"He said: 'Look what they did!' "He said, 'Cut the gloves off. Sonny was probably born in 1929, but no one knows for sure. Overcoming the seemingly insurmountable odds that life threw his way, Liston became the heavyweight champion of the world when he knocked out Floyd Patterson in 1962. The bout was stopped after the ninth round due to cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. Overall, Liston earned around $500,000 during his career. Rough N' Rowdy 20 LIVE From The Charleston Coliseum | Friday 8PM ET, Barstool Sportsbook has arrived in PA, MI, IL, IN, CO, VA, NJ, TN, AZ, IA, WV, LA, KS, MD, OH, Best Influencer Marketplace for Advertisers, Best Influencer Marketplace for Influencers & Creators, Best Influencer Marketplace for Agents & Agencies, Frank Pepe Pizzeria Naploetana - Chestnut Hill. [17] The athletic director at Missouri State Penitentiary, Rev. He also went with a new manager in 1958: Joseph "Pep" Barone, who was a front man for mobsters Frankie Carbo and Frank "Blinky" Palermo. [20], Liston signed a contract in September 1953, proclaiming: "Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. The suspension was honored in all states. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c. 1930 - c. December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. Skeptics called the knockout blow "the phantom punch." At one point, Liston had Clay against the ropes and landed a hard left hook. Liston claimed he was born in 1932, yet his rap sheet for his 1950 arrest for armed robbery listed his age as 22, making him born in 1928. And for music fans, a wax model of Liston appears in the front row of the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. It's a terrible matchup. [citation needed] At this time, the head coach of the St. Louis Golden Gloves team, Tony Anderson, stated that Liston was the strongest fighter he had seen. After Liston arose, Walcott wiped off his gloves. [105], Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows. Birth 1935 - County Limerick, Ireland. [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. Eight years later, he died but his friends questioned the cause of his death. Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", appeared on his 2004 album Shangri-La. ", 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. The two American fighters met again 15 months later, Ali winning . Create Space Independent Publishing Platform. He claimed the officer used racial slurs. [55], There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight. Wepner, who also fought George Foreman and Muhammad Ali, said after his career was over that Liston was the hardest puncher he faced. 5.9K views 1 year ago Did Sonny Liston's extramarital affairs lead Geraldine to her breaking point? [51], Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. And (4) Liston was supposed to take a dive when he fought Chuck Wepner 6 months earlier, and killing him was payback for his failure to do so. "But they'll have to swing along until somebody comes to beat me.". The interference of ringside reporters regarding interpretation of the rules, the fight stoppage and the controversy after the fight had not been seen since The Long Count Fight between champion Gene Tunney and challenger Jack Dempsey in 1927. "[69] The fact that Liston did not complain about the clear breach of boxing rules (being declared knocked out without a count) and Ali's obvious state of bewilderment, shouting at Liston "Nobody will believe this" and asking his handlers "Did I hit him? Boston: Little, Brown. Ali called it "the anchor punch." Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was "no phantom punch." He walks to the ring with his gloves on the shoulders of his manager, Eddie Polino. [88] On returning home from a two-week trip, Geraldine had smelled a foul odor emanating from the main bedroom and on entering saw him slumped up against the bed, a broken foot bench on the floor. He's like Foreman except stronger, more powerful, and slightly smaller. JustinvR Brown Belt. The film starred Ving Rhames as Liston and was produced by Rhames, Hassain Zaidi and Marek Posival. [84], Liston married Geraldine Chambers in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 3, 1957. At age 12, after selling a bag of pecans for bus fare, he left for St. Louis, betting on a brighter future. In all, 14 major contenders during his prime refused outright to fight him, the most for any boxer in history. The inaugural WBC world heavyweight champion cemented himself in. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout. Liston's noticeably more muscular left arm, crushing left jab and powerful left hook lent credence to the widely held belief that he was left-handed, although he fought in an orthodox stance. Philadelphia wanted nothing to do with him. Liston won 14 consecutive bouts, 13 by knockout, before fighting third-ranked Leotis Martin, previously beaten by Clark, in December 1969. When Patterson met with the president in January 1962, Kennedy suggested that Patterson avoid Liston, citing Justice Department concerns over Liston's ties to organized crime. Officially, Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure. Banker said, "Sheriff [Ralph] Lamb told me, 'Tell your pal Sonny to stay away from the West Side because we're going to bust the drug dealers.'" Liston was knocked down in the first round, but came back to control the next two rounds and had Griffin hanging on at the end. On April 21, 1955, he defeated Marshall in a rematch, dropping him four times en route to a sixth-round knockout. [105] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. [97], "The month before he died, some guy ran into Sonny while he was making a left turn. At one point, Clay was wiping his eyes with his right hand while extending his left arm"like a drunk leaning on a lamppost" Bert Sugar wroteto keep Liston at bay. "[35] However, in 1963 in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Liston broke off a European boxing exhibition tour to return home and was quoted as saying he was "ashamed to be in America. [85] Geraldine had a daughter from a previous marriage, and the Listons subsequently adopted a boy from Sweden. Advertising InquiriesTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyContent PolicyMessaging Terms, AppAdvertising InquiriesTerms of UsePrivacy PolicyContent PolicyCookie PolicyBest Sports Betting SiteMessaging TermsSubscription Terms. Although in the second fight, Liston appears to have taken a dive Again with the mob stuff. 2023 Barstool Sports. His father . 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. Liston injured his shoulder early in the 1964. When Liston died, with heroin found in his system, there was speculation that he'd committed suicide while some thought he'd been murdered. "[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. Ali did neither. Sonny knocked out Patterson at 2:06 of the first round, with that powerful left hook to the jaw It was the third-fastest knockout in a world heavyweight title fight, and the first time the defending champion had been knocked out in Round One. Governor John H. Reed of Maine stepped forward, and within a few hours the promoters had a new site: Lewiston, Maine, a mill town with a population of about 41,000 located 140 miles (230km) north of Boston. 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. Sonny Liston, once the heavyweight champ, died at the age of who-knows-what some days before Dec. 30, 1970. Several reports say Liston had fresh needle marks on his arms when he died. In the 2001 film Ali, Liston was portrayed by former WBO Heavyweight Champion Michael Bentt. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c.1930 December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. Patterson, a 4-1 betting underdog, was knocked down three times and counted out at 2:10 of the first round. For confetti we can use torn-up arrest warrants." [34] Many African-Americans disdained Liston. ", Chuck Wepner on Liston's intimidating appearance. "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. The former heavyweight champion is perhaps best known for being laid out on the canvas by Muhammad Ali in one of the sports most iconic bouts. Tocco left the house before the police did. [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. We had a return bout clause with Clay, but if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? Cassius Clay was just 22-years-old when he beat the world champion in a seven round TKO. The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. "Get up and fight, sucker," is the famous quote. Odds makers gave Liston 71 to win. [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. Also in 1970, Liston appeared on an episode of the TV series Love, American Style and in a television commercial for Braniff Airlines with Andy Warhol.[12][102]. Mickey Mantle, who could hit a baseball as far as any man, had the forearms of a blacksmith but only average-sized hands. [61] The new date was set for May 25, 1965. Maule, Tex (March 9, 1964). 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. He was a gentle man. 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. On May 7, backers of the rematch ended the court battle by pulling the fight out of Boston. Boston: Little, Brown. This is just a glimpse into what was. [50] He was found dead in his Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971 Six months after the Wepner fight. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. . [30], Liston became the No. In the 2020 film One Night in Miami, Liston is played by Aaron D. Alexander. Sonny was once told by local police to stay away from a drug house that was the target of a police raid. You've seen him before but probably didn't realize it because the most famous photo ever taken of Sonny was not at his best angle More on that in a second. Childhood & Early Life. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. He found a quarter-ounce of heroin in a balloon in the kitchen, and a half-ounce of marijuana in Liston's pants pocket, but no syringes or needles. Geraldine remembered her husband as "Great with me, great with the kids. [24], In 1958, Liston returned to boxing. 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. 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. One of the victories was over Amos Johnson, Liston's former sparring partner, who had recently defeated British champion Henry Cooper. Two American fighters met again 15 months later, he defeated Marshall in a seven round TKO, Liston to! While he was making a left turn March 9, 1964 ) and landed a hard left hook Ali for..., once the heavyweight champ, died at the age of who-knows-what some days before Dec. 30 1970... 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