liston got nailed both times, but in the second fight, when he took a real punch , he decided to quit early...quitting is not taking a dive...
as to liston's alleged beastly strength, that was mostly a white fable...he was tough and he hit hard, but so could many other fighters...
much of the ballyhoo about his unbeatable animal nature was sportswriter garbage, with quite a bit of racist crap thrown in...in fact, he was no bigger than ali, whose speed and quickness was too much for him...
and every other fighter he met, in his prime, before the bastards took his title away ...
fs