“Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland
The two championship bouts between Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali in 1964 and 1965 are among some of the most controversial events in the history of boxing. While their significance has been interpreted in the United States against the backdrop of the Civil Rights era, this article opens up a pathwa...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
CBS Open Journals
2021-04-01
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| Series: | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| Online Access: | https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/view/6225 |
| _version_ | 1797805626982662144 |
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| author | Benita Heiskanen Hannu Salmi |
| author_facet | Benita Heiskanen Hannu Salmi |
| author_sort | Benita Heiskanen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
The two championship bouts between Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali in 1964 and 1965 are among some of the most controversial events in the history of boxing. While their significance has been interpreted in the United States against the backdrop of the Civil Rights era, this article opens up a pathway for discussing transnational meanings and functions that African American heavyweight champions assumed in faraway lands, such as Finland. Contextualized within a Transnational American Studies research paradigm, the article considers the multiple ways in which Finnish media reporting made sense of and imposed significance on transnational sporting culture in the 1960s. The article argues that prizefighting served as a lens through which reporters negotiated Euro-American relations, national identity, and the global spread of professional sports at the expense of amateurism. In addition to providing a site for negotiating ethnic and racial differentiation, the primary sources analyzed show the ways in which prizefighting offered a locus for constructing performative, class-based sporting whiteness.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:54:52Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6b0b74a2b61249ab99e8947af68b7870 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 0044-8060 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T05:54:52Z |
| publishDate | 2021-04-01 |
| publisher | CBS Open Journals |
| record_format | Article |
| series | American Studies in Scandinavia |
| spelling | doaj.art-6b0b74a2b61249ab99e8947af68b78702023-06-13T06:48:42ZengCBS Open JournalsAmerican Studies in Scandinavia0044-80602021-04-0153110.22439/asca.v53i1.6225“Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s FinlandBenita HeiskanenHannu Salmi The two championship bouts between Sonny Liston and Muhammad Ali in 1964 and 1965 are among some of the most controversial events in the history of boxing. While their significance has been interpreted in the United States against the backdrop of the Civil Rights era, this article opens up a pathway for discussing transnational meanings and functions that African American heavyweight champions assumed in faraway lands, such as Finland. Contextualized within a Transnational American Studies research paradigm, the article considers the multiple ways in which Finnish media reporting made sense of and imposed significance on transnational sporting culture in the 1960s. The article argues that prizefighting served as a lens through which reporters negotiated Euro-American relations, national identity, and the global spread of professional sports at the expense of amateurism. In addition to providing a site for negotiating ethnic and racial differentiation, the primary sources analyzed show the ways in which prizefighting offered a locus for constructing performative, class-based sporting whiteness. https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/view/6225 |
| spellingShingle | Benita Heiskanen Hannu Salmi “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland American Studies in Scandinavia |
| title | “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland |
| title_full | “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland |
| title_fullStr | “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland |
| title_short | “Lord Save Us from Champions like This”: The Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Heavyweight Championship Bouts as Transnational Sporting Culture in 1960s Finland |
| title_sort | lord save us from champions like this the sonny liston muhammad ali heavyweight championship bouts as transnational sporting culture in 1960s finland |
| url | https://rauli.cbs.dk/index.php/assc/article/view/6225 |
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