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In these feckless clinches he only managed to tie up one of Liston's arms. 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. THE PREFIGHT MOODS OF SONNY LISTON. Because of the shirt he wore during robberies, the St. Louis police called Liston the "Yellow Shirt Bandit." "[98], Some claim Liston was murdered. 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. The fight lasted less than one full round, with Ali knocking out Liston at the 1:44 mark. "[42], Liston made his second title defense on February 25, 1964, in Miami Beach, Florida against Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali). Anyone can read what you share. There were some, however, who believed the fight was legitimate. Both fights were in Summerlin's hometown of Detroit.[23]. Rogin called Liston's physique "awesomearms like fence posts, thighs like silos." There's something really primal about the whole thing, obviously. Liston was particularly known for his immense strength, formidable jab, long reach, toughness, and his infamously intimidating appearance. Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him. A couple weeks later, he was still complainin' about that needle mark. This is a clip out of the \"The Other Side\" Documentary. Support this Channel:https://www.patreon.com/LegendsofBoxing Merchandise:LegendsofBoxing.redbubble.com I restore \u0026 colorize your projects, PayPal Donations: LegendsofBoxingYT@gmail.comThank you!________________________________________________________________________________ Credit Original B\u0026W Footage:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CLMlEpRb9wSonny Liston Interview uploaded by haNZAgodAll My YouTube ChannelsMy Main Channel \"Legends of Boxing\": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73ffQAknNEWJlRoFSWH_awMy Second Boxing Channel \"Legends of Boxing\": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-QLrFyDnskqz5_z95mcOAMy History Channel \"Time Travel: Colorized Archive\": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC29VFkNvVVi6_OzwFV2oTqQMy Documentary Channel \"Tales From The Past\":https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZpFIIYrCc1lOHbG-fUo5vwMein Dokumentation Channel \"Geschichten aus der Vergangenheit\" (Tales From The Past in Deutsch) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXBfWoE1KVXEzh9d2NrwBhASocial https://www.instagram.com/legends_of_boxing1/ [8][9], There is no official record of Liston's birth. Liston was the subject of a 1995 HBO documentary titled Sonny Liston: The Mysterious Life and Death of a Champion. So I went down. Two of the three official scorers, or judges, awarded the round to Liston, and the other scored the round even. "[78] While much has been written about the effectiveness of his left jab, others have commented favorably on Liston's wide range of boxing skills. [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. "He would do everything to avoid taking shots." The FBI was on the hunt for evidence for match-fixing, given Listons mob ties mobsters still owned much of his fight promotion contract and the sports shady business model. [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. Hall of Fame announcer Don Dunphy said, "Here was a guy who was in prison and the guards used to beat him over the head with clubs and couldn't knock him down." r/boxing does not tolerate racism or intolerance of any kind. [73] The bout was stopped after the ninth round due to cuts over both of Wepner's eyes. "There was nothing Sonny feared more than a needle. 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. In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before his death in May 2009, Liston said he regretted . We had a return bout clause with Clay, but if you say your guy just quit, who is gonna get a return bout? 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. In his 1965 rematch with Ali, Liston suffered an unexpected first-round knockout that led to unresolved suspicions of a fix. [10] His family, but not one Charles (or Sonny) Liston, can be found in the 1930 census, and in the 1940 census he was listed as 10 years old. 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. But upon arrival, Liston was met by only a handful of reporters and public-relations staff. Walcott never began a count in the ring because of Ali's non-compliance and his physical struggle with getting Ali to go to that neutral corner. [31] While Liston began working into shape with hopes for a heavyweight title shot, he also continued his criminal behavior. 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. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. Carwin probably wasn't even that tall. 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. Geraldine remembered her husband as "Great with me, great with the kids. Sports Illustrated writer Mort Sharnik said his hands "looked like cannonballs when he made them into fists." Convention Center, Winchester, Nevada, U.S. Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Municipal Auditorium, Miami Beach, Florida, U.S. St. Louis Arena, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Midwest Gymnasium, Chicago, Illinois, U.S. Pittsburgh Gardens, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. New Masonic Temple, St. Louis, Missouri, U.S. Motor City Arena, Detroit, Michigan, U.S. Sources vary on his reach, with some listing it as 80in, Reputations: Sonny Liston: The Champion Nobody Wanted (2001), 50 min, BBC Documentary, Mailer: A Biography By Mary V. Dearborn, page 186. Half a mile above and beyond the shrine, looking down from the summit of the mountain, is a statue of the Sacred Heart. Sonny Liston had a very sad upbringing & had to learn to survive at a young age. "He was scared, he was scared of so many things," Knopfler said. Liston captured the Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions on March 6, 1953, with a victory over 1952 Olympic Heavyweight Champion Ed Sanders. In The Greatest, the 1977 film about the life of boxer Muhammad Ali in which Ali played himself, Liston was portrayed by Roger E. Mosley. Technically, contracts for boxing matches werent supposed to have rematch clauses, though pretty much all of them had some sort of loophole and agreement when each side wanted to guarantee a return bout again, the laws by which boxing governed itself were really more suggestions at the time. He took one and went down. Never seen this one before, thanks alot. He allegedly later told an assistant that he took a dive because he was afraid of the consequences of beating Ali he thought it would put a target on his own back. The torn tendon had bled down into the mass of the biceps, swelling and numbing the arm. "Johnny wasn't a braggart," Davi told Liston biographer Paul Gallender. ", The Liston song appears on an album called "Shangri-La." 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. There was something caustic in both eyes." Once he went down, I got excited. After demolishing these top-ranked fighters in the heavyweight division, Liston was regarded as the top-contender champion-in-waiting. "[35] Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. In the third round, Marshall nailed Listonreportedly while he was laughingand broke his jaw. In the months ahead of the fight, Muhammad Ali went all sorts of routes to get into Sonny Liston's head. 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. 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. These transcripts contain material that did not appear in the final program. "[35], U.S. President John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. The commotion was not lost on referee Barney Felix, who was walking toward Clay's corner. Liston assaulted the officer, breaking his knee and gashing his face. Liston was the subject of a 2008 feature film based upon his life titled Phantom Punch. He had a whiplash, so they took him to the hospital," said boxing trainer Johnny Tocco. "And I suppose Sonny Liston always stuck with me. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him outthe fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. He offered no comment on the matter, but his victory would soon turn it into an international story. "At about noon on the day of the fight, (Magids) reached Resnick again by phone," the memo read. ", It was later theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cut man, may have caused the irritation. Less than 10 days later, he was Muhammad Ali, a name given him to Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. . Due to Listons long association with the mafia and the reputation as a peerless tough guy, there was speculation that hed thrown the fight for some financial reward. Ira Gay Sealy/The Denver Post via Getty Images According to the post, he returned back home later that morning and called his sparring partner Gary Bates to tell him he was leaving for Los Angeles but that they should get together when he returned in a couple of days. "He had a left like Henry's hammer," Knopfler sings, "a right like Betty Bamalam. "From Bad Buck to White Hope: Journalism and Sonny Liston, 19581965. 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. He was hardly leading a life of health and fitness. Machen's mobility enabled him to go the distance but he was clearly outpointed despite Liston being penalised for a low blow in the 11th round. Unlike Dylan or Carter, however, Knopfler does not present Liston as innocent of a crime for which he was imprisoned. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. The most iconic photo in boxing history documents the knockout that almost nobody saw happen. 9, 1 March 2018, p. 8, New York Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, "Photographic image of 'Tale of the Tape', "Sonny Liston vs. Floyd Patterson (Tale of the tape)", "From THE RING: The greatest heavyweight of all time", "25 Greatest Fighters of All Time (Heavyweight)", "ESPN Classic - Liston was trouble in and out of ring", "Jacob's Beach by Kevin Mitchell: review", "Hard Times, Good Times: Charles "Sonny" Liston - Boxing.com", "Dismayed D'Amato Is Expecting To Get Back Manager's License", "Esquire covers commemorate boxing's prime", "Cassius Clay-Sonny Liston I: 50 Years Later", "Sonny Liston vs. Cassius Clay (1st meeting) - BoxRec", "1964 Clay vs. Liston Judges' Scorecards from Miami Beach Bout. | Lot #80073 | Heritage Auctions", "Muhammad Ali's Toughest Fight Wasn't Against Joe Frazier", "Fifty Years Later: The Mystery of Muhammad Ali's 'Phantom Punch', "I WAS THERE: George Chuvalo Watches Sonny Liston Take a Dive - YouTube", "Fifty Years Later: The Mystery of Muhammad Ali's 'Phantom Punch' | Boxing News", "Daytona Beach Morning Journal - Google News Archive Search", "Sonny Liston the most talented Heavyweight in history", "George Foreman Discusses Friendship With Sonny Liston", "Sonny Liston: Say Goodnight to the Bad Guy Boxing News", "LOTIERZO'S LOWDOWN Sonny Liston: The Most Underrated Heavyweight Champ In History", "The Most Feared Fighter in Boxing History: Charles 'Sonny' Liston remembered", "Liston KO'd Popular Patterson for Title", "O Unlucky Man: Fortune never smiled on Sonny Liston", "Sonny Liston Meets the Press - Boxing.com", "Like Fights Against Ali, Liston Death a Mystery", "December 30, 1970: Mysterious Death of Sonny Liston", "19 YEARS LATER: Liston Death Remains Mystery to His Friends". The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. 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. Liston did eventually rise from the mat, but soon after, the referee broke up the two boxers once again the former champion had been down for more than 10 seconds, ending the fight. The organization was seen as an extremist anti-white people hate group and opponents of desegregation and Martin Luther King Jr. Clays propensity for self-promotion and controversy seemed to fit in with the groups inflammatory rhetoric. At the IBHOF, the casts of Listons hands were bigger than Lennox Lewis' which were also gigantic. Frank Mir was around that height and was noticeably taller than Carwin. His death was, too. "I didn't know what the heck was going on", Angelo Dundee, Clay's trainer, recalled on an NBC special 25 years later. [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. In the sixth round, he carried it at belt level so that it was of no help in warding off the right crosses with which Clay probed at the cut under his left eye." Audiences at home were confused and outraged. 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. Ali did neither. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c.1930 December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. Liston went down on his back. [87], Liston was found dead by his wife, Geraldine, in their Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971.