and after the second Liston fight, Ali decked other big, strong heavyweights with the exact same punch. Another example would be when Ali stopped on a dime and decked Cleveland "Big Cat" Williams with that short, chopping punch. Clearly, Ali had a lot of adrenaline flowing when he was demandin that Sonny get up and fight.
There is a bit more than a grain of truth to the Fetchit-Johnson story, but not a lot. (smile) The anchor punch is simply that quick stop, with the movement having grounded your weight onto your right foot briefly, then shifting it forward while throwing the right cross. It is far more likely to simply stun, eeven deck the opponent. But the others that Ali had & would hit with it got up, and took a further beating.
A sort story: before my last amateur fight, while heading to the gym for my final sparring, I told my brother-in-law that I planned to deck my older brother, then a professional fighter. My brother had annoyed me the day before, likely a combination of my getting the pre-fight grumpiness, and being Irish brothers. Anyhow, I had extraordinary footwork, and in the second round, caught him with an anchored punch, sending him sprawling. I did an Ali shuffle as others in the gym watched, thus making my brother mad. Shortly after getting up and continueing, he thumbed me in the eye. I still think that was on purpose. It made that fight against a rangey southpaw a bit more difficult, but I won.
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