Muhammad Ali-Sonny Liston rivalry Before Cassius Clay took on the name Muhammad Ali, he was a young and brash fighter who worked his way up the ranks. Patterson and Liston had a rematch clause in their contract, so they met again on July 22, 1963, this time in Las Vegas So that was ~ 10 months after their first meeting. The grave's marker-plate bears the dedication: "A Man. Cassius Clay was just 22-years-old when he beat the world champion in a seven round TKO. Official date of death put as December 30. His death was, too. Daniel Liston. World light-heavyweight champion Jos Torres said, "It was a perfect punch." [88] On returning home from a two-week trip, Geraldine had smelled a foul odor emanating from the main bedroom and on entering saw him slumped up against the bed, a broken foot bench on the floor. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 8. toukokuuta 1932 Arkansas (syntymaika ja tarkka paikka kiistanalaisia) - 30. joulukuuta 1970 Las Vegas, Nevada) oli yhdysvaltalainen raskaansarjan nyrkkeilij ja painoluokkansa maailmanmestari. The Real Story behind the Ali-Liston Fights. Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. Liston appears as a character in James Ellroy's novel The Cold Six Thousand. He was not the tear-shedding type.. "Johnny wasn't a braggart," Davi told Liston biographer Paul Gallender. Elizabeth Bear wrote the short story "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall", published in The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2008. Heavyweight champion Charles "Sonny" Liston, winner of 35 of his 36 professional bouts and one of the most intimidating athletes in any sport, was facing a lightly regarded 22-year-old from. Governor John H. Reed of Maine stepped forward, and within a few hours the promoters had a new site: Lewiston, Maine, a mill town with a population of about 41,000 located 140 miles (230km) north of Boston. Liston was a heavy favorite. Sonny Liston was a ferocious fighter, the heavyweight champion of the world and the man Cassius Clay beat to win the title for the first time, igniting his own legend. Patterson, a 4-1 betting underdog, was knocked down three times and counted out at 2:10 of the first round. "[94], A bronze copy of a marble statue of Liston sculpted by Alfred Hrdlicka in 1964 was erected in 2008 between Old Castle and Karlsplatz in Stuttgart, Germany. His defense was described as "the gate-crossing of arms la Archie Moore. Wepner needed 72 stitches and suffered a broken cheekbone and nose And the ref needed a new shirt. At one point, Liston had Clay against the ropes and landed a hard left hook. It's widely accepted that Liston, a former heavyweight boxing champ, died from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970. 9, 1 March 2018, p. 8, New York Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, "Photographic image of 'Tale of the Tape', "Sonny Liston vs. Floyd Patterson (Tale of the tape)", "From THE RING: The greatest heavyweight of all time", "25 Greatest Fighters of All Time (Heavyweight)", "ESPN Classic - Liston was trouble in and out of ring", "Jacob's Beach by Kevin Mitchell: review", "Hard Times, Good Times: Charles "Sonny" Liston - Boxing.com", "Dismayed D'Amato Is Expecting To Get Back Manager's License", "Esquire covers commemorate boxing's prime", "Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston I: 50 Years Later", "Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay (1st meeting) - BoxRec", "1964 Clay vs. Liston Judges' Scorecards from Miami Beach Bout. | Lot #80073 | Heritage Auctions", "Muhammad Ali's Toughest Fight Wasn't Against Joe Frazier", "Fifty Years Later: The Mystery of Muhammad Ali's 'Phantom Punch', "I WAS THERE: George Chuvalo Watches Sonny Liston Take a Dive - YouTube", "Fifty Years Later: The Mystery of Muhammad Ali's 'Phantom Punch' | Boxing News", "Daytona Beach Morning Journal - Google News Archive Search", "Sonny Liston the most talented Heavyweight in history", "George Foreman Discusses Friendship With Sonny Liston", "Sonny Liston: Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy Boxing News", "LOTIERZO'S LOWDOWN Sonny Liston: The Most Underrated Heavyweight Champ In History", "The Most Feared Fighter in Boxing History: Charles 'Sonny' Liston remembered", "Liston KO'd Popular Patterson for Title", "O Unlucky Man: Fortune never smiled on Sonny Liston", "Sonny Liston Meets the Press - Boxing.com", "Like Fights Against Ali, Liston Death a Mystery", "December 30, 1970: Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston", "19 YEARS LATER: Liston Death Remains Mystery to His Friends". What are you doing? [37] Frustrated, Liston changed his management in 1961 and applied pressure through the media by remarking that Patterson, who had faced mostly white challengers since becoming champion, was drawing the color line against his own race. This victory is regarded by some as Liston's most impressive performance. We had a return bout clause with Clay, but if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? Born to a large and impoverished sharecropping family, Charles 'Sonny' Liston probably came into the world four years before his official 1932 birthdate, and his struggle to fashion a real identity would remain with him his whole life. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. Alois Stevens, suggested to Liston that he try boxing, and his obvious aptitude, along with an endorsement from Stevens, who was also a priest, aided Liston in getting an early parole. Sonny Liston, I think was possibly the greatest intimidator of all time. Who needed that? He was 6ft 1in (1.85m), and had an exceptionally powerful physique, with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches (2.13m). A couple weeks later, he was still complainin' about that needle mark. In all, 14 major contenders during his prime refused outright to fight him, the most for any boxer in history. [38], Patterson finally signed to meet Liston for the world title on September 25, 1962, in Comiskey Park in Chicago. Liston was allegedly present at dealer Earl Cage's residence during a raid by narcotics detectives. CU Experts. This Day in History: Young Muhammad Ali Knocks out Sonny Liston for First World Title. "Yes, it was good and honest". Liston. "[42], Liston made his second title defense on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, Florida against Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Liston biographer Paul Gallender claims that Liston fathered several children, though none with his wife. You've seen him before but probably didn't realize it because the most famous photo ever taken of Sonny was not at his best angle More on that in a second. ", Ali clearly did not think he knocked Liston out. The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. The Devil and Sonny Liston is a biography of world heavyweight champion boxer Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches. "From Bad Buck to White Hope: Journalism and Sonny Liston, 19581965. and "Nobody will believe this!"[63]. Liston wins, 10 times out of 10. Underworld connections and his unrecorded dates of birth and death added to the enigma. Sonny Liston ( The Big Bear) was an American professional boxer. His father was 30 years older than his mother. Ali biographer Wilfrid Sheed wrote, in his Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs, that Liston planned to throw the fight for reasons unknown and used the legitimate first-round knockdown for that end. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. You've probably seen it a thousand times, but you may not have known who the poor bastard on the ground was until now. Childhood & Early Life. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. Death April 29, 2016 - Carrhubane Beg, Limerick, Ireland. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. [103], Sonny Liston was featured in a novel "Girl Fighter" with a brief reference to his early life, his rise to WBC heavyweight champion and his eventual losses to Clay/Ali.[104]. Because of the shirt he wore during robberies, the St. Louis police called Liston the "Yellow Shirt Bandit." Cleveland Williams was the last person to defeat Liston and made $100,000 for his efforts. Sports Illustrated writer Mort Sharnik said his hands "looked like cannonballs when he made them into fists." In the third round, Marshall nailed Listonreportedly while he was laughingand broke his jaw. And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, back up, baby. [42], Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. The NAACP had urged Patterson not to fight Liston, fearing that a Liston victory would hurt the civil rights movement. His father Tobe loved to fuck. The bout would need to be delayed by six months. Even Sonny's mother, who was called Big Hela, didn't know, though she believed him to be born during the month of January. John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. "[18] The only backers willing to put up the necessary money for him to turn professional were close to underworld figures, and Liston supplemented his income by working for racketeers as an intimidator-enforcer. . But others contend he just was not the same Liston. [97], "The month before he died, some guy ran into Sonny while he was making a left turn. He walks to the ring with his gloves on the shoulders of his manager, Eddie Polino. Caputo, one of the investigating police officers, "The whole department knew about it." "[35], Patterson and Liston had a rematch clause in their contract. He talked of a fight with Joe Frazier, claiming, "It'd be like shooting fish in a barrel." Liston would keep Frazier out of range with that monster of a jab which was better than Foreman's! . Sonny Liston was born in Sand Slough, Arkansas to a sharecropper, Tobey Liston, who fathered 25 children, the second youngest of whom was Charles, Sonny's real name, born from Tobey's marriage to Helen Baskin, a woman nearly three decades younger than he. "The public is not with me. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. He was a gentle man. "[68], While Liston publicly denied taking a dive, Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram said that years later Liston told him, "That guy [Ali] was crazy. [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. Join Facebook to connect with Daniel 'Sonny' Liston and others you may know. [64] Strict interpretation of the knockdown/count rule states it is the referee's count and not the timekeeper's that is the official count. [32] Ironically, Patterson's manager, Cus D'Amato, associated with racketeers and had his manager's license revoked by the New York State Athletic Commission for alleged misconduct in connection with the Floyd PattersonIngemar Johansson title fight in June 1959. January 5, 2017. Liston angrily responded by questioning whether Dempsey's failure to serve in World War I qualified him to moralize. He died on December 30, 1970 at the age of 38 years. In the third round, Clay began to take control of the fight. [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. Asked by a young white reporter why he was not fighting for freedom in the South, Liston deadpanned, "I ain't got no dog-proof ass. Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him. Sonny was once told by local police to stay away from a drug house that was the target of a police raid. But former Las Vegas police Sgt. All rights reserved. But upon arrival, Liston was met by only a handful of reporters and public-relations staff. [99] (3) The mob promised Liston some money to throw the second Ali fight, but they never paid him. Daniel (Dan) Liston is Professor of Education in the Educational Foundations, Policy and Practice (EFPP) program and in the Curriculum and Instruction (C&I) program. This is just a glimpse into what was. But the year of Sonny's birth, like the circumstances of his death, remain a mystery. ", Liston appeared on the December 1963 cover of Esquire magazine (cover photograph by Carl Fischer) "the last man on earth America wanted to see coming down its chimney".[106]. dan.liston@colorado.edu. Fans rejected Liston after he won the heavyweight title over Floyd Patterson in 1962. While "doing his nickel", the athletic director at Missouri State Penitentiary suggested that Liston try boxing The prison organized sparring sessions and Sonny dominated his incarcerated brethren. Thom Jones titled his 2000 collection of short stories Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. I know it", Liston said afterward. "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! The following year, Sonnydetermined to reunite with his mother and siblingsthrashed the pecans from his brother-in-law's tree and sold them in Forrest City, Arkansas. The Murder of Sonny Liston: A Story of Fame, Heroin, Boxing & Las Vegas Pan publisher; 2017. At age 12, after selling a bag of pecans for bus fare, he left for St. Louis, betting on a brighter future. After the second loss to Ali, Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. Liston captured the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions on March 6, 1953, with a victory over 1952 Olympic Heavyweight Champion Ed Sanders. [60] The extent to which Liston's heavy drinking and possible drug use may have contributed to his surprisingly poor performances against Ali is not known.[15]. [47] Sitting on his stool between rounds, however, Liston was breathing heavily as his cornermen worked on his cut. Born in Forrest City, Arkansas, sometime in the late 1920s and early. Liston's noticeably more muscular left arm, crushing left jab and powerful left hook lent credence to the widely held belief that he was left-handed, although he fought in an orthodox stance. 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