And yet, outside of boxing, L So I went down. Time magazine said Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. Emily Post would probably recommend a ticker-tape parade. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. With the proceeds, he traveled to St. Louis to live with his mother. [59], Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. The fight quickly descended into chaos. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. 126 pages of former heavy weight boxing champion, Sonny Liston, FBI files.. Charles "Sonny" Liston was born in 1932, into a family where he became one of twenty-five children. It's widely accepted that Liston, a former heavyweight boxing champ, died from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970. When Walcott got back to Liston and looked at the knockdown timekeeper, Francis McDonough, to pick up the count, Liston had fallen back on the canvas. After a rough upbringing, with little formal education, Liston found himself in trouble with the law. Wepner, who also fought George Foreman and went 15 rounds with Ali before being knocked out (that fight was Stallones inspiration for Rocky), said after his career was over that Liston was by far the hardest puncher he faced. He said it was taught to him by comedian and film actor Stepin Fetchit, who learned it from Jack Johnson. He also had a reputation for bullying people such as porters and waitresses. It's a terrible matchup. He was hardly leading a life of health and fitness. The bout was stopped after the ninth round due to cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. "Sonnyboyliston | Race Record & Form | Racing Post", "Moonfire (1972), a film by Michael Parkhurst -Theiapolis", NYSAC World Heavyweight Champion - BoxRec, Lyrics to a song about Liston by Mark Knopfler, FBI Records: The Vault - Charles Sonny Liston, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonny_Liston&oldid=1137950795, International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees, 20th-century African-American sportspeople, Articles with unsourced statements from February 2016, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2016, Pages with login required references or sources, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Hackman, Timothy. Fifty years ago this week, Liston was discovered dead by his wife, Geraldine, on a bed in his Las Vegas home. "He would do everything to avoid taking shots." Liston's death four decades ago was. [citation needed], Liston competed in the 1953 United States National Championships at Boston Garden and passed the preliminaries, stopping Lou Graff in the second round on April 13, but lost in the quarterfinals to 17-year-old Jimmy McCarter on April 15. A dominant contender of his era, he became the world heavyweight champion in 1962 after knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round, repeating the knockout the following year in defense of the title; in the latter fight he also became the inaugural WBC heavyweight champion. [39] Leading up to the fight, Liston was an 85 betting favorite, although many picked Patterson to win. [10] His family, but not one Charles (or Sonny) Liston, can be found in the 1930 census, and in the 1940 census he was listed as 10 years old. The rematch between . 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. Boston: Little, Brown. Liston injured his shoulder early in the 1964. He was also seeking to prove himself after his two embarrassing and suspicious losses to Ali. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. He was 6ft 1in (1.85m), and had an exceptionally powerful physique, with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches (2.13m). According to Liston's trainer, Willie Reddish, Liston cancelled a planned tour to Africa in 1963 because he refused to get the required inoculations. Writer Jack McKinney said, "I watched Sonny. 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. Wepner, who also fought George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, said after his career was over that Liston was the hardest puncher he faced. The coroner said that there was not a lethal amount of heroin discovered in Listons system during the autopsy, but authorities still attributed his death to an accidental drug overdose even though police on the scene could not locate any drug paraphernalia that Liston presumably would have needed to inject the fatal dose Such as a spoon to cook the heroin, or a tourniquet to wrap around his arm, or maybe a needle that he was fucking terrified of. Patterson wanted a chance to redeem himself, so they met again on July 22, 1963, in Las Vegas. Because of that, the dealers may have thought Sonny ratted on them and they shot him with a hot dose as retribution. A few years before Tocco died, he allegedly told one of his good friends, Tony Davi, that he went to Liston's house and found the door locked and his car in the driveway. [50] He is a relatively elementary, one-track fighter.". Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c.1930 December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. But others contend he just was not the same Liston. Sonny Liston. Rough N' Rowdy 20 LIVE From The Charleston Coliseum | Friday 8PM ET, Barstool Sportsbook has arrived in PA, MI, IL, IN, CO, VA, NJ, TN, AZ, IA, WV, LA, KS, MD, OH, Best Influencer Marketplace for Advertisers, Best Influencer Marketplace for Influencers & Creators, Best Influencer Marketplace for Agents & Agencies, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Naploetana - Chestnut Hill. and he was pointing at some little bandage over the needle mark in his arm. Rogin discounted speculation that Patterson had thrown the fight, writing: "The genesis of all this wide-eyed theorizing and downright baloney was the fact that many spectators failed to see the knockout blows. [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. Boxer Sonny Liston ducks and covers up as Cassius Clay aims a right at him during their title fight. Subsequently, Liston spent some months in Denver where a Catholic priest who acted as his spiritual adviser attempted to help bring his drinking under control. A couple weeks later, he was still complainin' about that needle mark. February 25, 1964. Sonny Liston existed, and, Ali bouts or no Ali bouts, he was one of the greatest fighters to ever lace on a glove. Also in 1970, Liston appeared on an episode of the TV series Love, American Style and in a television commercial for Braniff Airlines with Andy Warhol.[12][102]. Clay confessed later he had been hurt by the punch, but Liston was unable to press his advantage home. He returned with four consecutive knockout victories in Sweden between July 1966 and April 1967, all four co-promoted by former world heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson. Both fights were in Summerlin's hometown of Detroit.[23]. After some run-ins with the law near St Louis, Liston moved to Philly and picked up a new manager in 1958: another mafia guy named Joseph "Pep" Barone, who was a front man for mobsters Frankie Carbo and Frank "Blinky" Palermo. "He told me in the strictest confidence, but it was like he wanted to get it off his chest." He'd often told people that he'd feared for his life.. And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, back up, baby. Geraldine called Liston's attorney and his doctor, but did not notify the police until two to three hours later. And (4) Liston was supposed to take a dive when he fought Chuck Wepner 6 months earlier, and killing him was payback for his failure to do so. Biographer Wilfrid Sheed wrote in his book, Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs, that Clay's protests were heard by ringside members of the Nation of Islam who initially suspected Dundee had blinded his fighter, and that the trainer deliberately wiped his own eyes with the corner sponge to demonstrate to Clay's approaching bodyguards that he had not intentionally blinded him. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine-month sentence, and was not prohibited from boxing during 1957. Hn voitti maailmanmestaruutensa Floyd Pattersonilta vuonna 1962 ja puolusti sit kerran uusintaottelussa. Liston is a Hall of Famer. Liston would keep Frazier out of range with that monster of a jab which was better than Foreman's! All rights reserved. After he won the title, Liston relocated to Denver permanently, saying, "I'd rather be a lamppost in Denver than the mayor of Philadelphia. When he moved to town here he Felix later said Clay was seconds from being disqualified. In 2013 the son of a deceased mafia hitman published a book claiming that his father confessed to murdering Liston via forced drug overdose. [73] The bout was stopped after the ninth round due to cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. "[82] Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. Sonny Liston Born to an Arkansas tenant farmer named Tobe Liston and his second wife, Helen, Charles L. Liston was one of twenty-five children. In fact, Sonny Liston had not been right for a long time, and not only for the strangely dual life he had been leadingspells of choirboy abstinence squeezed between binges of drinking and. I want to prove to the world there's dirty work afoot.' When Liston died, with heroin found in his system, there was speculation that he'd committed suicide while some thought he'd been murdered. At one point, Clay was wiping his eyes with his right hand while extending his left arm"like a drunk leaning on a lamppost" Bert Sugar wroteto keep Liston at bay. In his sixth bout, he faced ranked heavyweight Johnny Summerlin (18-1-2) on national television and won in an eight-round decision. Liston retired in his corner due to an inflamed shoulder. Two of the three official scorers, or judges, awarded the round to Liston, and the other scored the round even. interview with Alex Haley in Muhammad Ali by Thomas Hauser. In that same book Liston was quoted two years after the fight: "Ali knocked me down with a sharp punch. [19], On June 23, 1953, a team consisting of ten recent St. Louis Golden Gloves champions of all weight classes, with Liston on top as the heavyweight, was gathered to represent the United States in an International Golden Gloves (USA vs. West Europe) competition at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. Who needed that? Young Muhammad Ali, then known as Cassius Clay, knocked out opponent Sonny Liston for his first world title in boxing on this day in history, Feb. 25, 1964. "[18], After Liston was released from prison on October 31, 1952, he had a brief amateur career that spanned less than a year. [86] Former light-heavyweight champion Jose Torres said, "I have never met an athlete in baseball, basketball or football who is smarter, more intelligent than Sonny Liston". Tocco called the police, and they broke into the house. [42], Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. Boxing Record [25][26], In 1960 Liston won five more fights, including a rematch with Williams, who lasted only two rounds. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. Others have said he may have been murdered in some sort of mob killing. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former world heavyweight champion, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Although the opening round saw Clay largely on the defensive, it was soon established that Clay could reverse roles quickly and take to the offensive with a remarkably fast series of combinations delivered to Liston's head. Shaun Assael. His baleful, obsidian stare intimidates fighters, sportswriters and. But the year of Sonny's birth, like the circumstances of his death, remain a mystery. Three days before the fight, Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. The Devil and Sonny Liston is a biography of world heavyweight champion boxer Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches. Stuttgarter Amtsblatt No. As the years passed and Liston's financial situation worsened, he got angry and told the mob he'd go public with the story unless they gave him the money. Sonny couldnt read or write because his father worked him in the fields from the time he could walk Years later, he got his wife to teach him how to sign his name just so he could give it to kids who asked him for it his autograph. "[78] While much has been written about the effectiveness of his left jab, others have commented favorably on Liston's wide range of boxing skills. Also, McDonough did not bang on the canvas or motion a number count with his fingers. His fists measured 15 inches around, which was the largest of any heavyweight champion. "[54] Hall of Fame matchmaker Teddy Brenner also disputed the shoulder injury, claiming he saw Liston use the same arm to throw a chair in his dressing room after the match. Twenty-two-year-old Clay achieved. 2023 Barstool Sports. He had the whole package. Born in Forrest City, Arkansas, sometime in the late 1920s and early. Clay countered in verse, "If you want to lose your money, then bet on Sonny! Liston was supremely confident of easily beating Clay, trained minimally for the fight and went ahead with it despite an injury to his left shoulder.[44]. And in 1961 . He's like Foreman except stronger, more powerful, and slightly smaller. The second round saw Liston continue to pursue Clay. In five months, Sonny Liston had gone from unknown ex-con to amateur champion. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. And, while Patterson was growing as a fighter, Sonny was taking on mostly journeyman and starting to age. "[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 father, Tobe Liston, was in his mid 40s when he and his wife, Helen Baskin, who was almost 30 years younger than Tobe, moved to Arkansas from Mississippi in 1916. [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. O n January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston, the former heavyweight champion of the world, was found dead in his home in Las Vegas. Sonny Liston, once the heavyweight champ, died at the age of who-knows-what some days before Dec. 30, 1970. Name: Sonny Liston Birth Year: 1932 Birth date: May 8, 1932 Birth State: Arkansas Birth City: St Francis County Birth Country: United States Gender: Male Best Known For: Sonny Liston was. Sonny Liston FBI Files. Liston was knocked down in the first round, but came back to control the next two rounds and had Griffin hanging on at the end. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. "[69] The fact that Liston did not complain about the clear breach of boxing rules (being declared knocked out without a count) and Ali's obvious state of bewilderment, shouting at Liston "Nobody will believe this" and asking his handlers "Did I hit him? "But they'll have to swing along until somebody comes to beat me. Listons last fight as a professional was against Chuck The Bayonne Bleeder Wepner He was given that nickname because his eye would open up during the National Anthem. As the years passed and Liston's financial situation worsened, he got angry and told the mob he'd go public with the story unless they gave him the money. Death April 29, 2016 - Carrhubane Beg, Limerick, Ireland. ", Chuck Wepner on Liston's intimidating appearance. "[35] However, in 1963 in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Liston broke off a European boxing exhibition tour to return home and was quoted as saying he was "ashamed to be in America. Some found it suspicious that authorities could not locate any drug paraphernalia that Liston presumably would have needed to inject the fatal dose, such as a spoon to cook the heroin or a tourniquet to wrap around his arm. [15] In 1946, Helen Baskin, along with some of her children, moved to St. Louis to seek factory work. Liston tried going to school but quickly left after jeers about his illiteracy; the only employment he could obtain was sporadic and exploitative. In 2013 the son of a deceased mafia hitman published a book claiming that his father confessed to murdering Liston via forced drug overdose. [22], Early in his career, Liston faced capable opponents. "But they'll have to swing along until somebody comes to beat me.". Sports Illustrated writer Gilbert Rogin wrote that "that final left hook crashed into Patterson's cheek like a diesel rig going downhill, no brakes." That got him killed. [citation needed] At this time, the head coach of the St. Louis Golden Gloves team, Tony Anderson, stated that Liston was the strongest fighter he had seen. Fans rejected Liston after he won the heavyweight title over Floyd Patterson in 1962. We had a return bout clause with Clay, but if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? I know it", Liston said afterward. It was 55 years ago that the world's attention focused on Lewiston, Maine, for a world heavyweight boxing title fight. He was found dead in his Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971 Six months after the Wepner fight. In the 2020 film One Night in Miami, Liston is played by Aaron D. Alexander. "[59], Liston is ranked second in the ESPN.com list of "The Hardest Hitters in Heavyweight History. The opening round was fought an extra eight seconds, since both fighters and referee Barney Felix apparently did not hear the bell. Liston had a noticeably more muscular left arm, but fought orthodox Meaning his power hand was out front, so he had this crushing left jab and powerful left hook. He also cited medical evidence: "A team of eight doctors inspected Liston's arm at St. Francis Hospital in Miami Beach and agreed that it was too badly damaged for Liston to continue fighting. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston was born in St. Francis County, Arkansas, to Tobe Liston and Helen Baskin. Convention Center, Winchester, Nevada, U.S. Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Municipal Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Midwest Gymnasium, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Pittsburgh Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. New Masonic Temple, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Motor City Arena, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Sources vary on his reach, with some listing it as 80in, Reputations: Sonny Liston: The Champion Nobody Wanted (2001), 50 min, BBC Documentary, Mailer: A Biography By Mary V. Dearborn, page 186. In 1950, Liston was arrested at his apartment at 1006 O'Fallon Street for robbing the Unique Cafe on 1502 Market Street in St. Louis for 37 dollars. Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. 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. (12) 7.3 1 h 29 min 2019 18+. Daniel 'Sonny' Liston is on Facebook. Because of that, Cage may have thought Sonny was an informant and shot him with a hot dose as retribution. This was his first visit. "[75], Future world heavyweight champion George Foreman, who sparred with Liston after Foreman's amateur career, assessed Liston's jab as the most formidable he faced and Liston as the strongest man he encountered in the ring, describing Liston as having the most natural talent and skill. [56] Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. America's first look at Liston since the Ali rematch was when he fought fifthranked Henry Clark in a nationally broadcast bout in July 1968. As the famous photo portrays, Ali taunted the fallen Liston, calling on him to get up. [55], There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight.

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