Don't confuse shyness with dullness, Sonny was reluctant to talk to the press - the always painted a bad picture of him.Dwight Muhammad Qawi Braxton ATG Philly Joe Frazier Bernard HopkinsTags:pernell whitaker jersey joe walcott louis julio chavez evander holyfield lennox lewis felix sturm oscar de la hoya floyd mayweather miguel cotto marquez manny pacquiao pacman boxing boxer ko knockout tribute robbery mike tyson rocky marciano oscar de la hoya manny pacquiao foreman fight miguel cotto dead death muhammad ali cassius mike tyson clay lennox lewis eric morales barrera floyd mayweather fedor emelianenko ufc boxing ko k.o. Liston biographer Paul Gallender claims that Liston fathered several children, though none with his wife. What are you doing? Please read the rules before posting/commenting. 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. Sonny Liston | Boxing's Most Intimidating and Unwanted Champion Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", appeared on his 2004 album Shangri-La. Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. [76][77] Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. [59], Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. [99] (3) The mob promised Liston some money to throw the second Ali fight, but they never paid him. On September 7, 1954, Liston suffered defeat for the first time in his eighth professional fight, losing to Marty Marshall, a journeyman with an awkward style. "He said: 'Look what they did!' Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. 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. Time magazine said Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12. After demolishing these top-ranked fighters in the heavyweight division, Liston was regarded as the top-contender champion-in-waiting. . His family's home state of Arkansas did not make birth certificates mandatory until 1965. 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. [61] The new date was set for May 25, 1965. During a ringside interview after the fight, Terrellwith his swollen eye and deflated egowould later say he respected all boxers. Be respectful and come chat with us. For Sonny Liston, a Ballad to a Heavyweight, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/sports/othersports/for-sonny-liston-a-ballad-to-a-heavyweight.html. And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, back up, baby. But audiences attending Knopfler's concerts around North America this summer are hearing and responding favorably to a song of a different genre, a bluesy narrative ballad called "Song for Sonny Liston," about the troubled fighter who preceded Muhammad Ali as heavyweight champion in the early 1960's. So I get him down, I get the sponge and I pour the water into his eyes trying to cleanse whatever's there, but before I did that I put my pinkie in his eye and I put it into my eye. [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. Top contender Zora Folley was stopped in three rounds. [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. Thom Jones titled his 2000 collection of short stories Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. Patterson wanted a chance to redeem himself, so they met again on July 22, 1963, in Las Vegas. Sports Illustrated writer Mort Sharnik said his hands "looked like cannonballs when he made them into fists." [100] A successful racehorse which won the Irish St Leger classic race in 2021 was named Sonnyboyliston. ", 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." To the rest of the world, it would be known as "The Phantom Punch." That shot, which Ali dropped Sonny Liston with on May 25, 1965, was far from a phantom. It was the first time in his career that Liston had been cut. I'm the best ever. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Remembering Just Fontaine and His World Cup Record, The Man Behind the First All-Black Basketball Team, 8 Times Brothers Have Faced Off in a Championship, Every Black Quarterback to Play in the Super Bowl, Soccer Star Christian Atsu Survived an Earthquake. The fight quickly descended into chaos. A few months after Alis fight, Liston was dead from lung congestion though even that was shrouded in mystery and controversy. Interview Date: March 13, 1989 Camera Rolls: 2104-2105 Sound Rolls: 248 Editorial Notes: Interview with , conducted by Blackside, Inc. on March 13, 1989, for . "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. In an unearthed, unaired TV interview, Sonny Liston's wife once said that the fighter needed to get out of the ring as fast as possible because he had diarrhea. 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. said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. "I didn't know what the heck was going on", Angelo Dundee, Clay's trainer, recalled on an NBC special 25 years later. According to a report in the Miami Herald a few weeks before the 1964 fight, Clay was consorting with members of the Nation of Islam, who Clays father claimed had brainwashed his son. Liston retired in his corner due to an inflamed shoulder. Sonny Liston - Death, Muhammad Ali & Children - Biography He also wrote that Liston's win over Patterson proved that "in a fair fight between good and evil, evil must win." The Real Story behind the Ali-Liston Fights. "[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. The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. However, when Clay returned to his corner, he started complaining that there was something burning in his eyes and he could not see. In The Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick Tosches, published in 2000, when many of Liston's former acquaintances were still alive, Tosches posits that Liston's idol Joe Louis introduced him to heroin, and that he ultimately overdosed. A widely publicized account of Liston resisting arresteven after nightsticks were allegedly broken over his skulladded to the public perception of him as a nightmarish "monster" impervious to physical punishment. Concert Preview/Interview: John Lodge of the Moody Blues on Reprising "Days of Future Passed . [48] The challenger, his arms held high in surrender, was demanding that the fight be stopped and Dundee, fearing the fight might indeed be halted, gave his charge a one-word order: "Run! After the second loss to Ali, Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. 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 . Liston, with a 25-pound weight advantage, 214lb (97kg) to 189lb (86kg), knocked out Patterson at 2:06 of the first round, putting him down for the count with a powerful left hook to the jaw. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. The grave's marker-plate bears the dedication: "A Man. Shaun Assael. Dr. Alexander Robbins, chief physician for the Miami Beach Boxing Commission, diagnosed Liston with a torn tendon in his left shoulder. Liston assaulted the officer, breaking his knee and gashing his face. Charles "Sonny" Liston was born c.1930 into a sharecropping family that farmed the poor land of Morledge Plantation near Johnson Township, St.Francis County, Arkansas. . As Liston pursued his target Clay retreated, using his foot speed to slip away into open space in the ring, largely circling to the left and away from the threat of a Liston left hook. 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. The rumors swirling nearly canceled the fight the night prior, and when a reporter that morning broke tradition and asked if Clay was a member of the Black Muslims, as the group was often called, the boxer confirmed his new religion. Entire books have been written about the fight, and one, released in 2015, sought to end the suggestion that Liston took another fall. He also took his gun. Liston won 14 consecutive bouts, 13 by knockout, before fighting third-ranked Leotis Martin, previously beaten by Clark, in December 1969. Tale of the tape: Fight poster for Sonny Liston v Cassius Clay in 1964. . Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot. December 1963 extended Interview with Champion Sonny Liston - discusses Before he left for his bout with Clay, Sonny's training in Denver took him to some strange places. In his next fight, he had a rematch with Summerlin and again won an eight-round decision. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot. Some writers thought Liston brought bad press on himself by a surly and hostile attitude toward journalists. It is hardly the first recording by a rock musician about boxing. Anyone can read what you share. His wife said he was a kind & gentle hearted person who cared deeply for children & that no one ever saw that side of him except those closest to him, I believe theres a documentary somewhere on YouTube Id recommend watching it. Caputo, one of the investigating police officers, "The whole department knew about it." Sonny Liston | Boxing's Most Intimidating and Unwanted Champion Rainy Day Boxing 302K subscribers 5.6M views 1 year ago Join Rainy Day Boxing for an in depth career tribute to arguably the most. "I'm doing a portrait of a life, really, in a way, so you are trying to get the whole thing into just a few verses. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout. [70] There have been a number of unproven theories as to the background to the purported dive including that Liston was threatened by the Muslims, or agreed to lose in return for a share in the more marketable Ali's future purses. He was still a world-ranked boxer when he died in mysterious circumstances in 1970. He would later employ McCarter as a sparring partner. Because of the shirt he wore during robberies, the St. Louis police called Liston the "Yellow Shirt Bandit." I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey, there's no one like I'm from their . THE PREFIGHT MOODS OF SONNY LISTON - Sports Illustrated I don't think there was any way for him to beat Clay at that time, but if he entered the ring in a different mindset, to box and not try and get him like Patterson and others, he could of went the distance. For me, the most fascinating thing about Liston was the fact that his birth date is unknown. [92] He had been suffering from hardening of the heart muscle and lung disease before his death. Liston was depicted as a bad guy by the media, a handbreaker for the mafia. I dont have to be what you want me to be, Clay told agitated reporters. All Rights Reserved. "At about noon on the day of the fight, (Magids) reached Resnick again by phone," the memo read. [21], Liston made his professional debut on September 2, 1953, knocking out Don Smith in the first round in St. Louis, where he fought his first five bouts. "He had a left like Henry's hammer," Knopfler sings, "a right like Betty Bamalam. Dave Anderson of the New York Times said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. The official time of the stoppage was announced as 1:00 into the first round, which was wrong. A wax model of Liston appears in the front row of the iconic sleeve cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Banker later learned that the police told Liston the same thing to his face. 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. But then again, he took a pretty good beating in the fight. [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. Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection. "But they'll have to swing along until somebody comes to beat me. He sunk to the canvas, and as he was down, Ali stood over him, taunting and demanding his stunned opponent get back up. Never seen this one before, thanks alot. "[95], Sgt. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. Liston was the subject of a 2008 feature film based upon his life titled Phantom Punch. [105], Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows. [58] Despite Liston carrying an injury and being undertrained, Clay stated in 1975 that the first fight with Liston was the toughest of his career. Hed shown up to the fight in the best shape of his life no hot dogs or beer in his diet this time and promised to take down Ali. Any objective observer would have had to concede that Ali's counterpunch had landed, and landed with enough force to turn Liston's head, Rob Sneddon wrote in The Phantom Punch: The Story Behind Boxing's Most Controversial Bout. Naturally, they decided that Ali would take on Liston. Genuinely kind mobster who had been convicted of armed robbery and assault. Even before the first punch was thrown, the May 25, 1965 bout between .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston, during which the photo was snapped, was already shaping up to be the stuff of legends. Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him. 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. When Machen clinched in . Sonny was definitely a specimen. "I was rooting around in my childhood, maybe the way you do when you get to a certain age," Knopfler said. His wife said he was a kind & gentle hearted person who cared deeply for children & that no one ever saw that side of him except those closest to him I believe there's a documentary somewhere on YouTube I'd recommend watching it MatterUpbeat8803 19 days ago 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. [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. One of the reasons why sports stays alive in us is that there's part of us that wants to keep the child alive and recognizes that there is something important in doing that. There were plenty of tough questions after the first fight for Liston, too, namely, why didnt he come out for another round? 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. Sonny Liston shot a gun at Muhammad Ali. The Devil And Sonny Liston. [34] Many African-Americans disdained Liston. Sports Illustrated writer Gilbert Rogin wrote that "that final left hook crashed into Patterson's cheek like a diesel rig going downhill, no brakes." Carwin probably wasn't even that tall. Liston went down on his back. Felix later said Clay was seconds from being disqualified. Sonny Liston RARE Interview - YouTube I didn't think it was a powerful punch when I saw the fight from ringside," he said. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin.