Muhammad Ali biographer Jonathan Eig shared a new theory as to why Sonny Liston may have taken a dive in the boxers' second bout. Never before seen Sonny Liston interview. 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Tobe and Helen had 12 children together; Sonny was the second youngest child. This interview is missing a "BOOOOOOOMZQUAD!!" Night Train is like $11 on Amazon, peep that if you want to get more of the story, i don't like how max was squeezing sonny's bicep. [76][77] Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. One mile up on a mountain 13 miles west of Denver is the Shrine of Mother Cabrini. "I was rooting around in my childhood, maybe the way you do when you get to a certain age," Knopfler said. In the first fight, in Miami, a 22-year-old Cassius Clay danced around the ring, taunted Liston, promised reporters hed shock the world, and then delivered on that promise with a blistering late attack that prompted Liston to toss in the towel after the sixth round. Liston was allegedly present at dealer Earl Cage's residence during a raid by narcotics detectives. He was still a world-ranked boxer when he died in mysterious circumstances in 1970. . "I didn't know what the heck was going on", Angelo Dundee, Clay's trainer, recalled on an NBC special 25 years later. After he won the title, Liston relocated to Denver permanently, saying, "I'd rather be a lamppost in Denver than the mayor of Philadelphia. Ali called it "the anchor punch." The second round saw Liston continue to pursue Clay. The Devil And Sonny Liston. The Devil and Sonny Liston. Liston was depicted as a bad guy by the media, a handbreaker for the mafia. [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. All Rights Reserved. [47] Sitting on his stool between rounds, however, Liston was breathing heavily as his cornermen worked on his cut. [92] He had been suffering from hardening of the heart muscle and lung disease before his death. RARE Sonny Liston Interview before the first Ali fight 1964 in Color Legends of Boxing in Color 2.47K subscribers Subscribe 16K views 8 months ago Very Rare interview with Sonny Liston and. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former world heavyweight champion, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Ali did neither. 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. Mike DeJohn was the highest paid boxer at $15,000 while James Dickey received $20,000. His family's home state of Arkansas did not make birth certificates mandatory until 1965. He was also seeking to prove himself after his two embarrassing and suspicious losses to Ali. The champion was stripped of the belt when he refused to be drafted into the armed services during the Vietnam War, and he didnt box again in a match that counted until 1970. Emily Post would probably recommend a ticker-tape parade. The grave's marker-plate bears the dedication: "A Man. "[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. The date of death listed on his death certificate is December 30, 1970,[90] which police estimated by judging the number of milk bottles and newspapers around the front door of the property. Roy Harris, who had gone 13 rounds with Floyd Patterson in a title match, was crushed in one round by Liston. Sonny Liston became world heavyweight champion in 1962 and fought Muhammad Ali twice In January 1971, former heavyweight champion of the world Sonny Liston was found dead at his Las Vegas. [91] Coroner Mark Herman said traces of heroin byproducts were found in Liston's system, but not in amounts large enough to have caused his death. "[98], Some claim Liston was murdered. "He said: 'Look what they did!' I remember thinking as a child that this was a man who wanted to be left alone.". "He had a left like Henry's hammer," Knopfler sings, "a right like Betty Bamalam. [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake.
Joe Frazier vs Sonny Liston : r/Boxing - Reddit After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. Knopfler said he enjoys boxing and other sports but reflected on a conversation he had with a friend about the fights. . "[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. [20], Liston signed a contract in September 1953, proclaiming: "Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. He had the whole package. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him outthe fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. Thom Jones titled his 2000 collection of short stories Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. A stoic Liston finished the fight, but lost in an eight-round split decision. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. He is seen in the far left part of the row, wearing a white and gold robe, standing beside the original-look Beatle wax figures. For his part, Liston said that the referees inability to keep track of time doomed him, as he didnt know when to get up from the mat. [31] While Liston began working into shape with hopes for a heavyweight title shot, he also continued his criminal behavior. He particularly resented a 1961 arrest by a black patrolman for loitering, claiming to have merely been signing autographs and chatting with fans outside a drugstore. The most iconic photo in boxing history documents the knockout that almost nobody saw happen. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab and Ali went over it with a fast right, knocking the former champion down. Then again, you can also have guys like Ali or Mike Tyson. "Johnny wasn't a braggart," Davi told Liston biographer Paul Gallender. He pulled the same stuff Walcott did against Marciano. [38], Patterson finally signed to meet Liston for the world title on September 25, 1962, in Comiskey Park in Chicago. In this case, Intercontinental Promotions Inc., which had the rights to Listons fight, also got to choose the first opponent for the new champion, should Liston lose. "At about noon on the day of the fight, (Magids) reached Resnick again by phone," the memo read. He had been deliberately snubbed. Sonny Liston fought for only $10,000 during his career. In his sixth bout, he faced ranked heavyweight Johnny Summerlin (18-1-2) on national television and won in an eight-round decision. (2) Professional gambler Lem Banker insists that Liston was murdered by drug dealers with whom he'd become involved. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c.1930 December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. The photo captures the champions exhortations, with all the fire and passion and dynamic physicality that made him such a phenomenon. After Ali's win against Sonny Liston, he wouldn't . A wax model of Liston appears in the front row of the iconic sleeve cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Audiences at home were confused and outraged. 1 contender in 1960, but the handlers of world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson refused to give him a shot at the title because of Liston's links to organized crime. [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. Time magazine said Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. At the IBHOF, the casts of Listons hands were bigger than Lennox Lewis' which were also gigantic. "[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. Very Rare interview with Sonny Liston and Joe Louis. 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Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. ", One of the most vivid verses creates a word-picture of Liston in his prime with photographic clarity: "Black Cadillac, alligator boots, money in the pockets of his sharkskin suits." Standing 185 centimeters (6'1) tall and packing over 90 kilograms (200 lb) of pure muscle, there's a reason he was nicknamed "The Big Bear," and it wasn't for the hugs he gave.. His career in heavyweight boxing spanned from 1953 to 1970, and he spent all 17 of those years going guts for glory against the . [71] Credence to the latter theory is provided by the fact that Liston, immediately after his fight with Chuck Wepner, seemed more concerned about supporting the proposed Ali-Frazier bout and Ali's claims to be champion than promoting his own career. [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". ", The Liston song appears on an album called "Shangri-La." "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! "[35] Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. r/boxing does not tolerate racism or intolerance of any kind. During the interim, officials in Boston also got cold feet. "[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. "There's no doubt that he was mean," Knopfler said of Liston. [72], "I was an 'intimidator' until I fought Sonny Liston. As the years passed and Liston's financial situation worsened, he got angry and told the mob he would go public with the story unless they gave him the money. So I went down. Sheed says that the punch and the knockdown "may have been genuine, but when referee Joe Walcott blew the count and gave him all evening to get up, Liston's rendition of a coma wouldn't have fooled a possum. "[95], Sgt. Only Massachusetts was willing to host the fight, though it was delayed from November 1964 to May 1965 so that Ali could recover from hernia surgery. "He was afraid of needles," echoed Father Edward Murphy. "From Bad Buck to White Hope: Journalism and Sonny Liston, 19581965. Boston: Little, Brown. "[35], U.S. President John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. [94], On January 1, Liston's wife, Geraldine, called Johnny Tocco and said she had not heard from her husband in three days and was worried. You really never watched the first fight did you? [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.