", Chuck Wepner on Liston's intimidating appearance. Very rare interview of Sonny Liston talking about how he got started in boxing, his fights with Williams and Patterson and his training routine. Liston also appears in the sequel, Blood's a Rover. C'mon now, this is for the title, this is the big apple. "He had a left like Henry's hammer," Knopfler sings, "a right like Betty Bamalam. Less than 10 days later, he was Muhammad Ali, a name given him to Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam. Joe Louis commenting on TV at ringside said "It's looking good for Sonny Liston". The Ring magazine ranks Liston as the tenth greatest heavyweight of all time,[4] while boxing writer Herb Goldman ranked him second and Richard O'Brien, Senior Editor of Sports Illustrated, placed him third. [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! "[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. 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. Tale of the tape: Fight poster for Sonny Liston v Cassius Clay in 1964. . "[35] Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. Sonny Liston in his prime . Sonny Liston was one of the hardest hitters the boxing world has ever seen. The fight lasted less than one full round, with Ali knocking out Liston at the 1:44 mark. Sports Illustrated writer Gilbert Rogin wrote that "that final left hook crashed into Patterson's cheek like a diesel rig going downhill, no brakes." [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. [50] Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. Liston had never been knocked out before, and most people didnt even see the punch happen. Because of that, Cage may have thought Sonny was an informant and shot him with a hot dose as retribution. To this day, I'm convinced that's what the coroner saw in his examthat hospital needle mark. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot. Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. 'What's My Name| Muhammad Ali' Proves Why Ali's The Greatest - VIBE.com Audiences at home were confused and outraged. "From Bad Buck to White Hope: Journalism and Sonny Liston, 19581965. Boston: Little, Brown. 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". [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. [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. Patterson, a 4-1 betting underdog, was knocked down three times and counted out at 2:10 of the first round. 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. Knopfler said the track "uses a lot of the country-blues style of playing that I started to absorb when I was young.". .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. In the months ahead of the fight, Muhammad Ali went all sorts of routes to get into Sonny Liston's head. "He said, 'Cut the gloves off. It made a champion out of Clay, who declared that hed shook up the world.. Liston tried going to school but quickly left after jeers about his illiteracy; the only employment he could obtain was sporadic and exploitative. At one point in this attack, Liston was rocked as he was driven to the ropes. Unlike Dylan or Carter, however, Knopfler does not present Liston as innocent of a crime for which he was imprisoned. Never before seen Sonny Liston interview. Support this Channel: https://www.patreon.com/join/LegendsofBoxing Merchandise: https://www.redbubble.com/peo. [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. [105], Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows. [31] While Liston began working into shape with hopes for a heavyweight title shot, he also continued his criminal behavior. "Now (after seeing video) I think Clay, seeing the opening, snapped the punch the last six inches. "He was scared, he was scared of so many things," Knopfler said. 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 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." After the second loss to Ali, Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. 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. December 1963 extended Interview with Champion Sonny Liston - discusses [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. [35] Liston's victory was loudly booed. Liston was depicted as a bad guy by the media, a handbreaker for the mafia. With the proceeds, he traveled to St. Louis to live with his mother. Welcome to r/boxing, the official home of pro boxing on Reddit! [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]. NPR's Robert Siegel talks to Gary Robinov, director of Raising Ali, a film about the 50th anniversary of the heavyweight boxing match between Muhammed Ali and Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine.. According to a New York Times report the day after the fight, Clay was indeed an official member of the Nation of Islam. 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. Theories regarding the circumstance of Liston's death. In the third round, Clay began to take control of the fight. Walcott never did pick up the count. 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. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. [24], In 1958, Liston returned to boxing. In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before his death in May 2009, Liston said he regretted . While true he also sent women to the hospital, which his sparring partner confirms. [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. You could feel the deflation, see the look of hurt in his eyes. And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, back up, baby. Mark Knopfler enjoyed widespread popularity in the 1980's as the leader of Dire Straits, lending his husky voice to hit songs like "Sultans of Swing" and "Money for Nothing." [citation needed], Rogin wrote that Patterson backers expected him to "go inside on Liston, fire away and then run like a thief in the night. 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. And it was probably for the best ticket-buyers didnt exactly get their moneys worth. [86] Former light-heavyweight champion Jose Torres said, "I have never met an athlete in baseball, basketball or football who is smarter, more intelligent than Sonny Liston". It became known as the phantom punch and has been the subject of controversy and speculation for the last 55 years. [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. Tradues em contexto de "with Sonny" en ingls-portugus da Reverso Context : I think you should stay here with Sonny. He had the whole package. [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. He was more angry about that shot than he was about the car wreck. Muhammad Ali: FBI probed 1964 Sonny Liston fight for match-fixing Tobe and Helen had 12 children together; Sonny was the second youngest child. 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. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. In "Song for Sonny Liston," Knopfler's voice is backed by electric guitar, a bass and drums as he tells the story of a sharecropper's son who went from prison to the championship to an early. 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. "When he first got to the big city, he was hanging out with a bunch of people who were just looking for trouble.". [76][77] Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. BOXING Correction: July 15, 2005, Friday A sports picture caption on Wednesday with an article about Mark Knopfler's ballad for the boxer Sonny Liston referred incorrectly in some copies to the year in which Muhammad Ali knocked out Liston in Lewiston, Me. His death was, too. interview with Alex Haley in Muhammad Ali by Thomas Hauser. 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, . Sonny was definitely a specimen. [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. "It was common knowledge that Sonny was a heroin addict," said Sgt. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Very Rare interview with Sonny Liston and Joe Louis. Support this Channel:https://www.patreon.com/LegendsofBoxing Merchandise:LegendsofBoxing.redbubble.com I restore \u0026 colorize your projects, PayPal Donations: LegendsofBoxingYT@gmail.comThank you!________________________________________________________________________________All My YouTube ChannelsMy Main Channel \"Legends of Boxing\": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC73ffQAknNEWJlRoFSWH_awMy Second Boxing Channel \"Legends of Boxing Strikes Back\": 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/ "[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. 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. Gary Beckwith said, "It wasn't uncommon for family members in these cases to go through and tidy up to save family embarrassment. Clay brought Malcolm X along with him to Miami, and amid the controversy, the fight was almost canceled. Liston had thrown a jab with his left arm and, leaning forward, took a right hook from Ali right to the skull. More on that in a second. On May 5, 1956, a policeman confronted Liston and a friend about a cab parked near Liston's home. 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. And the face, it was an unforgettable face. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. The opening round was fought an extra eight seconds, since both fighters and referee Barney Felix apparently did not hear the bell. But by the sixth round his sight had cleared, and a clearly enraged Clay fought a blisteringly aggressive round landing numerous combination punches. Joe Frazier vs Sonny Liston : r/Boxing - Reddit Liston didn't seem to mind though. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. 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. There were plenty of tough questions after the first fight for Liston, too, namely, why didnt he come out for another round? He was 6ft 1in (1.85m), and had an exceptionally powerful physique, with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches (2.13m). Boxings brightest young star was again squaring off against a renowned bruiser in a rematch of their thrilling and controversial heavyweight championship fight one year prior, a fight that was followed by 14 months of international intrigue and the combustible politics of the 1960s. Some found it suspicious that authorities could not locate any drug paraphernalia that Liston presumably would have needed to inject the fatal dose, such as a spoon to cook the heroin or a tourniquet to wrap around his arm. ", It was later theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cut man, may have caused the irritation. He rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. Sonny Liston had a controversial boxing career, winning 54 of 58 bouts from 1953 to 1970. Suffolk County, where Boston is located, ultimately pulled the plug, leaving them without a venue with less than a month to go. Then again, you can also have guys like Ali or Mike Tyson. 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. Ali did neither. After demolishing these top-ranked fighters in the heavyweight division, Liston was regarded as the top-contender champion-in-waiting. The connections to organized crime were an advantage early in his career but were later used against him. "I remember him telling me one day that he found himself watching boxing but he didn't like the way it made him feel," Knopfler said. The toxicology report said his body was too decomposed for the tests to be conclusive. Don't confuse shyness with dullness, Sonny was. Press J to jump to the feed. 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. Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. He won eight fights that year, six by knockout. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. 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. that startles everyone in a 100 foot radius. Writer Jack McKinney said, "I watched Sonny. "He had a deadly fear of needles," said Davey Pearl, a boxing referee and friend of Liston's. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. 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. "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.
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2021 Walker Cup Merchandise, Articles S