After 60 years, Lewiston's place in boxing lore will be cast in bronze

Boston Globe

26-05-2025

At a time when boxing was the sport of kings and championship fights of this caliber were global events,
Ali knocked out Liston
less than two minutes into what is perhaps the most unusual championship boxing match in history.
'I saw the punch,' Platz said. 'I saw him swing.'
Others didn't, and still others wondered if Liston, a heavy favorite, threw the fight, for whatever reason.
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But that was for the pundits to argue over. For Lewiston natives such as Platz and Hewitt, what happened that Tuesday night in May of 1965 was nothing short of a phenomenon, when people all around the world heard of Lewiston for the first time.
The nostalgia wrapped in civic pride on the 50th anniversary convinced Platz, an architect and developer, and Hewitt, an artist, and eventually many others, that Lewiston's moment in history needed to be preserved, forever, in bronze.
They turned to Zenos Frudakis, the Philadelphia-based sculptor known as the Monument Man, to create
Zenos Frudakis stood next to his Muhammad Ali statue in clay.
Frudakis Studio, Inc.
That effort will culminate on Saturday, May 31, six days after the 60th anniversary of the fight, when the Ali statue is unveiled at the entrance to Bates Mill No. 5.
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The symbolism is rich. It was mills such as No. 5 that put Lewiston on the map more than a century ago, attracting thousands of French Canadians to move south and work in the textile and shoe factories along the Androscoggin River.
But those mills started closing in the 1950s, and by the time Muhammad Ali showed up, the decline of the city's industrial base was at full steam.
Platz was heavily involved in efforts to redevelop the old factories, such as those in the Bates Mill Complex that house the Baxter brewing company, one of Lewiston's newest, burgeoning businesses.
'This was always a very diverse community, built by immigrants,' Platz said. 'When the factories started closing, Lewiston had to re-invent itself.'
The Baxter Brewing Co. building on Thursday, March 6 in Lewiston, Maine.
Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
No one represented reinvention more than Ali, the brash fighter from Louisville who shocked mainstream America by converting to Islam and changing his name from Cassius Clay after becoming heavyweight champion in 1964 by defeating Liston
in Miami in their first fight. Ali later shocked even more in 1967 by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, saying, 'I ain't got no quarrel with those Vietcong.'
The rematch was supposed to take place in Boston, at Boston Garden. But Massachusetts officials were wary. Just a few months earlier, Malcolm X, the Black nationalist leader, had been assassinated as part of an internecine feud in the Nation of Islam.
Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali arrived at his training camp in Chicopee, Mass. to launch final preparations for his May 25 title rematch with Sonny Liston in Boston. The match was moved to Lewiston seven days before the event.
AP
Ali had broken with Malcolm X prior to the assassination, and Massachusetts law enforcement and boxing officials feared retaliation at a high-profile bout. Racial tension was high in many cities.
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Just 17 days before the scheduled bout, the fight was moved to Lewiston.
All over the world, boxing fans asked, 'Where is Lewiston?'
But in Lewiston, even as a boy, Platz could sense the energy and optimism the heavyweight title fight brought.
'The excitement was palpable,' he said.
Hewitt remembers thinking of Ali and Liston, stars in the ring who were not embraced by most Americans because they were Black, as symbolizing something else in Lewiston's past.
Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali (Cassius Clay) whispers an aside to Angelo Dundee, his trainer, during a poolside press conference at his quarter in Lewiston nearby Auburn, Maine on May 24, 1965.
Harry Harris/Associated Press
'Ali and Liston, having survived that racial trauma, were a lot closer to the French Canadians, who faced a lot of discrimination when they showed up here in such large numbers,' Hewitt said. 'The KKK was intimidating French Canadians who were coming down to work in the factories. When I was a young man, the narrative I learned was the people of Lewiston didn't like the KKK, that they supported the American spirit, which was that people came to work, and good luck to them.'
St. Dominic's Arena, also known as the Central Maine Youth Center, and now as just the Colisse, held only 4,000, the smallest venue for a championship fight in the modern era.
But whatever it lacked in size, it made up for in gritty character. The
Ali and his wife Sonji gestured at a press conference after his successful title defense in Lewiston, Me., May 25, 1965.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Robert Goulet sang the national anthem, mangling a couple of words.
Prior to the opening bell, boxing royalty mingled inside the ring: Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Floyd Patterson, James Braddock.
The fight was, in the end, anticlimactic. At 1:44 into the first round, Ali landed that phantom right, and Liston went down in a heap.
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Ali stood over the fallen Liston, yelling, 'Get up and fight, sucker!' Liston did get up, but had already been counted out.
That image, of Ali standing over Liston,
Zenos Frudakis with the molds for the Ali statue.
Frudakis Studio, Inc.
The statue of Ali created by Frudakis is more subtle than that angry image of Ali,
Frudakis was commissioned to make the statue before the
'Lewiston has this inner strength,' Frudakis said. 'They can take a punch. They can get knocked down. But they always get up.'
Hewitt believes it's a message that resonates in old mill cities across New England.
'Lewiston represents Fall River, Waterbury, Holyoke, all these towns that have tried to remake themselves,' Hewitt said. 'The thing about Muhammad Ali and these towns, he didn't win every round, but he fought every round. That's like Lewiston.'
Another irony not lost on Hewitt and Platz is that Ali might have been the only one named
Muhammad in Lewiston that night 60 years ago. Now, two decades after Sub-Saharan Africans became the latest wave of immigrants to re-invent Lewiston, Muhammad is a common name in Lewiston.
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'What happened to the French?' Hewitt says. 'They're Somalis now. We get up and keep moving forward.'
Charlie Hewitt's "Hopeful" sign on the side of Bates Mill No. 5 in 2024 where the Ali statue will be unveiled.
Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at