Maybe he was. [27][28], Liston's streak of nine straight knockout victories ended when he won a unanimous twelve-round decision against Eddie Machen on September 7, 1960. [25][26], In 1960 Liston won five more fights, including a rematch with Williams, who lasted only two rounds. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. "I didn't know what the heck was going on", Angelo Dundee, Clay's trainer, recalled on an NBC special 25 years later. [30], Liston became the No. In the 2020 film One Night in Miami, Liston is played by Aaron D. Alexander. Three days before the fight, Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. "[35] Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. Liston's criminal record, compounded by a personal association with a notorious labor racketeer, led to the police's stopping him on sight, and he began to avoid main streets. Mother Bridget Sheehan. John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. [14], Tobe Liston inflicted whippings so severe on Sonny that the scars were still visible decades later. Liston is a Hall of Famer. His father was 30 years older than his mother. . 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]. 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. "Yes, it was good and honest". "[57] Those findings were confirmed in a formal investigation immediately after the fight by Florida State Attorney Richard Gerstein, who also noted that there was little doubt that Liston went into the fight with a sore or lame shoulder. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. His eyes swept the whole scene. He'd often told people that he'd feared for his life.. Although Clay often carried his gloves down at his waist, seemingly open to attack, he proved very difficult to hit. "He was afraid of needles," echoed Father Edward Murphy. Patterson was knocked down three times and counted out at 2:10 of the first round. The Real Story behind the Ali-Liston Fights. ", Chuck Wepner on Liston's intimidating appearance. His death is still a mystery, but Mike Tyson puts flowers on his grave every year at Paradise Memorial Gardensin Las Vegas. Sonny Liston, I think was possibly the greatest intimidator of all time. Boston: Little, Brown. In his sixth bout, he faced ranked heavyweight Johnny Summerlin (18-1-2) on national television and won in an eight-round decision. Two more arrestsfor disorderly conduct and resisting arrest and another for impersonating a copled to Liston being suspended by the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission on July 14, 1961. Muhammad Ali (at the time a rising contender named Cassius Clay), however, predicted a knockout by Liston in the first five rounds. O n January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston, the former heavyweight champion of the world, was found dead in his home in Las Vegas. Certainly Johnson had more going for him than enormous hands. Top contender Zora Folley was stopped in three rounds. 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. 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. and "Nobody will believe this!"[63]. He also took his gun. [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. 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. "[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. You've probably seen it a thousand times, but you may not have known who the poor bastard on the ground was until now. Banker said he was told by police that Liston had been seen at a house that would be the target of a drug raid. Boulder, CO 80309-0249. And Tex Maule of Sports Illustrated wrote, "The blow had so much force it lifted Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was resting, well off the canvas. In his 1965 rematch with Ali, Liston suffered an unexpected first-round knockout that led to unresolved suspicions of a fix. However, David Remnick, for his book King of the World: Muhammad Ali and the Rise of an American Hero, interviewed one of Liston's cornermen, who told him that Liston could have continued: "[The shoulder] was all BS. "[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. Liston, one of 25 children by his father, is reputed to have been born in May 1932, yet prison records show various birth dates, among them 1928. He also wrote that Liston's win over Patterson proved that "in a fair fight between good and evil, evil must win." Muhammad Ali knocked out Sonny Liston in first round. Sit down!' Some writers thought Liston brought bad press on himself by a surly and hostile attitude toward journalists. He said they found Liston lying on his bed with a needle sticking out of his arm. His fists measured 15 inches (38cm) around, the largest of any heavyweight champion. He was a bit of a physical freak He was 6 ft 1 in with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches. [55], There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight. On April 21, 1955, he defeated Marshall in a rematch, dropping him four times en route to a sixth-round knockout. In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. Liston returned to the United States and won seven fights, all by knockout, in 1968, increasing his string to eleven. So I went down. [22], Early in his career, Liston faced capable opponents. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. On May 5, 1956, a policeman confronted Liston and a friend about a cab parked near Liston's home. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab and Ali went over it with a fast right, knocking the former champion down. Now you know who he is Heres how he died. The opening round was fought an extra eight seconds, since both fighters and referee Barney Felix apparently did not hear the bell. "[40][41], Upon winning the world heavyweight title, Liston had a speech prepared for the crowd that friends had assured him would meet him at the Philadelphia airport. 780 46K views 8 years ago Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston's son visits his gravesite. But by the sixth round his sight had cleared, and a clearly enraged Clay fought a blisteringly aggressive round landing numerous combination punches. In his next fight, he had a rematch with Summerlin and again won an eight-round decision. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. [49], Clay later said that in round five he could only see a faint shadow of Liston during most of the round, but by circling and moving frantically he managed to avoid Liston and somehow survive. Wepner needed 72 stitches and suffered a broken cheekbone and nose And the ref needed a new shirt. (2) Professional gambler Lem Banker insists that Liston was murdered by drug dealers with whom he'd become involved. 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. I was down but not hurt, but I looked up and saw Ali standing over me. Patterson defended against Liston in Comiskey Park, Chicago, on September 25, 1962, and the rest is history. Sonny Liston ( The Big Bear) was an American professional boxer. His baleful, obsidian stare intimidates fighters, sportswriters and. The Ring magazine ranks Liston as the tenth greatest heavyweight of all time,[4] while boxing writer Herb Goldman ranked him second and Richard O'Brien, Senior Editor of Sports Illustrated, placed him third. Walcott never began a count in the ring because of Ali's non-compliance and his physical struggle with getting Ali to go to that neutral corner. A grateful Liston found there was no need to give chase. During the fourth round Liston appeared dominant as Clay coasted, keeping his distance. [17] The athletic director at Missouri State Penitentiary, Rev. based on 17 ratings | 6,556 views This sermon from The Exchanged Life perspective attempts to assist the believer in coming to a point of trust in Christ as Savior, Lord and Life through suffering thus ultimately being set free from Self. [79][80][81] These include Muhammad Ali, who stated in a 1975 interview that he was a great admirer of Liston's talents: "Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and as strong as any heavyweight Ive ever seen. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. Also, McDonough did not bang on the canvas or motion a number count with his fingers. Caputo, one of the investigating police officers, "The whole department knew about it." At one point, Liston had Clay against the ropes and landed a hard left hook. Because of that, the dealers may have thought Sonny ratted on them and they shot him with a hot dose as retribution. [101], Liston played a fist fighter in the 1965 film Harlow, made a cameo appearance in the 1968 film Head, which starred The Monkees, and played the part of The Farmer in the 1970 film Moonfire, which starred Richard Egan and Charles Napier. Liston would keep Frazier out of range with that monster of a jab which was better than Foreman's! But as it approached, there were fears that the promoters were tied to organized crime and Massachusetts officials, most notably Suffolk County District Attorney Garrett H. Byrne, began to have second thoughts. [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]. Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote that Liston's handlers knew he "didn't have it anymore,"[65] and allegedly they had secretly paid sparring partner Amos Lincoln an extra $100 to take it easy on him -[citation needed] - the same man, incidentally, that Liston dismissed in less than two rounds a full three years later. Sonny is an old-school guy; not much fanfare. What the . Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. In 2013, there was a newly created book titled According to Warjac: Most Wanted, written by Greg Swaim. [15] In 1946, Helen Baskin, along with some of her children, moved to St. Louis to seek factory work. Sonny Liston is a remarkable physical specimen, and seldom if ever has a fighter so dominated the sport by sheer muscular mass. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout. Fifty years later, the mystery still remains. From the opening bell Liston attempted to close with Clay, looking to land a hard punch to the head to end the fight quickly and decisively. It's widely accepted that Liston, a former heavyweight boxing champ, died from an accidental heroin overdose in 1970. Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston. But some Vegas "bookies, mobsters, and cops" still wonder if he wasn't . Sonny was once told by local police to stay away from a drug house that was the target of a police raid. The Murder of Sonny Liston: A Story of Fame, Heroin, Boxing & Las Vegas Pan publisher; 2017. (4) Liston was supposed to take a dive when he fought Chuck Wepner six months earlier, and killing him was payback for his failure to do so. [16] Listonaged around 13, according to his later reckoningsremained in Arkansas with his father. Clearly, it was time to turn pro. Sonny Liston, once the heavyweight champ, died at the age of who-knows-what some days before Dec. 30, 1970. In five months, Sonny Liston had gone from unknown ex-con to amateur champion. When he tried to muscle in for a bigger share, his employers got him very drunk, took him home, and stuck him with a needle. The previous month, Schreibauer had won a bronze medal in the European Championships. Ali called it "the anchor punch." 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. ", It was later theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cut man, may have caused the irritation. The heavyweight champion's mysterious death is covered in tonight's all-new episode of. Police determined he died from a. [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. The second round saw Liston continue to pursue Clay. Sports Illustrated predicted a Patterson victory in 15 rounds, stating: "Sonny has neither Floyd's speed nor the versatility of his attack. The rematch between . [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. But the year of Sonny's birth, like the circumstances of his death, remain a mystery. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. 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