Joe Louis commenting on TV at ringside said "It's looking good for Sonny Liston". [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. ", Liston appeared on the December 1963 cover of Esquire magazine (cover photograph by Carl Fischer) "the last man on earth America wanted to see coming down its chimney".[106]. ", 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. Numerous fans booed and started yelling, "Fix!" [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. Sonny Liston's story began with a lonely bus ride in 1944. "[95], Sgt. Charles "Sonny" Liston was an enigma that, by way of testimonial, put fear in the hearts of men all throughout the 1960s. SONNY LISTON FOUND DEAD IN 1971 Few tears are being shed for Charles (Sonny) Liston, heavyweight champion of the world, Sept. 25, 1962 to Feb. 25, 1964. Theories regarding the circumstance of Liston's death. Fans rejected Liston after he won the heavyweight title over Floyd Patterson in 1962. World light-heavyweight champion Jos Torres said, "It was a perfect 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. But according to Sonny's trainer, Johnny Tocco, once there, his path led to prison: 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. 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. 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 . His father . Sonny was one of 25 children of a sharecropper in Arkansas. Elizabeth Bear wrote the short story "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall", published in The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2008. 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. Death April 29, 2016 - Carrhubane Beg, Limerick, Ireland. 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. 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. Although Liston was widely regarded as unbeatable, he lost the title in 1964 to Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), who entered as a 71 underdog. This victory is regarded by some as Liston's most impressive performance. 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. Liston decked Martin with a left hook in the fourth round and dominated most of the fight, but Martin came back and knocked Liston out cold in the ninth round. On May 5, 1956, a policeman confronted Liston and a friend about a cab parked near Liston's home. 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. [72], "I was an 'intimidator' until I fought Sonny Liston. [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. [15] In 1946, Helen Baskin, along with some of her children, moved to St. Louis to seek factory work. Walcott then rushed back to the fighters, who had resumed boxing, and stopped the fightawarding Ali a first-round knockout victory. ", ("You know what they say about big fists, sweetheart?"). They fought for a third time on March 6, 1956, which Liston won by a ten-round unanimous decision. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. But by the sixth round his sight had cleared, and a clearly enraged Clay fought a blisteringly aggressive round landing numerous combination punches. I was down but not hurt, but I looked up and saw Ali standing over me. Or it would be history, if boxing "historians" would stop sweeping the legacy of Sonny Liston under the ring canvas. He was born in Sand Slough, Arkansas, U.S. on May 8, 1932. "He would do everything to avoid taking shots." (, Shaun Assael. [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. Liston would keep Frazier out of range with that monster of a jab which was better than Foreman's! Tosches, Nick (2000). [50] [20], Liston signed a contract in September 1953, proclaiming: "Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. Which means he owned one of the biggest reach in boxing, while "only" being 6'1 tall (which is about 73 inches). said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. [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. 1 contender by 1960, but the handlers of the heavyweight champ at the time, Floyd Patterson, refused to give him a shot at the title because of Liston's links to the mob. On April 21, 1955, he defeated Marshall in a rematch, dropping him four times en route to a sixth-round knockout. [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. [59], Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. "That really broke Sonny's heart," said Simon George, who wrote and directed Showtime's "Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston." Born into poverty and the 12 th of 13 children born to Tobe and Helen Liston (and the 24 th of 25 children fathered by Tobe in total), Sonny did not enjoy a privileged upbringing. Birth 1935 - County Limerick, Ireland. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston ( 8. toukokuuta 1932 Arkansas (syntymaika ja tarkka paikka kiistanalaisia) - 30. joulukuuta 1970 Las Vegas, Nevada) oli yhdysvaltalainen raskaansarjan nyrkkeilij ja painoluokkansa maailmanmestari. "[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. [56] Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. The two American fighters met again 15 months later, Ali winning . Liston returned to the United States and won seven fights, all by knockout, in 1968, increasing his string to eleven. After two rounds, Wilson had taken enough. "There is power in both his left and his right, even though the fists move with the languor of motoring royalty or as if passing through a gaseous envelope more dense than air." "Johnny wasn't a braggart," Davi told Liston biographer Paul Gallender. In 1950, Sonny Liston was arrested six times for muggings, one . "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. [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]. 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 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. Floyd Patterson was Ben Mintz's "Minty Lock Of The Week" and Megan Makin' Moneyloved Patterson in a decision. Liston also appears in the sequel, Blood's a Rover. [85] Geraldine had a daughter from a previous marriage, and the Listons subsequently adopted a boy from Sweden. Sonny Liston fought for only $10,000 during his career. Shaun Assael. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine-month sentence, and was not prohibited from boxing during 1957. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. Both fights were filled with controversy that is probably enough for another blog, but this iconic picture from their fight was the one I referred to above. 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