"[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. Liston retired in his corner due to an inflamed shoulder. 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. It was the first time in his career that Liston had been cut. But then again, he took a pretty good beating in the fight. [51], Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. That saw him drive a big red bus to Liston's home that read, "Sonny Liston is a great but will fall in eight" along with the words "World's most colorful fighter Cassius Clay.". Like Dylan's subject, Rubin Carter, Knopfler's version of Liston is sympathetic. 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. The suspension was honored in all states. [52][53] It was the first time since 1919when Jack Dempsey defeated Jess Willardthat a world heavyweight champion had quit on his stool. He was also seeking to prove himself after his two embarrassing and suspicious losses to Ali. Muhammad Ali biographer Jonathan Eig shared a new theory as to why Sonny Liston may have taken a dive in the boxers' second bout. Tocco left the house before the police did. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. Time magazine said Liston had worked himself into the best shape of his career. [11][12][10][13][14] One writer concluded that Liston's most plausible date of birth was July 22, 1930, citing census records and statements from his mother during her lifetime. Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot. Elizabeth Bear wrote the short story "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall", published in The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2008. And the Muslims were coming up. It was a shocking result, not only because Liston was favored in the match, but because hardly anybody saw the punch that took him down. Asked by a young white reporter why he was not fighting for freedom in the South, Liston deadpanned, "I ain't got no dog-proof ass. A sudden violent combination delivered with 30 seconds left in the round electrified the crowd. [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]. I didn't want anything to do with him. During these same years Sonny Liston was on the comeback trail as well. Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. Tosches, Nick (2000). 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. When you can kill almost anybody in the world with your bare hands, you don't really have to go around proclaiming it to everyone. Theories regarding the circumstance of Liston's death. His fists measured 15 inches (38cm) around, the largest of any heavyweight champion. There's never been anybody as ruthless. [103], Sonny Liston was featured in a novel "Girl Fighter" with a brief reference to his early life, his rise to WBC heavyweight champion and his eventual losses to Clay/Ali.[104]. [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. This interview is missing a "BOOOOOOOMZQUAD!!" This is a place for friendly and civil debate about the greatest sport on earth. [83] Herb Goldman stated that Liston, when in his prime between 1958 and 1963, was the most feared fighter in boxing history. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. [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. This victory is regarded by some as Liston's most impressive performance. During a ringside interview after the fight, Terrellwith his swollen eye and deflated egowould later say he respected all boxers. Remembering One Of Boxing's Storied Bouts Robert Siegel and Melissa Block recall the fight between Cassius Clay and and Sonny Liston, the fight at the heart of the off-Broadway play Fetch Clay, . The victim sought out the executioner." I was down but not hurt, but I looked up and saw Ali standing over me. 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. "[40][41], Upon winning the world heavyweight title, Liston had a speech prepared for the crowd that friends had assured him would meet him at the Philadelphia airport. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine-month sentence, and was not prohibited from boxing during 1957. After Liston arose, Walcott wiped off his gloves. Sheed says that the punch and the knockdown "may have been genuine, but when referee Joe Walcott blew the count and gave him all evening to get up, Liston's rendition of a coma wouldn't have fooled a possum. Was Pariah boxing legend Sonny Listons OD really a mob murder? One of the victories was over Amos Johnson, Liston's former sparring partner, who had recently defeated British champion Henry Cooper. 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. Shaun Assael wrote "The Murder of Sonny Liston: Las Vegas, Heroin, and Heavyweights", published in 2016. [15] In 1946, Helen Baskin, along with some of her children, moved to St. Louis to seek factory work. Rogin wrote. The second fight? Cleveland Williams was the last person to defeat Liston and made $100,000 for his efforts. Liston was the subject of a 2008 feature film based upon his life titled Phantom Punch. "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." He would not close in until the accumulated inside damage and Liston's own frustration had sapped the challenger's strength and will." 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.'" "I was rooting around in my childhood, maybe the way you do when you get to a certain age," Knopfler said. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. "[35], U.S. President John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. QUESTION 1 That got him killed. [47] Sitting on his stool between rounds, however, Liston was breathing heavily as his cornermen worked on his cut. Both fights were in Summerlin's hometown of Detroit.[23]. His eyes swept the whole scene. I wasn't hit. People around the world tuned in via satellite to watch the match, which was fought in front of 2,434 paying ticket-holders, the smallest crowd in heavyweight championship fight history; people there suggested the crowd was more like 4,000, but nonetheless, it was a very small in-person audience. Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (c.1930 December 30, 1970) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1953 to 1970. Very rare interview of Sonny Liston talking about how he got started in boxing, his fights with Williams and Patterson and his training routine. A grateful Liston found there was no need to give chase. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. 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]. The Murder of Sonny Liston: A Story of Fame, Heroin, Boxing & Las Vegas Pan publisher; 2017. 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 forgot about the rules." Knopfler, who now records as a soloist and performs with a backup band, has a wide-ranging curiosity that has produced an eclectic collection of songs. When he tried to muscle in for a bigger share, Conrad thinks his employers got him very drunk, took him home and stuck him with a needle. Lennox is a conqueror? But others contend he just was not the same Liston. [33], Civic leaders were also reluctant, worrying that Liston's unsavory character would set a bad example for youth. 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. He won by a seventh-round technical knockout, and seemed on the verge of making a comeback to the big time. Larry Merchant, then a writer with the Philadelphia Daily News, wrote: "A celebration for Philadelphia's first heavyweight champ is now in order. Thom Jones titled his 2000 collection of short stories Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. That would prove to be an understatement. He also wrote that Liston's win over Patterson proved that "in a fair fight between good and evil, evil must win." Unlike Dylan or Carter, however, Knopfler does not present Liston as innocent of a crime for which he was imprisoned. The highly-anticipated May 1965 rematch between the heavyweight champions almost didn't happen. In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. He claimed the officer used racial slurs. The second round saw Liston continue to pursue Clay. And, while Patterson was growing as a fighter, Sonny was taking on mostly journeyman and starting to age. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12. Tobe and Helen had 12 children together; Sonny was the second youngest child. 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. I remember thinking as a child that this was a man who wanted to be left alone.". 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. And it was probably for the best ticket-buyers didnt exactly get their moneys worth. Knopfler, who was born in Scotland and grew up in northern England, said Liston's story was "exciting subject matter because it's so mysterious." Liston appears as a character in James Ellroy's novel The Cold Six Thousand. Audiences at home were confused and outraged. 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. [94], On January 1, Liston's wife, Geraldine, called Johnny Tocco and said she had not heard from her husband in three days and was worried. [43] A month later, Liston was accused of impersonating a police officer by using a flashlight to wave down a female motorist in Fairmount Park, although all charges were later dropped. Paul R Gallender, 2012. [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. Sonny Liston had a very sad upbringing & had to learn to survive at a young age. A few years before Tocco died, he allegedly told one of his good friends, Tony Davi, that he went to Liston's house and found the door locked and his car in the driveway. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. "And I suppose Sonny Liston always stuck with me. Sonny was definitely a specimen. "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. [39] Leading up to the fight, Liston was an 85 betting favorite, although many picked Patterson to win. 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. The Devil And Sonny Liston. Writer Jack McKinney said, "I watched Sonny. (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. Walcott never did pick up the count. With Clay quickly ducking his head left, right or away, Liston's leading left jabs largely failed to land. 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. Stuttgarter Amtsblatt No. The commotion was not lost on referee Barney Felix, who was walking toward Clay's corner. Please read the rules before posting/commenting. Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", appeared on his 2004 album Shangri-La. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. While valuing the photograph, appraiser Kathleen Guzman told. 1 contender in 1960, but the handlers of world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson refused to give him a shot at the title because of Liston's links to organized crime. In the 2001 film Ali, Liston was portrayed by former WBO Heavyweight Champion Michael Bentt. I know!" "He was afraid of needles," echoed Father Edward Murphy. [56] Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. Sports Illustrated writer Mort Sharnik said his hands "looked like cannonballs when he made them into fists." Never before seen Sonny Liston interview. Support this Channel: https://www.patreon.com/join/LegendsofBoxing Merchandise: https://www.redbubble.com/peo. [38], Patterson finally signed to meet Liston for the world title on September 25, 1962, in Comiskey Park in Chicago. The torn tendon had bled down into the mass of the biceps, swelling and numbing the arm. Clay confessed later he had been hurt by the punch, but Liston was unable to press his advantage home. Helen had one child before she married Tobe, and Tobe had 13 children with his first wife. Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. Who needed that? The Real Story behind the Ali-Liston Fights. Muhammad Ali called it his "anchor punch," a quick right hand that the young heavyweight champion claimed he had learned from his friend, actor Stepin Fetchit. [99] (3) The mob promised Liston some money to throw the second Ali fight, but they never paid him. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. 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. [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. Geraldine called Liston's attorney and his doctor, but did not notify the police until two to three hours later. [14], Tobe Liston inflicted whippings so severe on Sonny that the scars were still visible decades later. Less than 10 days later, he was Muhammad Ali, a name given him to Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam.