At the time, it was deduced that Liston had fallen while preparing for bed and struck his head on a bench. Felix later said Clay was seconds from being disqualified. Liston penalized two points for low blows. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout. Dave Anderson of the New York Times said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. Liston was allegedly present at dealer Earl Cage's residence during a raid by narcotics detectives. [42], Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. In the 2015 British crime film Legend, Liston is played by Mark Theodore in a scene where gangster Reggie Kray poses for a picture with the boxer. Patterson, a 4-1 betting underdog, was knocked down three times and counted out at 2:10 of the first round. The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. [30] Before his bout with Liston, Muhammad Ali consulted Machen and was advised that the key to survival was to make Liston lose his temper. Did Sonny Liston's extramarital affairs lead Geraldine to her breaking point? [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. Theories regarding the circumstance of Liston's death. ", During an era when white journalists still described black athletes in stereotypes, Liston had long been a target of racially charged slurs; he was called a "gorilla" and "a jungle beast" in print. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. Liston was able to remained focused enough to defeat Patterson in a rematch. 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]. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. Sonny Liston FBI Files. On July 28, 1963, Liston joined a group of 500 African Americans in Denver who marched to a post office to mail letters urging the Colorado congressional delegation to pass the Kennedy administration's civil rights package. 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. I want to prove to the world there's dirty work afoot.' [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. Liston has been referenced in many songs by artists such as Curtis Eller, Sun Kil Moon, the Animals, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, Phil Ochs, Morrissey, Freddy Blohm, Chuck E. Weiss, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, the Roots, Wu-Tang Clan, Gone Jackals, Billy Joel, the Mountain Goats, Lil Wayne, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the Killers. Liston experiences nightmares remembering abuse suffered at the hands of his father. "A blues song just for fighters: The legend of Sonny Liston. Together they began working on a book that also links Cline with Robert Kennedy, Frank Sinatra and the notorious ber-Mobster Mickey Cohen. He also had a reputation for bullying people such as porters and waitresses. Midway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab and Ali went over it with a fast right, knocking the former champion down. An earthquake. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. His fists measured 15 inches (38cm) around, the largest of any heavyweight champion. In 1962 Novak attacks Bobby Zazo in a club in a dispute over Farah, a girl Novak stole from him, and arranges through mutual organized crime connections to pay Zazo $10,000 in retribution. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. The victim sought out the executioner." The year 1959 was a banner one for Liston: after knocking out contender Mike DeJohn in six rounds he faced Cleveland Williams, a fast-handed fighter who was billed as the hardest-hitting heavyweight in the world against whom he showed durability, power and skill, nullifying Williams' best work before stopping him in the third round. Furthermore, that count cannot be started until the fighter scoring the knockdown goes to and remains in a neutral corner. [83] Herb Goldman stated that Liston, when in his prime between 1958 and 1963, was the most feared fighter in boxing history. Authorities theorized that he was undressing for bed when he fell over backward with such force that he broke the rail of the bench. Soundtracks If You Want My Love [17] The athletic director at Missouri State Penitentiary, Rev. Because of that, Cage may have thought Sonny was an informant and shot him with a hot dose as retribution. Liston was no stranger to the Mob, and trouble accompanied his lifestyle. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot. In 1950, Sonny Liston was arrested six times for muggings, one . At a time of growing racial unrest, he was cast in the public imagination as the angry, dangerous black man. Listons ready jab was counteracted by Alis overactive jab. I gave this book 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars. "[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. He served brief prison terms and on one occasion was introduced to boxing by a prison chaplain. ", Ali clearly did not think he knocked Liston out. The third round was a beautiful spectacle of Ali landing and making Liston miss, using much ring space, before Liston caught Ali with a nice uppercut and a small right hand later in the round. Sonny Liston was one of historys most fearsome heavyweights, and much more than just a guy who lost to a young Muhammad Ali. Banker said he was told by police that Liston had been seen at a house that would be the target of a drug raid. Liston won 14 consecutive bouts, 13 by knockout, before fighting third-ranked Leotis Martin, previously beaten by Clark, in December 1969. Cline also apprised Swaim of the existence of a movie script that would explain all. Liston was not a one-trick-pony either, as his jab was very active and precise. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. I know it", Liston said afterward. [24], In 1958, Liston returned to boxing. "[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. Rogin called Liston's physique "awesomearms like fence posts, thighs like silos." Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. [34] Many African-Americans disdained Liston. [10][11] It has been suggested Liston himself may not have known what year he was born, as he was not precise on the matter. [74], Writer Gilbert Rogin assessed Liston's style and physique after his win over Zora Folley. The NAACP had urged Patterson not to fight Liston, fearing that a Liston victory would hurt the civil rights movement. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. [105], Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows. He was 6ft 1in (1.85m), and had an exceptionally powerful physique, with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches (2.13m). At one point, Liston had Clay against the ropes and landed a hard left hook. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine-month sentence, and was not prohibited from boxing during 1957. the murder of Bobby Zazo and his connection to Caesar Novak.The two fights between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston for boxing's World Heavyweight Championship were among the most anticipated, watched and controversial fights in the sport's history. 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. (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. Out of lock down Sonny makes the acquaintance of gym operator and trainer Caesar Novak (Nicholas Torturro), a man with known mob ties, who manages Sonny to a series of wins in the late 50's. [29] Machen's taunting and his spoiling tactics of dodging and grapplingat one point almost heaving Liston over the ropesso alienated the audience that Liston received unaccustomed support from the crowd. [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. Two of the three official scorers, or judges, awarded the round to Liston, and the other scored the round even. Liston appears as a character in James Ellroy's novel The Cold Six Thousand. Sonny Liston - Wikipedia 02/08/2021. Feared inside the ring, loathed outside, he needed the aid of gangsters to secure opponents. A coroner ruled that he died of natural causes - but some say the truth is far. Pan, 2017. In these feckless clinches he only managed to tie up one of Liston's arms. When caught in January 1950, Liston gave his age as 20, while the St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported that he was 22. We learn all about the underbelly of Las Vegas of the late '60s, including . His defense was described as "the gate-crossing of arms la Archie Moore. "But they'll have to swing along until somebody comes to beat me. Throughout his fights, his strengths and weaknesses spoke for themselves. Tommy Morrison 84. The Real Story behind the Ali-Liston Fights. When Sonny Liston became the world heavyweight boxing champ by knocking out Floyd Patterson in 1962, he hoped his criminal past and unsavory reputation could be put behind him. Liston captured the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions on March 6, 1953, with a victory over 1952 Olympic Heavyweight Champion Ed Sanders. So I went down. 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