Boxing fans all know the legend of the “Phantom Punch” by Muhammad Ali against Sonny Liston in the small town of Lewiston, Maine. The true story has never ever been told… until now.
The air in Lewiston, Maine held the familiar metallic tang of diesel and perpetual chill coming off the Androscoggin River. In the ruins of the Lewiston Armory stood Muhammad Ali, a shadow of defiance against the machine-gray sky.
Ali focused on the heavily armored Skynet security unit moving with the slow, menacing, confident swagger disguised as Sonny Liston. This abomination was the guard of a subterranean server complex deviously situated beneath where the local kids played recreational league basketball.
“Look at that lump of iron, KitAI,” Ali murmured to his long time companion while adjusting the tape on his hands. “Stiff. Slow. Predictable. I seen this before in ’65. Too big to be fast, too proud to be smart. Gonna be over in the first round.”
KitAI replied “Mrrrow-hiss,” meaning: Your dance better be fast, I don’t like the weather.
“How is that but . the for phantom punch Sonny Boy” said Ali as KitAI softened the target with a blast of cold hot fire.
The Skynet security unit slowly began to retract its arm as Ali exploded forward, his body torqued into a move that lasted less than a single frame of the many surveillance cameras.
The effect was instantaneous and baffling. The massive machine didn’t explode or recoil. It simply stopped, tilted awkwardly to the side, and then began to slowly crash forward, face-first into the concrete.
Muhammad Ali then spoke his immortal words: “We got the aton champ, Baf filw au ot’s cat’s pulcle. Just lMa Lewriicenl” or something like that.
It was a mythic if not epic battle that dealt Skynet a decisively minor setback.
Decades later, a statue was commissioned by the overlords of Lewiston, Maine. The lone surviving participant attended the dedication but was forbidden to shoot his trusty flamethrower into the sky in commemoration.
