know. My idea for how to use this list was to have some of the most important fictional races on this list, but there have been several people that just have added every race they could think of from one fantasy universe. There are also currently mythological, science fiction (I suspect) and real races on this list. I can't decide on what should be done with this list. It either needs cleanup or deletion. Jeltz talk  21:08, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * My thoughts exactly. My reasoning on the category system is that experts for each individual article will have a better understanding of what kind of species it is.  Recently, I noticed on another "List of X" that some of the articles listed did not consider themselves an "X" and were more accurately categorized. --Mrwojo 22:22, 28 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Humans as a species
Someone removed the entry under Humans under category H. I find this really annoying since Humans are a species known in many fantasy fiction, the user thinks that it shouldn't be there because it saying that Humans are fictional otherwise.

That correction in actual fact is wrong...the article is titled 'List of Species IN FANTASY FICTION and that means that whether the race appears in fantasy fiction or not...They are still allowed in the list.

 * reverts correction* - Louisisthebest_007 18:21, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * What's the point of a list of species in fantasy fiction if it includes all real species and all fantasy species? I guess a move to List of fictional species in fantasy is necessary... though I'm beginning to prefer deletion.  --Mrwojo 18:52, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * No, the correcting wasn't wrong. You don't agree with it but it isn't "wrong". We just have differnt oppinions of what species belong in this list. I don't think that mythological or real species belong here. Just species that are unique to fantasy fiction. If we included everything wouldn't this list be pretty much useless? Jeltz talk  19:07, 29 Dec 2004 (UTC)

 * I've removed human and several species from real-world folklore from the list, and added a suggestion that species that exist or have been thought to exist can be found elsewhere. -Sean Curtin 01:15, Dec 30, 2004 (UTC)
 * thats a rather vague distinction though. most fictional characters in fantasy are imported directly out of folklore, which are largely based on real encouters with existing other races (or deseased people, such as zombies and possibly vampires). elves would likely have been native americans, and orcs and the like (bush)negros. --Lygophile 03:39, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

Elf
Why isn't Elf in this list? I'd edit, but it seems so surprising to be missing that I'm guessing there's a good reason. Ben Arnold 01:07, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I think elf isn't in the list to avoid overlap with List of species in folklore and mythology, since elves/elfs arent really atributable to any one source (Tolkien popularized them but didnt invent them). there's now a paragraph above the list stating something to that effect. Nateji77 07:13, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

 * I redirected the link to "Elves in fantasy literature", an article dealing with that phenomenon. For other races that have been loaned from real world folklore or myth (probably the majority of creatures in this list, if obscure), the link should go to XXX in fantasy literature, e.g. Dwarf

Jorganos (talk) 13:09, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

The description of Melniboneans as elves needs a citation. Jorganos (talk) 13:19, 18 July 2008 (UTC)

Edge Chronicles
Just so nobody shouts at me, I'll warn you here: I'm gonna add a few species from The Edge Chronicles, if that's OK. I'm making a list of Animals of the Edge Chronicles anyway.--Ninty 21:34, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

character races only
why do I see gelatinous cube listed in here? there's no way one could be either a player-character or NPC. At most, it could be a mount, but a gelainous cube is purely an unintelligent monster to be fought. If we listed every single monster in the most common fantasy settings, then what would be the point of this article? Then it would become a beastiary, which this is not. Therefore, I'm going to go ahead and remove anything that has no chance of being any sort of character instead of monster. Blueaster 19:42, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

About Elves...
Elfs in traditional folktales and mythology might not have a place in this list, but the Elves invented by Tolkien, popularized by Dungeons and Dragons, and then spread throughout the entire industry of RPGs are a staple of modern fantasy fiction and should be included in this list. Blueaster 19:45, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
 * elves actually were not invented by tolkien, by his own claim. the apendices mention that he hated shakespears elfs which he invented, and claims that the 'mansize' elves he uses existed prior to them.--Lygophile 03:24, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

suggested guidelines
About the refusing to list races that come from mythology or folktales: We have to realize that many authors adapt existing names and words to name the elements of their own worlds. Many different races from different stories all share the same name. For example, in Elfquest, elfs are short aliens who live in tribes in the world of two moons and have 8 fingers. In Harry Potter, elfs are fairy- or goblin-like slaves. In Dungeons and Dragons, elves are shorter than humans, have angular faces, and meditate in place of sleep. In LOTR, they live forever.

Dungeons and Dragons: Races to be placed here would be the basic races given in the Player's Handbook, prominent subraces such as drow and deep gnomes, orcs and goblinoids, and any humanoids or outsiders or mixes that seem relatvively easy to integrate into a campaign as Player-Characters

Harry Potter: I'm suprised that "hippogriph" was listed as a race here... I thought that the difference between magical beasts and people was pretty clear-cut within the Harry Potter universe... I think it was spelled out in that kinda official paperback that's named after one of the magical creatures textbooks in the stories... Just anything that seems intelligent enough such as goblins, house elfs (maybe), mermaids, giants, etc.... Although centaurs are listed as magical beasts becaue they chose to be considered that way.

It would be a good idea to show where there's overlap and usage of the same races in different settings....

Also, we need to have more literary examples instead of games... unless we want to change this into "List of species in Fantasy Games"Blueaster 20:07, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Races lead to the game.
I notice that when you click on a race of species from a game it leads you directly to the game.Anker99 00:14, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

 * Not all species have enough background information and/or lore to form a separate article even if that particular species is a very central character in the work of fiction. I wouldn't worry about this unless it leads you to a completely unrelated article.--Revth 08:02, 5 October 2006 (UTC)

I agree the games are of too big influence in this section. For example Troll and Dwarf lead to Warcraft descriptions, while I remember they are troll in Guild Wars, Dungeons and dragoons etc... I propose that some of the article are called i.e. Troll (Mixed) and there you could write about Trolls in folklore and difference between trolls in games literature... Unless the creature is widely spread you keep it to its "game" (by "game" i reffer to books, systems and other things etc.) if it is widely spread you make mixed. If it isn't too common but appears in several "games" you make link to it in its article like Frost Worm could be linked with Siege Wurm from Guild wars or even Dune Worm, cause they bear the same behaviour and appearance. Belphegor 666 20:37, 23 October 2006 (UTC)

Not species
The Nazgûl should probably be taken out of this list. They are not a 'race' or species at all. Just a group of nine humans, who became kind-of-ghosts. 217.95.233.218 10:59, 2 October 2007 (UTC)

WTF?
this really really needs to be cleaned up i saw a Race from south park and like 10 others that were not Fantasy i plan on deleting Crab-people, Chao Digimon Eloi Metroid Puffle Pokémon Shai Halud all of these are Science Fiction except crap ppl from south park there are also alot more on there that i dont want to delete but wondor why they are there like the stuff from Super mario bros.Someone sould add warning to the page telling people to only add Fantasy races to it no Science fiction —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lotharsrevenge (talk • contribs) 06:08, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Table
I've placed the list into a table, to allow sorting by column. Hope that pleases. -- Quiddity (talk) 23:24, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

A few
A species implys that something is capable of reproducing right? would not this remove any creatures created by magic? i wanted to dicuss this before i start deleting stuff —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lotharsrevenge (talk • contribs) 06:31, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Horrible
Horrible, horrible list. How does 'skeleton' qualify as a species? There was a link to Appa, which is really a Sky Bison, which is a species with only one member left in a random Nickelodeon TV show. Why does the Sky Bison merit its own row? And if it does, then how is the content of this page really going to be useful to anyone? Skinrider (talk) 14:25, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

Ok, so my first change --- removing all the purely D&D monsters from the list, & adding a brief prose section with a link to the established D&D monster list. The last thing we need is for this page to become yet another Wikipedia D&D monster list. Skinrider (talk) 16:45, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Since nobody has yelled at me yet, I'm also removing the Draim Arena links. None of those species are anything more than a name. If any Draim Arena fans are offended, please add information on those species to the Draim Arena page, then come back here and add a mention of them. Skinrider (talk) 18:55, 22 August 2008 (UTC)

Heh
Maaaan, I thought this had been vandilised, heh. Not to be annoyin' atches or anything, but cant you'se do something a little more agreeible? I mean, you've got piddly races like stuff with 30,000 letters in it that we're only mentioned once ever and some of them only have ONE left anyway, but your neglecting elves and humans?

You should make it "List of Major Species in Fantasy Fiction" seriously. 'Cause, like, we dont need all this wierd stuff. Nobody actually cares, do they? About wierd things like that. And I suggest you put in thing that are real or used in mythology too. Just 'cause Elves were messing around in one of the Norse heavens since the year 1 or whatever doesn't mean they're not fantasy TOO. And dwarves and humans and the only ones people actually give a toss about!!

And I was going to complain about lack of races from books like Terry's discworld and Michale Moorcocks, uh, books, but then I realised they weren't particularly inventive with their races. But, hush.

And; Boo from Mario? I like Boo but, really!! ^_-

And try not get offended by that, as some of ye's tend to. I'm sorry if ye' did. I didn't mean it. I really do think your great. ^_- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.208.130.218 (talk) 15:15, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of species in fantasy fiction


text:
Supreme Commander of the Swedish Armed Forces

The Supreme Commander (överbefälhavaren; acronym: ÖB) is the highest ranked professional military officer in the Swedish Armed Forces, and is by NATO terminology the Swedish chief of defence equivalent. The Supreme Commander is the agency head of the Swedish Armed Forces and formally reports to the Government of Sweden, though normally through the Minister for Defence. The primary responsibilities and duties of the Supreme Commander (and the charter for the Armed Forces) are prescribed in an ordinance issued by the Government.

The Supreme Commander is, apart from the honorary ranks held by the King of Sweden and in the past other members of the Swedish royal family, by unwritten convention normally the only professional military officer on active duty to hold the highest rank (a four-star General or Admiral). An exception was made 2009-2014 when Håkan Syrén was chairman of the European Union Military Committee.

The present Supreme Commander, General Micael Bydén, took office on 1 October 2015.

History
Before the modern era, the King was expected to command the forces himself; not seldom on location during war campaigns as shown by Gustavus Adolphus, Charles X, Charles XI, Charles XII and Gustav III. This remained the case formally until the 20th century. From the late 19th century onwards, there were no service chiefs of the Army or Navy; all senior service commanders reported directly to the King in Council. Apart from a single Minister for Defence created in 1919 by merging the position of ministers of the land forces and naval forces, no joint command structure existed.

In 1936, a Supreme Commander was intended to be appointed in war-time-only, and on 1 December 1939, during World War II, the first Supreme Commander, General Olof Thörnell, was appointed. In 1942 it was decided to keep this office even after the end of the war. The Supreme Commander would in wartime formally report to the King in Council until the enactment of the new Instrument of Government in 1974, and after 1 January 1975 to the Government.

Heraldry
The coat of arms of the Supreme Commander was used from 1991 to 1993. It has since 1993 been used by the Swedish Armed Forces and was used from 1994 to 2001 by the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters. Blazon: "Azure, lesser coat of arms of Sweden, three open crowns or placed two and one. The shield surmounting an erect sword of the last colour".

Timeline
Every time a new Supreme Commander is to be appointed, there is some debate between the different services. Some feel that some kind of rotational system would be appropriate. In actuality, most Supreme Commanders have come from the Army, and only one, Håkan Syrén, from the Navy. Because he is a general of the Amphibious Corps, there has to this day not been a single admiral to hold the office.

List of Deputy Supreme Commanders
Until 30 June 1994, the Chief of the Defence Staff was the second most senior member of the Swedish Armed Forces. When the Swedish Armed Forces was reorganized on 1 July 1994, the Chief of the Defence Staff position was abolished. Lieutenant General Percurt Green became the first Deputy Supreme Commander who took office on 1 July 1994. He also held the post of head of the Joint Operations Command (Operationsledningen, OpL).

In conjunction with the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters reorganization in 1998, a special position was created as Deputy Supreme Commander to relieve the Supreme Commander. The Deputy Supreme Commander led the Headquarters work through coordination of the operations. He also exercised employer responsibility for the staff in the Headquarters. In order to coordinate the operations he had a Coordination Department. The Deputy Supreme Commander also acted as the Deputy Agency Executive (Ställföreträdande myndighetschef). A formal position of head of the Swedish Armed Forces Headquarters was established in 2002.

From 1 October 2005, the post of Deputy Supreme Commander became the Director General of the Swedish Armed Forces held by a civil servant.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


text:
Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston

The two fights between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston for boxing's World Heavyweight Championship were among the most controversial fights in the sport's history. Sports Illustrated magazine named their first meeting, the Liston–Clay fight (Ali had not yet changed his name from Cassius Clay), as the fourth greatest sports moment of the twentieth century.

The first bout was held on February25, 1964 in Miami Beach, Florida. Clay, who was an 8:1 underdog, won in a major upset, when the champion gave up at the opening of the seventh round. Their second fight was on May25, 1965 in Lewiston, Maine, which Ali won with a first-round knockout. The infamous "phantom punch", as well as a botched count by the referee, aroused suspicions of a fix and have been subject to debate ever since.

Background
Liston was the World Heavyweight Champion at the time of the first Liston–Clay fight in Miami Beach on February 25, 1964, having demolished former champion Floyd Patterson by a first-round knockout in September 1962. Ten months later, Liston and Patterson met again with the same result – Patterson was knocked out in the first round.

At the time of the fight, Liston was generally considered the most intimidating fighter in the world, and among the best heavyweight boxers of all time. With the Patterson victory, Liston had defeated eight of the top 10 ranked contenders at heavyweight; seven of those victories were by knockout. Many were reluctant to meet him in the ring. Henry Cooper, the British champion, said he would be interested in a title fight if Clay won, but he was not going to get in the ring with Liston. Cooper's manager, Jim Wicks, said, "We don't even want to meet Liston walking down the same street."

Boxing promoter Harold Conrad said, "People talked about [Mike] Tyson before he got beat, but Liston was more ferocious, more indestructible. ... When Sonny gave you the evil eye—I don't care who you were—you shrunk [sic] to two feet tall." Tex Maule wrote in Sports Illustrated: "Liston's arms are massively muscled, the left jab is more than a jab. It hits with true shock power. It never occurred to Liston that he might lose a fight." Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. Several boxing writers actually thought Liston could be damaging to the sport because he could not be beaten. Liston's ominous, glowering demeanor was so central to his image that Esquire magazine caused a controversy by posing him in a Santa Claus hat for its December 1963 cover.

Liston learned to box in the Missouri State Penitentiary while serving time for armed robbery. Later, he was re-incarcerated for assaulting a police officer. For much of his career, his contract was majority owned by Frankie Carbo, a one-time mob hitman and senior member of the Lucchese crime family, who ran boxing interests for the Mafia. The mob was deeply entrenched in boxing at every level at the time, and Liston was never able to escape being labeled as the personification of everything that was unseemly and criminal in the sport, despite the fact that his criminality had been in the past. He distrusted boxing writers, and they paid him back, often depicting him as little more than an ignorant thug and a bully. He was typically described in thinly veiled racist terms—a "gorilla" and "hands like big bananas". Author James Baldwin understood Liston perhaps better than anyone in the press and sympathized with him and liked him, unlike boxing writers. He said "Liston was the big Negro in every white man's hallway." He was a man who, according to Ali biographer David Remnick, "had never gotten a break and was never going to give one".

On the other hand, Clay was a glib, fast-talking 22-year-old challenger who enjoyed the spotlight. Known as "The Louisville Lip", he had won the light heavyweight gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, Italy. He had great hand and foot speed and lightning fast reflexes, not to mention a limitless supply of braggadocio. However, Clay had been knocked down by journeyman Sonny Banks early in his career, and, in his previous two fights, had eked out a controversial decision against Doug Jones and—more seriously—was knocked down by a left hook at the end of round four against the cut-prone converted southpaw Henry Cooper. Clay was clearly "out on his feet" in his corner between rounds, and his trainer, Angelo Dundee, stalled for time to allow Clay to recover. Although Clay rallied to win the fight in the next round, it seemed clear to many that he would be no match against the daunting Liston, who seemed a more complete boxer in every way than Cooper.

The brash Clay was equally disliked by reporters and his chances were widely dismissed. Lester Bromberg's forecast in the New York World-Telegram was typical, predicting, "It will last longer than the Patterson fight—almost the entire first round." The Los Angeles Times' Jim Murray observed, "The only thing at which Clay can beat Liston is reading the dictionary," adding that the face-off between the two unlikeable athletes would be "the most popular fight since Hitler and Stalin—180 million Americans rooting for a double knockout." The New York Times' regular boxing writer Joe Nichols declined to cover the fight, assuming that it would be a mismatch. By fight time, Clay was an 8-to-1 betting underdog. Of the 46 sportswriters at ringside, 43 had picked Liston to win by knockout.

Liston, however, brought weaknesses into the Clay fight that were not fully apparent at the time. He claimed to be 32 years old at the time of the bout, but many believed that his true age was closer to 34, perhaps even older. Liston had been suffering from bursitis in his shoulders for close to a year and had been receiving cortisone shots. In training for the Clay fight, he re-injured his left shoulder and was supposedly in pain striking the heavy bag. He secretly resorted to heavy icing and ultrasound therapy after each training session. And, ironically, because of his dominance, Liston had actually logged little ring time in the past three years. Between March 1961 and the Clay fight, Liston had fought three times and won each bout with first-round knockouts—meaning that he had fought a total of just over six minutes during a 35-month stretch.

One of the reasons that Clay's chances were dismissed is that his boxing style seemed ill-suited to the heavyweight division. He was widely viewed as a fast but light puncher lacking the ability to take a punch or to fight inside. The signatures of Clay's style and later greatness—the tendency to keep his hands low and lean away from punches (often leaving his opponent hitting air, off balance, and exposed to counter punches), his constant movement and reluctance to set (making him extremely difficult to hit)—were viewed as fundamental technical flaws that would be quickly exploited by an experienced, hard-hitting heavyweight like Liston. New York Journal-American columnist Jimmy Cannon summarized this view when he wrote: "Clay doesn't fight like the valid heavyweight he is. He seldom sets and misses a lot. In a way, Clay is a freak. He is a bantamweight who weighs more than 200 pounds [91kg]."

Liston trained minimally for the bout, convinced that he would dispose of Clay within the first two rounds. He typically ran just one mile a day instead of his usual five, reportedly ate hot dogs and drank beer, and was rumored to have been furnished with prostitutes in training camp.

Pre-fight publicity
The television series I've Got a Secret did multiple segments about the title fight. Panelists Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan and Betsy Palmer predicted that Liston would win in the third, second, and first rounds, respectively. Host Garry Moore was even more pessimistic about Clay's chances, estimating a Liston knockout "in the very early moments of round one", adding, "if I were Cassius, I would catch a cab and leave town." Actor Hal March went a step further, albeit humorously: "I think the fight will end in the dressing room. I think [Clay] is going to faint before he comes out."

The night before the first fight, on February24, 1964, the show featured Clay and Liston's sparring partners as guests. Harvey Jones brought with him a lengthy rhyming boast from Cassius Clay:

Clay also presented that poem on The Jack Paar Show with Liberace giving improvised piano harmony.

Jesse Bowdry brought a much terser written message from Sonny Liston:

The following week, I've Got a Secret brought on two sportswriters whose secret was that they had been the only writers to correctly predict Clay's victory.

Baiting the bear
Clay began taunting and provoking Liston almost immediately after the two agreed to fight. He purchased a bus and had it emblazoned with the words "Liston Must Go In Eight". On the day of the contract signing, he drove it to Liston's home in Denver, waking the champion (with the press in tow) at 3:00 a.m. shouting, "Come on out of there. I'm gonna whip you now." Liston had just moved into a white neighborhood and was furious at the attention this caused. Clay took to driving his entourage in the bus to the site in Surfside, Florida where Liston (nicknamed the "Big Bear") was training, and repeatedly called Liston the "big, ugly bear". Liston grew increasingly irritated as the motor-mouthed Clay continued hurling insults: "After the fight, I'm gonna build myself a pretty home and use him as a bearskin rug. Liston even smells like a bear. I'm gonna give him to the local zoo after I whup him ... if Sonny Liston whups me, I'll kiss his feet in the ring, crawl out of the ring on my knees, tell him he's the greatest, and catch the next jet out of the country." Clay insisted to a skeptical press that he would knock out Liston in eight rounds (former light heavyweight champion José Torres, in his 1971 biography of Ali, Sting Like a Bee, said that as of 1963, Ali's prophetic poems had correctly predicted the exact round he would stop an opponent 12 times).

Clay's brashness did not endear him to white Americans, and, in fact, even made Liston a more sympathetic character. In The New Republic, the editor Murray Kempton wrote, "Liston used to be a hoodlum; now he is our cop; he was the big Negro we pay to keep sassy Negroes in line."

It has been widely stated that Clay's antics were a deliberate form of psychological warfare designed to unsettle Liston by stoking his anger, encouraging his overconfidence and even fueling uncertainty about Clay's sanity. As Clay himself said, "If Liston wasn't thinking nothing but killing me, he wasn't thinking fighting. You got to think to fight." Former World Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis said, "Liston is an angry man, and he can't afford to be angry fighting Clay." Clay's outbursts also fed Liston's belief that Clay was terrified (something Clay's camp did little to disavow). Clay said later, "I knew that Liston, overconfident that he was, was never going to train to fight more than two rounds. He couldn't see nothing to me at all but mouth." In contrast, Clay prepared hard for the fight, studying films of Liston's prior bouts and even detecting that Liston telegraphed his punches with eye movement.

The Nation of Islam
Several weeks before the fight, the Miami Herald published an article quoting Cassius Clay Sr. as saying that his son had joined the Black Muslims when he was 18. "They have been hammering at him ever since," Clay Sr. said. "He's so confused now that he doesn't even know where he's at." He said his youngest son, Rudy Clay, had also joined. "They ruined my two boys," Clay Sr. said. "Muslims tell my boys to hate white people; to hate women; to hate their mother." Clay Jr. responded by saying, "I don't care what my father said. ... I'm here training for a fight, and that's all I'm going to say." As the story began to spread, promoters became increasingly uneasy. Bill MacDonald, the main promoter, threatened to cancel the fight unless Clay publicly disavowed the Nation of Islam (NOI). Clay refused. A compromise was reached when Malcolm X, at the time a companion of Clay's as well as a feared and incendiary spokesperson for the Nation of Islam (though Malcolm X had, by that time, been censured by the NOI—banned from speaking to the press and suspended from all official NOI roles and duties—and would soon officially break with the Nation), agreed to keep a low profile, save for the night of the fight when he would rejoin Clay's entourage as spiritual advisor and view the fight from a ringside seat. While Clay would not definitively link himself with the Nation of Islam and its leader, Elijah Muhammad, until the day after the fight—at the annual NOI Savior's Day celebration—his association with the Nation, seen by many as a hate group due in part to its strict anti-integrationist stance, further complicated his relations with the press and the white public, further deprived the fight of the "good guy/bad guy" narrative, and negatively affected the gate. MacDonald would ultimately lose $300,000 on the bout.

According to Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali had converted to Islam and joined the Nation of Islam several years prior to the fight, but had kept his religion and affiliation a secret up until the fight.

The weigh-in
Ali's outbursts reached their peak at the pre-fight weigh-in/physical the morning of the event. Championship bout weigh-ins, before this, had been predictable and boring. Ali entered the room where the weigh-in would be held wearing a denim jacket with the words "Bear Huntin'" on the back and carrying an African walking stick. He began waving the stick, screaming, "I'm the champ! Tell Sonny I'm here. Bring that big ugly bear on." When Liston appeared, Ali went wild. "Someone is going to die at ringside tonight!" he shouted. "You're scared, chump!" He was restrained by members of his entourage. Writer Mort Sharnik thought Ali was having a seizure. Robert Lipsyte, the New York Times writer, likened the scene to a "police action, with an enormous amount of movement and noise exploding in a densely packed room." Amidst the pandemonium, he was fined $2,500 by the commission for his behavior. Ali worked himself into such a frenzy that his heart rate registered 120 beats per minute, more than twice its normal rate, and his blood pressure was 200/100. Dr. Alexander Robbins, the chief physician of the Miami Boxing Commission, determined that he was "emotionally unbalanced, scared to death, and liable to crack up before he enters the ring." He said if Ali's blood pressure didn't return to normal, the fight would be canceled. Many others also took Clay's antics to mean that he was terrified. In fact, a local radio station later reported a rumor that he had been spotted at the airport buying a ticket to leave the country. A second examination conducted an hour later revealed Ali's blood pressure and pulse had returned to normal. It had all been an act. Ali later said, "Liston's not afraid of me, but he's afraid of a nut."

The fight
Clay weighed in at 210+1/2 lb while Liston was several pounds over his prime fighting weight at 218 lb. Many of those watching were surprised during the referee's instructions to see that Clay was considerably taller than Liston. While receiving instructions, Liston glowered at Clay, while Clay stared back and stood on his toes to appear even taller. Clay later said of the moment: "I won't lie, I was scared ... It frightened me, just knowing how hard he hit. But I didn't have no choice but to go out and fight."

At the opening bell, an angry Liston charged Clay, looking to end the fight quickly and decisively. However, Clay's superior speed and movement were immediately evident, as he slipped most of Liston's lunging punches, making the champion look awkward. Clay clearly gained confidence as the round progressed. He hit Liston with a combination that electrified the crowd with about 30 seconds left in the round and began scoring repeatedly with his left jab (the round lasted an extra 8.5 seconds because referee Barney Felix didn't hear the bell). Clay had been hit hard by a right to the stomach, but he said later, "I felt good because I knew I could survive." Milt Bailey, one of Liston's cornermen, recalled, "In the first round Sonny couldn't catch up with Clay, and I thought we might have some trouble." Indeed, it was perhaps the worst round of Liston's career. Between rounds, sitting on his stool, Clay turned to the press contingent at ringside and opened his mouth as if yawning or making a mute roar.

Liston settled down somewhat in round two. At one point, he cornered Clay against the ropes and hit him with a hard left hook. Clay later confessed that he was hurt by the punch, but Liston failed to press his advantage. Two of the official scorers awarded the round to Liston and the other had it even.

In the third round, Clay began to take control of the fight. At about 30 seconds into the round, he hit Liston with several combinations, causing a bruise under Liston's right eye and a cut under his left, which eventually required eight stitches to close. It was the first time in his career that Liston had been cut. At one point in this attack, Liston was rocked as he was driven to the ropes. Les Keiter, broadcasting at ringside, shouted, "This could be the upset of the century!" Mort Sharnik described the moment: "Cassius hit Liston with a one-two combination; a jab followed by a straight right. Cassius pulled the jab back and there was a mouse underneath Sonny's right eye. Then he pulled the right back and there was a gash underneath the other eye. ... It was like the armor plate of a battleship being pierced. I said to myself, 'My God, Cassius Clay is winning this fight! A clearly angered Liston rallied at the end of the round, as Clay seemed tired, and delivered punishing shots to Clay's body. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. But as the round ended, Clay shouted to him, "you big sucka, I got you now". Sitting on his stool between rounds, Liston was breathing heavily as his cornermen worked on his cut.

During the fourth round, Clay coasted, keeping his distance and Liston appeared dominant. Joe Louis commenting on TV at ringside said "It's looking good for Sonny Liston". However, when Clay returned to his corner, he started complaining that there was something burning in his eyes and he could not see. "I didn't know what the heck was going on," Angelo Dundee, Clay's trainer, recalled on an NBC special 25 years later. "He said, 'cut the gloves off. I want to prove to the world there's dirty work afoot.' And I said, 'whoa, whoa, back up baby. C'mon now, this is for the title, this is the big apple. What are you doing? Sit down!' So I get him down, I get the sponge and I pour the water into his eyes trying to cleanse whatever's there, but before I did that I put my pinkie in his eye and I put it into my eye. It burned like hell. There was something caustic in both eyes."

The commotion wasn't lost on referee Barney Felix, who was walking toward Clay's corner. Felix said Clay was seconds from being disqualified. The challenger, his arms held high in surrender, was demanding that the fight be stopped and Dundee, fearing the fight might indeed be halted, gave his charge a one-word order: "Run!"

Clay later said he could only see a faint shadow of Liston during most of the round, but by circling and moving he managed to avoid Liston and somehow survive. By the sixth round, Clay's sight had cleared, and he began landing combinations almost at will. "I got back to my stool at the end of the sixth round, and under me I could hear the press like they had gone wild," Clay later said. "I twisted round and hollered down at the reporters, 'I'm gonna upset the world.

There are two basic narratives about what occurred next in Liston's corner. According to Ali biographer David Remnick, Liston told his cornermen, "That's it." This supposedly rallied Liston's handlers, who thought he meant he was finally angry enough to win, but Liston really meant that he was through fighting, which he indicated by spitting out his mouth guard.

However, Liston biographer Paul Gallender's take is that Liston's shoulder was essentially paralyzed by the end of round six, and his corner made the decision to end the fight, despite Liston's protests. Liston spit out his mouth guard in disgust, still not believing that Clay was the superior fighter.

As the bell sounded for the seventh round, Clay was the first to notice that Liston had spat out his mouth guard. Clay moved to the middle of the ring with his arms raised, dancing the jig that would become known as the "Ali Shuffle" while Howard Cosell, broadcasting at ringside, shouted "wait a minute! Wait a minute! Sonny Liston is not coming out!" Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. Liston became the first World Champion since Jess Willard in 1919 to retire on his stool during a Heavyweight title fight. At that point the bout was level on the official scorecards of the referee and two judges.

Sensing that he had made history, Clay quickly ran to the ropes amidst the commotion in the ring and shouted at sportswriters, "Eat your words!" In a scene that has been rebroadcast countless times over the ensuing decades, Clay repeatedly yelled "I'm the greatest!" and "I shook up the world."

Clay had to be persuaded to hold the traditional post-fight press conference. He called the writers "hypocrites" and said, "Look at me. Not a mark on me. I could never be an underdog. I am too great. Hail the champion!"

On February27, 1964, Clay announced that he was a member of the Nation of Islam. His membership in the group was first disclosed the previous night at the group's annual national convention in Chicago by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad.

"I began worshiping this way five years ago when I heard a fellow named Elijah Muhammad on the radio talking about the virtues of the Islam religion," Clay said. "I also listened to his ministers. No one could prove him or them wrong, so I decided to join."

Clay started going by the name Cassius X, as members of the organization adopt the last name X because they no longer want to bear names handed down by former slave-owning families.

On March1, 1964, Ed Sullivan said on his show: "I saw the Liston-Clay fight. This was a stinker of all-time. I swear The Beatles could beat the two of 'em! No kidding!" The Beatles had been on The Ed Sullivan Show twice in February. During their second appearance, which aired February16 from Miami, Sullivan actually had Liston and Joe Louis—who were in the audience—stand up for applause; the group also visited Clay's training center later in the week.

On March6, 1964, Elijah Muhammad announced in a recorded statement played over the radio that Clay would be renamed Muhammad Ali. Muhammad means "worthy of all praises", and Ali means "most high".

Did Liston's corner deliberately blind Clay?
Many theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cutman, may have inadvertently caused the irritation that blinded Clay in round four. "Joe Pollino had used Monsel's Solution on that cut," Angelo Dundee said. "Now what had happened was that probably the kid put his forehead leaning in on the guy—because Liston was starting to wear in with those body shots—and my kid, sweating profusely, it went into both eyes."

Two days after the fight, heavyweight contender Eddie Machen said he believed that Liston's handlers made deliberate use of illegal medication to temporarily blind Clay. "The same thing happened to me when I fought Liston in 1960," Machen said. "I thought my eyes would burn out of my head, and Liston seemed to know it would happen." He theorized that Liston's handlers would rub medication on his shoulders, which would then be transferred to his opponent's forehead during clinches and drip into the eyes. "Clay did the worst thing when he started screaming and let Liston know it had worked," Machen said. "Clay panicked. I didn't do that. I'm more of a seasoned pro, and I hid it from Liston." It is noteworthy that Machen did not mention the eye burning problem immediately after his fight with Liston, citing an injury to his arm as contributing to his defeat.

Shoulder injury
Liston said he quit the fight because of a shoulder injury, and there has been speculation since about whether the injury was severe enough to actually prevent him from continuing. Immediately after the fight, Liston told broadcasters that he hurt the shoulder in the first round. Dr. Alexander Robbins, chief physician for the Miami Beach Boxing Commission, diagnosed Liston with a torn tendon in his left shoulder.

For his book, King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero, David Remnick spoke with one of Liston's cornermen, who told him that Liston could have continued: "[The shoulder] was all BS. We had no return bout clause with Clay, and if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot."

Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. In the sixth round, he carried it at belt level so that it was of no help in warding off the right crosses with which Clay probed at the cut under his left eye." He also cited medical evidence: "A team of eight doctors inspected Liston's arm at St. Francis Hospital in Miami Beach and agreed that it was too badly damaged for Liston to continue fighting. The torn tendon had bled down into the mass of the biceps, swelling and numbing the arm."

Those findings were confirmed in a formal investigation immediately after the fight by Florida State Attorney Richard Gerstein, who also noted that there was little doubt that Liston went into the fight with a sore or lame shoulder. Despite Liston carrying an injury and being undertrained, Ali stated in 1975 that this fight was his toughest ever.

Allegations of a fix
There were allegations of a fix as soon as the fight ended. Arthur Daley of the New York Times did not believe the claim. He wrote:
 * When a fight ends in the fashion this one did, with the unbeatable monster remaining in his corner, suspicions of larceny are immediately aroused. They are not helped by the fact that Liston, an ex-convict, was sponsored by mobsters at the start of his career. For the larceny theory to be valid, however, there would have to be an overwhelming reason for it. The prospects of a betting coup can be dismissed because the 8-to-1 odds in Liston's favor never varied more than a point. If there had been a rush of smart money on the underdog, the odds would have plummeted. This is an unfailing barometer of hanky-panky. What would Liston have gained by throwing the fight? The heavyweight championship is the most valuable commodity in the world of sports and not even a man of Liston's criminal background would willingly toss it away. It also brought him an aura of respectability such as he never had known before.

After a month-long investigation, Florida State Attorney Richard E. Gerstein said there was no evidence to support the claim of a fix, and a United States Senate subcommittee conducted hearings three months later and also found no evidence of a fix.

Documents were released to the Washington Times in 2014 under the Freedom of Information Act which show the FBI suspected the fight may have been fixed by Ash Resnick, a Las Vegas figure tied to organized crime and to Liston. The documents show no evidence that Ali was in on the scheme or even knew about it, and nothing suggests the bureau ever corroborated the suspicions it investigated. The memos were addressed directly to Director J. Edgar Hoover.

A memo dated May24, 1966, which the Washington Times called "the most tantalizing evidence," details an interview with a Houston gambler named Barnett Magids, who described to agents his discussions with Resnick before the first Clay-Liston fight. The Washington Times reported:
 * "On one occasion, Resnick introduced Magids to Sonny Liston at the Thunderbird, [one of the Las Vegas hotels organized crime controlled]," the memo states. "About a week before the Liston and Clay fight in Miami, Resnick called and invited Magids and his wife for two weeks in Florida on Resnick. Magids' wife was not interested in going, but Magids decided to go along, and Resnick was going to send him a ticket.

 * "Two or three days before the fight, Magids called Resnick at the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami to say he could not come," the memo states. "On this call, he asked Resnick who he liked in the fight, and Resnick said that Liston would knock Clay out in the second round. Resnick suggested he wait until just before the fight to place any bets because the odds may come down.

 * "At about noon on the day of the fight, [Magids] reached Resnick again by phone, and at this time, Resnick said for him to not make any bets, but just go watch the fight on pay TV and he would know why and that he could not talk further at that time.

 * "Magids did go see the fight on TV and immediately realized that Resnick knew that Liston was going to lose," the document states. "A week later, there was an article in Sports Illustrated writing up Resnick as a big loser because of his backing of Liston. Later people 'in the know' in Las Vegas told Magids that Resnick and Liston both reportedly made over $1 million betting against Liston on the fight and that the magazine article was a cover for this."

The article was controversial, with Ron Kantowski of the Las Vegas Review-Journal writing that the Washington Times article "had more holes than the left side of the Cubs' infield." He continued:
 * Here, then, is the most titillating part of the Washington Times story: "At about noon on the day of the fight, (Barnett Magids) reached Resnick again by phone, and at this time, Resnick said for him to not make any bets, but just go watch the fight on pay TV, and he would know why ..."

 * This was after the weigh-in, when Ali went berserk and Sonny just burped up a couple of ... hot dogs.

 * Is it possible this is why Ash Resnick might have told Barnett Magids—according to Magids—not to make any bets on Liston?

 * According to a Sports Illustrated story, Resnick lost a lot of money betting on Liston. ... The Washington Times' story suggested ... the magazine story may have been a cover-up, quoting "people in the know."

 * Sometimes in boxing, a guy trains on hot dogs and beer, and then maybe he injures his shoulder. A guy everybody expects to win, doesn't win. And then there are FBI files and conspiracy theories, and then "people in the know" want to put a guy like Sonny Liston on the grassy knoll with a smoking gun in his hand.

Background
Following Clay's upset victory over Liston, both fighters were almost immediately embroiled in controversy that was considered detrimental to the sport of boxing. A couple of days after the fight, Clay publicly announced that he had joined the "Black Muslims"—which at the time was widely viewed as a hate group against white people—and started going by the name Cassius X. The following month, he was renamed Muhammad Ali by Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad. This evoked widespread public condemnation. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "When Cassius Clay joined the Black Muslims and started calling himself Cassius X, he became a champion of racial segregation." As for Liston, he was arrested on March12 and charged with speeding, careless and reckless driving, driving without an operator's license and carrying a concealed weapon. The arresting officer said the former champion was driving between 76 and(-) in a residential zone. Liston had a loaded .22 caliber revolver in his coat pocket and there were empty bottles of vodka in the car. A young woman was in the car with Liston, but she was not arrested. In short, at a time when Congress was investigating corruption and organized crime influence in boxing, neither fighter was seen as a poster child for the sport.

In the view of some, the unexpected ending of the bout took on suspicious overtones when it was discovered that the two fighters had a contract which contained a rematch clause. Many argued that Liston had more to gain financially from losing the bout and fighting a rematch than he did from winning. The contract gave Inter-Continental Promotions, Inc., a firm organized to promote Liston's fights, the right to promote Ali's first fight as champion—if he should beat Liston—and pick his opponent (Liston, of course). This was in a second contract, kept secret and not part of the main fight contract. It was phrased as it was because the World Boxing Association did not allow fight contracts with rematch clauses. Gordon B. Davidson, an attorney for the group sponsoring Ali, said, "We felt we would be better advised not to have a guaranteed rematch clause. We felt this was more in the spirit of the WBA rules than a direct rematch which was clearly outlawed." He agreed that it was "subterfuge". When Ali and Liston signed to fight a rematch, the WBA voted unanimously to strip Ali of the title and drop Liston from its rankings. However, the World Boxing Council, the New York State Athletic Commission and The Ring magazine continued to recognize Ali as champion.

Pressed by the WBA—which included every U.S. state except California, Nevada and New York—state boxing commissions throughout the nation were reluctant to license a rematch between the two controversial fighters, and it was difficult to find a venue. Ultimately, Massachusetts agreed to host the bout, which resulted in the suspension of the Massachusetts Boxing Commission by the WBA. The fight was set for November16, 1964, at the Boston Garden. Liston was immediately established as a 13:5 favorite, making Ali a greater betting underdog than Floyd Patterson in his two fights against Liston. This time, Liston trained hard, preparing himself for a 15-round bout. In fact, Time magazine said that Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. Ali, for his part, continued to taunt Liston, dragging a bear trap to the pre-fight physical and announcing that he might begin manufacturing the "Sonny Liston Sit-Down Stool". However, the Boston fight would never occur. Three days before the scheduled bout (on a Friday the 13th, as it were), Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. The bout would need to be delayed by six months.

The new date was set for May25, 1965. But as it approached, Liston was involved in yet another arrest and there were fears that the promoters were tied to organized crime. Massachusetts officials, most notably Suffolk County District Attorney Garrett H. Byrne, began to have second thoughts. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. On May7, backers of the rematch ended the court battle by pulling the fight out of Boston.

Lewiston, Maine
The promoters needed a new location quickly, whatever the size, to rescue their closed circuit television commitment around the country. Governor John H. Reed of Maine stepped forward, and within a few hours, the promoters had a new site: Lewiston, Maine, a mill town with a population of about 41,000 located 140 mi north of Boston. Inter-Continental obtained a permit and made an arrangement to work with local promoter Sam Michael. The venue selected was the Central Maine Youth Center (now called The Colisée), a junior hockey rink. Lewiston was the smallest city to host a heavyweight title bout since Jack Dempsey fought Tom Gibbons in Shelby, Montana (population 3,000) in 1923. It remains the only heavyweight title fight held in the state of Maine.

The fight was embraced by the Pine Tree State. Governor Reed announced to the press, "This is one of the greatest things to happen in Maine." Nevertheless, it would go down in history as a debacle.

The atmosphere surrounding the fight was tense and sometimes ugly, largely due to the repercussions of Ali's public embrace of Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Malcolm X, who had a public and bitter falling out with Elijah Muhammad, had been assassinated several months before the fight, and the men arrested for the slaying were members of the Nation of Islam. Rumors circulated that Ali, who had publicly snubbed Malcolm after his break with Elijah Muhammad, might be killed by Malcolm's supporters in retaliation. The FBI took the threats seriously enough to post a 12-man, 24-hour guard around Ali. Liston's camp, in turn, claimed he had received a death threat from the Nation of Islam. The Fruit of Islam—the omnipresent, bow-tied paramilitary wing of the Nation of Islam—surrounding Ali only added to the sense of foreboding and hostility. Security for the fight was unprecedented.

The phantom/anchor punch
The ending of the second Ali-Liston fight remains one of the most controversial in boxing history. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab and Ali supposedly went over it with a fast right, knocking the former champion down. Liston went down on his back. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. Many in attendance did not see Ali deliver the punch. The fight quickly descended into disarray. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former World Heavyweight Champion himself, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" and "Nobody will believe this!" The moment was captured by ringside photographer Neil Leifer in what became one of the most iconic images in sport, chosen as the cover of the Sports Illustrated special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos". Ali then began prancing around the ring with his arms raised in victory.

When Walcott got back to Liston and looked at the knockdown timekeeper, Francis McDonough, to pick up the count, Liston had fallen back on the canvas. Walcott never did pick up the count. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. Also, McDonough did not bang on the canvas or motion a number count with his fingers. McDonough, however, claimed Walcott was looking at the crowd and never at him. After Liston arose, Walcott wiped off his gloves. He then left the fighters to go over to McDonough. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him out—the fight is over, Walcott said after the fight. "Nat Fleischer [editor of The Ring] was seated beside McDonough and he was waving his hands, too, saying it was over." Walcott then rushed back to the fighters, who had resumed boxing, and stopped the fight—awarding Ali a first-round knockout victory.

It is one of the quickest heavyweight title knockouts in history. Many in the small crowd had not even settled in their seats when the fight was stopped. The official time of the stoppage was announced as 1:00 into the first round, which was wrong. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12.

McDonough and Fleischer were also wrong in their interpretation of how the rules applied. Under the rules, the timekeeper is supposed to start the count at the time of a knockdown. The referee's duty is to get the boxer scoring the knockdown to a neutral corner, pick up the count from the timekeeper and continue it aloud for the knocked down boxer. Under the rules of the Maine Commission, the referee was authorized to stop his count if a boxer refused to go to the proper corner. "It might have been better if Walcott had stopped the count (by the knockdown timekeeper) until Clay went to the neutral corner and then started again," said Duncan MacDonald, a commission member.

"I did my job," Walcott said. "He [Ali] looked like a man in a different world. I didn't know what he might do. I thought he might stomp him or pick him up and belt him again."

"If that bum Clay had gone to a neutral corner instead of running around like a maniac, all the trouble would have been avoided," McDonough said. He acknowledged that Walcott could have asked him to start the count again "after he got that wild man—Clay—back to a neutral corner, but he didn't, so that was that."

Alleged match fixing
When the fight ended, numerous fans booed and started yelling, "Fix!" Skeptics called the knockout blow "the phantom punch". Ali called it "the anchor punch". He said it was taught to him by comedian and film actor Stepin Fetchit, who learned it from Jack Johnson. However, Ali was unsure immediately after the fight as to whether or not the punch connected, as footage from the event shows Ali in the ring asking his entourage, "Did I hit him?" Ali told Nation of Islam minister Abdul Rahman that Liston "laid [sic] down" and Rahman replied, "No, you hit him." Rahman later said, "Ali hit him so fast, Ali didn't really know he hit him. ... and it took a long time before even he saw the punch he hit Sonny with." Ali never used the "anchor punch" in subsequent fights, nor did he mention it in later discussions about his career. This has led to ongoing debates about the nature and impact of the punch, as well as the legitimacy of Liston's fall.

After the fight, George Chuvalo climbed through the ropes and shoved Ali, yelling, "Fix!" He was restrained, but later he said that he had seen Liston's eyes while the challenger was on the floor, and he knew that he was not in bad shape. "His eyes were darting from side to side like this," he said, darting his eyes from side to side. "When a fighter is hurt his eyes roll up."

There were some at ringside who believed the fight was legitimate. Larry Merchant, who was a critic of Liston as a person throughout his career, wrote 50 years later, "I saw the actual punch land on the actual chin, as did others in my area of the press section. It was a quick right hand that caught Liston as he was coming forward ... According to ringside doctors I've spoken to, that is a classic example of a medulla oblongata K.O." World Light Heavyweight Champion José Torres said, "It was a perfect punch." Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was "no phantom punch". Tex Maule of Sports Illustrated wrote, "The blow had so much force it lifted Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was resting, well off the canvas."

"Many people in the arena did not see [the punch], understandably", Merchant wrote: "Or they couldn't believe that it had the force to knock out the seemingly indestructible former champion". He described the belief that the fight was rigged as "the apparently unkillable myth ... many people believe that the moon landings were staged, probably right there in Lewiston". Slow motion examination of the fight recording shows that the 'punch' that landed was a short grazing right to Liston's cheek and of apparently limited power. Hall of Fame announcer Don Dunphy was one of many who didn't believe the fight was on the level. "If that was a punch, I'll eat it," he said. "Here was a guy who was in prison and the guards [used] to beat him over the head with clubs and couldn't knock him down." But others contend that he wasn't the same Liston. Dave Anderson of the New York Times said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. Liston's handlers secretly paid sparring partner Amos Lincoln an extra $100 to take it easy on him. Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote that Liston's handlers knew he "didn't have it anymore". These statements do not accord with the fact that three years later Liston easily knocked out Lincoln within two rounds.

One ringside observer, former World Heavyweight Champion James J. Braddock, said the suspect Ali right hand merely finished up what an earlier punch had begun. "I have a feeling that this guy (Ali) is a lot better than any of us gave him credit for," Braddock said. "It isn't the knockout punch that sticks in my mind as much as a punch he let go (earlier). ... It was a right to Liston's jaw and it shook him to his shoetops. For all we know, it could have been the one that set up the knockout."

Another former champion, Rocky Marciano, changed his view about the knockout punch after seeing videotape the next day. "I didn't think it was a powerful punch when I saw the fight from ringside," Marciano said. "Now (after seeing video) I think Clay, seeing the opening, snapped the punch the last six inches." He added that he still didn't think it was a knockout punch.

Ali did not think he knocked Liston out. In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. It was a good punch, but I didn't think I hit him so hard that he couldn't have gotten up. Once he went down, I got excited. I forgot about the rules". In that same book, Liston, quoted two years after the fight: "Ali knocked me down with a sharp punch. I was down but not hurt, but I looked up and saw Ali standing over me. ... Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him".

Dave Anderson said he saw Liston in Las Vegas in 1967 and asked him what happened. "It wasn't that hard a punch, but it partially caught me off balance and when I got knocked down, I got mixed up because the referee never gave me a count," Liston said. "I was listening for a count. That's the first thing you do, but I never heard a count because Clay never went to a neutral corner."

Jerry Izenberg of the Newark Star-Ledger said Liston told him that he lost simply because "the timekeeper couldn't count".

Mark Kram of Sports Illustrated said Liston told him: "That guy [Ali] was crazy. I didn't want anything to do with him. And the Muslims were coming up. Who needed that? So I went down. I wasn't hit."

Wilfred Sheed offered his opinion in his 1975 book, Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs, writing that Liston was going to throw the fight going in and, when he suffered a legitimate flash knockdown in round one, decided on the spot to seize the opportunity and end the fight. It was Walcott's confusion and Ali's behavior that forced Liston to feign disorientation for far longer than a knockdown of that type would have caused.

During a 1995 HBO documentary about Liston, Johnny Tocco, who owned a boxing gym in Las Vegas, said he spoke with mobster John Vitale before the rematch and was told not to pay any attention to what he heard about the fight. He also told Tocco that he should be glad that he was not going to Lewiston. When Tocco asked why, Vitale told him that the fight was going to end in the first round.

During the same documentary, former FBI agent William F. Roemer Jr. said, "We learned that there very definitely had been a fix in that fight." He said Bernie Glickman, a boxing manager from Chicago with mob ties, claimed that while he was conversing with Liston and his wife before the fight, Liston's wife told the ex-champion that as long as he had to lose the fight, he should go down early to avoid any chance of getting hurt. In the wake of the controversial fight, there was an outcry by press and politicians for the abolition of boxing. Bills to ban the sport were planned in several state legislatures.

A promoter in San Antonio apologized to his theater TV customers and, on the basis that they had been defrauded by a "shameful spectacle", donated his take to boys' clubs. The California legislature, in session, received a resolution calling for an investigation by the state attorney general to determine if its closed-circuit viewers had been fraudulently duped out of their money.

For those who believe that Liston took a dive, there are a number of theories as to why, including:
 * The Mafia forced Liston to throw the fight as part of a betting coup.
 * Liston bet against himself and took a dive because he owed money to the Mafia.
 * A couple of members of the Nation of Islam visited Liston's training camp and told Liston they would kill him if he won the rematch.
 * Author Paul Gallender claims that members of the Nation of Islam kidnapped Liston's wife, Geraldine, and Liston's son, Bobby. Liston was told to lose the fight to Ali or he would never see his family again.
 * Liston was afraid that he would be accidentally shot by followers of Malcolm X as they tried to kill Ali in the ring. There were also claims attributed to Liston and others that he threw the fight in return for a share of the more marketable Ali's future purses. Credence to these claims is provided by the fact that after his last fight, with Chuck Wepner, Liston seemed more preoccupied in supporting the proposed Ali-Frazier bout and Ali's claims to the title than about his own career.

In the final analysis, it remains inconclusive whether the blow in Lewiston was a genuine knockout punch. The fact that Liston did not complain about the clear breach of boxing rules (being declared knocked out without a count) and Ali's obvious state of bewilderment, shouting at Liston "Nobody will believe this" and asking his handlers "Did I hit him?" is viewed as confirmation for most people's belief that Liston took a dive.

Legacy
The two bouts launched one man and ruined the other.

The fight contributed to the Ali mystique of beating seemingly insurmountable foes. For Liston, the fights left his reputation in tatters. In just a little over one year, he went from being considered one of the most fearsome heavyweights of all-time to an overrated champion. "[After the two Ali fights] Liston would never again intimidate a world-class fighter," wrote Bob Mee, "and therefore would never again be the fighter he used to be." Worse, his quick loss in the second fight created suspicion of corruption.

In reality, Liston was still a formidable fighter and highly ranked contender at the end of his career, having won 15 of his last 16 bouts, 14 by knockout.

BoxRec ranks Liston as among the 10 best heavyweights in the world in 15 different years (1954–1956 and 1958–1969), placing him at No.1 from 1958 to 1962 and the fourth greatest of all time. Ring magazine ranked him as the tenth greatest heavyweight of all time, while boxing writer Herb Goldman ranked him second and Sports Illustrated placed him third. Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster ranked him the sixth greatest boxer of all time, pound for pound. In his book, The Gods of War, Springs Toledo argued that Liston, when at his peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, could be favored to beat just about every heavyweight champion in the modern era with the possible exception of Muhammad Ali. This view is shared by boxing writer Frank Lotierzo who ranks Liston as one of the top 5 heavyweights of all time and possibly the best. Liston and Ali were both inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Ali, in his autobiography, stated that in his prime the only two boxers who would have caused him serious trouble were "Ezzard Charles and a young Sonny Liston".

In popular culture
Calypsonian Lord Melody recorded a song entitled "Clay Vs Liston", which was released as a single in 1965. The song's lyrics deal with the first fight between the two. The song appeared on the 1994 CD compilation Precious Melodies.

Ali, a film by director Michael Mann, was released in 2001. Will Smith was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his portrayal of Ali. Former boxer Michael Bentt played Liston.

Robert Townsend directed a 2008 film about Liston entitled Phantom Punch. Ving Rhames starred as Liston, and Andrew Hinkson portrayed Ali.

A wax model of Liston appears in the front row of the iconic sleeve cover of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He is seen in the far left part of the row, wearing a white and gold robe, standing beside the original-look Beatles wax figures.

As a homage to Sonny Liston, a bronze copy of a marble statue made by Alfred Hrdlicka in 1963/64 was put up in 2008 between Old Castle and Karlsplatz in downtown Stuttgart, Germany.

In NCIS, director Leon Vance, a former boxer, has a framed photo in his office of Ali gloating over the floored Liston at the end of the second fight. In "Last Man Standing", he discusses the photo with Gibbs and mentions the fixing allegations.

A play entitled One Night in Miami opened in 2013. It tells the story of the night Ali—then Cassius Clay—beat Liston to take the World Heavyweight Championship. It takes place in a hotel room after the fight where Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X talk about their lives and their hopes for the future. A film adaptation of the play was released in 2020.

The Mad Men episode "The Suitcase" from Season 4 revolves around the second fight, with Don Draper creating a commercial inspired by the famous photo.

title: Muhammad Ali vs. Sonny Liston


text:
Nissan FM platform

The Nissan FM platform is a FR automobile layout. The name is derived from the "front midships" location of the engine, with its center of mass located behind the front axle centerline, shifting weight to the middle of the car, leaving the front suspension less encumbered. The engine is pushed as far back to the firewall as possible, creating a weight distribution close to 50:50 and enabling the front wheels to be placed close to the corners  for better handling. This platform debuted with the 2001 V35-series Infiniti G-series/Nissan Skyline, and was then used as the basis of nearly all of Nissan's rear and all-wheel drive applications. The platform was revised for use in the JDM Nissan Fuga/USDM Infiniti M35/45, being stretched in wheelbase and reinforced for additional torsional rigidity, a version referred to as the "enhanced FM" platform. The GT-R is built on Nissan's Premium Midship (PM) platform, an evolution of the Front Midship (FM) architecture.

 * Applications (FM Platform)
 * Infiniti G35/Nissan Skyline V35-series
 * Infiniti G25/G35/G37/Infiniti Q40/Nissan Skyline V36-series
 * Infiniti Q50/Nissan Skyline V37-series
 * Infiniti Q60 CV36-series
 * Infiniti Q60 CV37-series
 * Infiniti M35/M45/Nissan Fuga Y50-series
 * Infiniti M25/M37/M56/M35h/M30D/M25L/M35HL/M37L/M56L/Infiniti Q70/Q70L/Nissan Fuga/Nissan Cima Y51-series
 * Infiniti EX/Infiniti QX50/Nissan Skyline Crossover J50-series
 * Infiniti FX S50-series
 * Infiniti FX/Infiniti QX70 S51-series
 * Mitsubishi Proudia BY51-series
 * Mitsubishi Dignity BHGY51-series
 * Nissan 350Z Z33-series
 * Nissan 370Z Z34-series
 * Nissan Z RZ34-series
 * Nissan Stagea M35-series

 * Applications (PM Platform)

 * Nissan GT-R R35-series (PM platform)

title: Nissan FM platform


text:
Robert Key (cricketer)

Robert William Trevor Key (born 12 May 1979) is an English former cricketer and cricket commentator who played international cricket in all formats for England and domestic cricket for Kent County Cricket Club. He is the current managing director of the England Cricket team.

A right-handed opening batsman, Key made appearances at age-group level for Kent from the age of eleven, moving up until he made his first-class debut in 1998. He made eight first-class and four List A appearances for England's youth sides, and was a member of the side that won the 1998 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. Following a season of heavy run-scoring, Key was called up to the England A side in 1999.

Following an injury to Marcus Trescothick, Key made his Test debut against India in 2002. He toured Australia during the 2002–03 Ashes series, where he justified his selection ahead of a more experienced player. His One Day International debut came in 2003, against Zimbabwe, however he was dropped from both squads shortly after. Injury to Mark Butcher allowed Key back into the England side for the series against the West Indies in 2004. He scored his maiden Test hundred in the first match of the series, which later became his maiden first-class double century as he scored 221. This performance, coupled with the 93 he scored in the third Test, earned him recognition as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year. Key's last Test matches came during England's tour of South Africa during 2004–05, where he managed to score 152 runs without being consistent, and despite a one-match return during the 2009 ICC World Twenty20, he has remained on the fringes of selection.

Key became Kent captain following the 2006 English cricket season, following David Fulton's resignation. He led Kent to a County Championship 2nd Division Championship title in 2010, two Twenty20 Cup Finals Day appearances and a Friends Provident Trophy final. He resigned as Kent captain following the 2012 English cricket season and James Tredwell became club captain. Key only had one season off as captain as Tredwell then himself resigned and Key was named as his replacement, captaining the county for another two years until the end of the 2015 season.

In April 2016, Key announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Key was a regular commentator on Sky Sports' TV coverage of county cricket while still a player at Kent, and after retiring he worked as a pundit and commentator for a variety of media outlets, including GTV and SEN. On 17 April 2022, he was appointed as the managing director of the England men's cricket team, stepping down from all of his media commitments.

Early and personal life
Born in East Dulwich, London, to parents Trevor and Lynn, Key was raised in a particularly sporting family: his mother played for Kent's ladies cricket side, his father played club cricket in Derby and his sister Elizabeth played for her junior school side, where she once took a hat-trick. Key himself was a keen all-round sportsman; he also played tennis for Kent.

He attended Worsley Bridge Primary School where the school won both the Bromley area and Kent cricket Cups. His performances led to his inclusion in the county under-elevens, before Alan Ealham, coach of Kent County Cricket Club's youth sides, became his mentor. Later he attended Colfe's School in Lee, London, and Langley Park School for Boys in Beckenham, where he passed ten GCSEs.

Key has often been criticized for his weight, and at one stage early in his career weighed 16 stone before Alec Stewart told him to "buck his ideas up". Key himself said of the matter: "I'll never be the most athletic-looking bloke, but I'm a hell of a lot fitter than I was at 19 or 20."

Key is married to Fleur, with whom he has two children.

Youth and early career
Key played his first matches for Kent's second eleven in 1995, at the age of sixteen. He remained a regular in the second team throughout the 1996 season and first half of the 1997 season, by which time he had hit his first two centuries for a Kent representative side; an unbeaten 146 against Essex's second team, and an unbeaten 139 against Glamorgan's seconds.

Following on from those performances, Key joined the England Under-17 squad for the International Youth Tournament, which was being held in Bermuda. Key's growing reputation as a batsman was greatly enhanced by his performances in this tournament, where he finished with the second highest batting average of anyone at the tournament, scoring 184 runs at an average of 48. Key's performances helped England win the tournament by a single point from Ireland's Under-17s.

Key returned to England for two matches with Kent's second team, before joining up with England's Under-19s for a youth Test series against Zimbabwe's under-19s. In the three Test series, Key made two half-centuries, earning himself a place in the squad for the 1998 Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa. Batting at the top of the order throughout, Key scored a total of 206 runs as England won the tournament, with his best performance coming in the defeat to India, where Key scored 57.

Following a first-class debut against Middlesex at the beginning of the 1998 season, in which Key scored 15, he proceeded to play a near-complete season. He scored his first first-class century against Durham, scoring 101 in an innings victory. He added a second century (115) against Nottinghamshire, before rejoining the England under-19 squad for the series against Pakistan under-19s. He struggled in the one-day series, scoring just 36 runs in three matches, but finished as the top run-scorer in the youth Tests; with 377 at an average of 62.83.

Domestic career
The 1999 season began for Key with a call up to England A's tour of Zimbabwe through January and February. He struggled for runs throughout his five matches on the tour, failing to pass 26 in any innings. In all, Key managed one century in the calendar year, 125 against Somerset, and finished the year with 1,309 runs in all competitions. The 2000 season proved even more disappointing, with just 700 runs at an average of less than 20.

The 2001 English cricket season saw Key's form improve, with him scoring four first-class centuries; including one against the touring Pakistanis. His highest score of the season and career to date would come in the final game—he scored 132 in a rain-affected match against Lancashire. His scoring throughout the season persuaded the national selectors to include him in the National Academy, which went on a winter tour of Australia, where he showed his ability with an innings of 177 against the side's Australian counterparts.

He continued his good form into 2002, where his run-scoring earned him an invitation to play for the Marylebone Cricket Club against the Sri Lankans. He scored 77 in a drawn match, and would later that season make his Test match debut against India. However, following his Test debut, he only passed 50 on one further occasion that year. He would maintain his place in the Test side against Zimbabwe the following year, despite only scoring one innings of note—129 against the Cambridge students. However, after being dropped from the side, Key's form seemed to improve: he scored 140 against Nottinghamshire to set up a Kent victory, and consistently scored around 40 runs per innings for the remainder of the season.

The 2004 English cricket season saw Key hit top form for the first time, scoring a total of 2,486 runs in all competitions. This total included a "majestic" unbeaten 118 in the opening game of the season against Gloucestershire, during which Key did not offer a single chance throughout. He reached the thousand run milestone for the season on 2 June, the earliest date the milestone had been reached since 1978, and went on a run that included five centuries in seven innings. He was then recalled to the England squad for the series against the West Indies, and Key played two key innings: 221 at Lord's, and his second innings 93 not out to win the third Test for England. Following the series Key returned to the domestic scene, and finished the season with two further tons; 131 against both Northamptonshire and Middlesex.

Following the winter international series in South Africa, Key returned to domestic action with Kent. While not having as successful a season as in the previous year, he still scored over 1,500 runs. This included two centuries in the same match against Surrey, during the second of which he shared a county third-wicket record partnership of 323 with Martin van Jaarsveld. At the end of the season, Key was named the new county captain following the resignation of David Fulton, a role he took on in order to help his chances of regaining a place in the England side.

His first season as captain saw his form slide, as Kent's chairman of cricket Graham Johnson related at the end of the season: "His commitment to the team has probably impacted on his own form". Nonetheless, he was given the captaincy of the England A team in their fixture against Pakistan, and led Kent to fifth place in the top tier of the County Championship. The following season saw Key lead Kent to silverware, whilst returning to some of his best form. He struck a total of eight centuries, and amassed a total of 2,267 runs in all competitions, whilst also leading Kent to the finals day of the 2007 Twenty20 Cup, in which Kent defeated Sussex and Gloucestershire to claim the trophy. However, Key was later found guilty of "serious dissent" following his controversial dismissal in the final.

He continued his run-scoring into 2008, where he scored an unbeaten 178 against the touring New Zealanders to "lift himself firmly into the Test reckoning". Following Michael Vaughan's resignation as England captain, Key was touted by the some in the media as a potential candidate for the job. However, the season ended badly for Key, as under his captaincy Kent were relegated to the second tier of the County Championship for the first time, with Key also being fined £1,250 for comments he made over an ECB pitch panel decision in August.

Key took his first wicket in first-class cricket on the final day of Kent's draw with Northamptonshire at the start of the 2009 season. He went on to score 1,209 runs that season, with four centuries including a career-best 270*, at 50.37 runs per innings. It was the sixth time he had passed one thousand runs in a season. He came close to beating this score the following season when, on 17 May 2010, he scored 261 against Durham. He had, until that match, struggled with the bat—averaging only 14.30 in the County Championship.

He announced his retirement from the game on 18 April 2016, citing his desire to not "hinder younger players [coming through]" and focus on coaching and his role with Sky Sports as a television pundit.

India in England, 2002
Key made his Test match debut in the second Test against India in 2002, as a replacement for Marcus Trescothick, who had broken his thumb. Chairman of selectors David Graveney said Key was selected because of his "outstanding form for Kent after attending the National Academy" over the winter. Opening the batting with Michael Vaughan, Key made 17 runs in his only innings before being bowled by Ashish Nehra. Retained in the side for the third Test, Key managed scores of 30 and 34 as England succumbed to an innings defeat. However, his performance was marred by him dropping three catches. Key was dropped from the fourth and final Test, with Trescothick replacing him having been rushed back from injury.

England in Australia, 2002–03
After success in domestic cricket and promise shown in his Test appearances previously, Key was selected as part of the squad to play Australia. Despite playing well in a limited overs match against an ACB Chairman's XI; hitting 68, he was not selected to play in the first Test, instead acting as twelfth man. He ended up fielding to a greater extent than he would have imagined, after Simon Jones ruptured knee ligaments while fielding, and took no further part in the match.

Brought back into the side for the second Test for the injured John Crawley, Key made a solitary run in the first innings, batting at number three, before being caught off the bowling of Shane Warne just after the lunch break. Relegated to number five in the second innings, with Mark Butcher and Nasser Hussain batting ahead of him, he again made just one before being caught off Andy Bichel.

Key fared better in the third match, played at the WACA Ground in Perth. On a pitch with "exceptional bounce and pace", Key was the only English batsman to keep his wicket intact for a prolonged period, batting passively for 47, the highest score of the innings. He then caught Brett Lee at third man in Australia's only innings, before offering Hussain "stout support" in making 23 second time around. England lost the Test match by an innings and 48 runs, a result that ensured that Australia retained the Ashes.

Following a break for the first part of the VB Series of One Day Internationals, England moved to Melbourne for the fourth Test. Unfortunately for Key, he fell for a duck in the first innings, trapped leg before wicket (lbw) second ball by fast bowler Brett Lee. With England following on, Key made a maiden half-century to ensure Australia had to bat again. He eventually fell just after the new ball was taken, caught at second slip for 52.

The final Test, played at the Sydney Cricket Ground, saw England attempting to avoid a series whitewash. Key scored three runs in England's first innings, before falling lbw to an innocuous half-volley from Steve Waugh, playing in his last Ashes Test. He scored 14 in his final innings of the tour, before being caught at midwicket, however England had nearly 350 runs on the board by that stage and were on track to complete a consolatory victory. The 2004 edition of the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack recorded that Key had "justified his selection ahead of an older player, like Mark Ramprakash, but did not cement his place".

Zimbabwe and South Africa in England, 2003
Despite a low-scoring start to the 2003 English cricket season, in which he passed 40 only once in his first seven innings of the season, he kept his place in the Test side for the visit of the touring Zimbabweans. Batting at number five in both Tests, Key failed to make much of an impact, scoring 18 runs in the first match and four in the second. He had reason to feel aggrieved at his first Test dismissal—umpire Steve Bucknor gave him out caught behind, despite Key not hitting the ball.

His inclusion in the One Day International (ODI) squad for the following NatWest Series against Zimbabwe and South Africa owed more to the lack of available players than his own form; he had only passed 40 on one occasion going into the series. Key made his ODI debut against Zimbabwe in the opening match of the tournament; he scored 11 before falling to the left-arm spin of Ray Price. Key only played one more match in the series; against South Africa he fell for a golden duck taking a "wild swing" at the first ball he received from Makhaya Ntini. Following England's qualification into the final of the tournament, Key was released from the squad "to have some match-practice in the longer form of the game ahead of the Test series" against South Africa. However, Key did not make an appearance in the series.

West Indies in England, 2004
Key returned to the Test match side after an excellent start to the 2004 season. He reached 1,000 runs for the season by 2 June, the earliest date the milestone had been reached for 16 years, and had a run of five centuries in seven innings. However, his limited-overs form was not as good—he passed fifty only once all season. Despite this, he was called into the squad for the NatWest Series against the West Indies and New Zealand.

Key's series began with the fifth match of the tournament; against the West Indies at Headingley. With England chasing 160 to win, Key came in at 55 for one, but scored just six before being bowled by Dwayne Bravo. His only other appearance came against New Zealand towards the end of the group stage—Key scored 18 and was playing well before being caught behind.

His place in the Test side was ensured after Mark Butcher pulled out, having been hit from behind in his car and sustaining a whiplash injury. Key took the opportunity, moving toward a maiden Test century with what Wisden described as "powerful driving and pulling". He was dropped twice—Chris Gayle parried an opportunity with Key on 16, while Devon Smith failed to dismiss him when on 58. Key maintained his concentration throughout, even after meeting the Queen in a presentation during the tea interval. He brought up his century with a boundary off the bowling of Fidel Edwards, and by the end of the first day had reached 167 not out. He continued positively on the second day, and brought up his maiden double century with four through square leg off Pedro Collins. He was eventually dismissed when he "slashed a wide ball to Brian Lara at backward point", having made 221. In the second innings, he was run out by his captain Michael Vaughan, who went on to score his second century of the match.

The second Test saw Key struggling in the corridor of uncertainty, a characteristic highlighted by Collins, who beat the bat on several occasions before finding the edge to dismiss him. His second innings lasted just seven balls before Key "chipped a simple catch to mid-on", having scored just four.

Key's most valuable innings, according to Wisden, came in the third Test. Despite only scoring six runs in the first innings, Key came to the crease for his second innings with England requiring another 216 runs to take a 3–0 lead in the series. Initially batting with Michael Vaughan, and then with Andrew Flintoff, Key scored an unbeaten 93 to guide England to their target, which was a record fourth innings total to win an Old Trafford Test. His series came to an end when he scored ten runs, in England's ten-wicket victory in the final Test.

Key's performances in the series and his domestic form earned him recognition—he was named as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Year in the 2005 edition.

England in South Africa, 2004–05
Following on from his performances during the series against the West Indies, Key was taken on England's tour of South Africa over the English close-season. However, with Mark Butcher returning to the side following injury, Key lost his place. This was despite him scoring 87 in a warm-up game against a Nicky Oppenheimer XI, a match in which Butcher had scored just six. Returning to the side for the third Test after Butcher had sustained a wrist injury, Key made a duck in the first innings, before "defending resolutely" in accumulating 41 before being stumped charging Nicky Boje.

The fourth Test, played at the Wanderers, saw Key hit 83, in a partnership of 182 with Andrew Strauss that Wisden described as including "hard-hitting support from Key". He added a further eighteen to his match tally in the second innings, a contribution which helped England to an eventual victory. Key returned single figure scores of one and nine in his two innings in the final Test, being dismissed by Shaun Pollock on both occasions in a rain-affected draw.

ICC World Twenty20
Key briefly returned to international cricket for the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 competition, playing his only Twenty20 International match against the Netherlands during the tournament as a replacement for the injured Kevin Pietersen. He scored 10 not out from eight balls in a match where the Netherlands successfully chased their target from the final ball.

Test matches
Records:
 * Lord's Cricket Ground second wicket partnership record: 291 with Andrew Strauss, 2004 v West Indies
 * Wanderers Stadium second wicket partnership record: 182 with Andrew Strauss, 2004–05 v South Africa

Test centuries:

Career performances:

One Day Internationals
Career performances:

Director of England cricket team
On 17 April 2022, he was appointed as the managing director of the England men's cricket team, stepping down from all of his media commitments. He appointed Brendon McCullum as the coach of the Test Team, who instigated a more attacking form of play coined by the media as "Bazball".

title: Robert Key (cricketer)