Sonny Liston
| Sonny Liston | |
| 200px | |
| Statistics | |
|---|---|
| Real name | Charles L. Liston |
| Nickname | Sonny |
| Rated at | Heavyweight |
| Nationality | American |
| Birth date | May 8, 1932 |
| Birth place |  Sand Slough, Arkansas
|
| Death date | December 30?, 1970 |
| Death place | Las Vegas, Nevada
|
| Stance | Orthodox |
| Boxing record | |
| Total fights | 54 |
| Wins | 50 |
| Wins by KO | 39 |
| Losses | 4 |
| Draws | 0 |
| No contests | 0 |
Charles L. "Sonny" Liston (May 8?, 1932 – December 30?, 1970), was a formidable boxer who became world heavyweight champion in 1962 by knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round, the first time Patterson had been knocked out for a count of 10. Liston was one of the most powerful punchers in the history of the heavyweight division.
Early life
There is considerable uncertainty about when Liston was actually born. He gave his birth year as 1932. Many believe he was born in 1927, though there is no son named Charles listed with the family in the 1930 census. [1]
Liston was born the son of a sharecropper in Johnson Township, St. Francis County, Arkansas. He was one of 17 children born to Tobe Liston and Helen Baskin. Liston endured frequent beatings as a child. He started to work early as his father's opinion was, "If he can sit at the table, he can work."[citation needed] This quote is also mentioned in David Remnick's book King of the World
At 13, he escaped from his father to St. Louis to reunite with his mother. His childhood experience sent him on a path that led to prison, which included finding work as a bonebreaker for the Italian Mafia. He had a bad reputation, but at home he was gentle and loving. His mean appearance in interviews was simply a result of bashfulness. [citation needed]
When the teenage Liston was sentenced to prison for taking part in the robbery of a gas station, his boxing talent was discovered by a Roman Catholic priest. Boxing helped him leave jail early. [1]
On Halloween night in 1952, he was paroled, and during a brief amateur career that spanned less than a year, he won several amateur tournaments, including Golden Gloves.
Professional boxing career
Liston made his professional debut on September 2, 1953, knocking out Don Smith in the first round in St. Louis, where he campaigned for the first five fights of his career. In his sixth bout, in Detroit, Michigan, he faced John Summerlin, who was 22-0, on national television. Liston won an eight round decision.
Liston beat Summerlin in a rematch, and then suffered his first defeat, at the hands of Marty Marshall also in Detroit. In the third round, Marshall, a defensive-minded journeyman, managed to break Liston's jaw with a right hand while Liston was laughing at the smaller man's unorthodox ring tactics. Liston proved his mettle by lasting the scheduled eight rounds despite the intense pain.
In 1955, he won six fights, five by knockout, including a rematch with Marshall, whom he knocked out in six rounds.
A rubber match with Marshall in 1956 saw him the winner by a ten round decision, but in May of that year he ran afoul of the law once again. In an incident for which varying accounts have emerged over time, Liston was accused of beating up a police officer. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine month sentence, and prohibited from boxing during 1957.
In 1958, he returned to boxing, winning eight fights that year.
1959 was a banner year for Liston. He knocked out Mike DeJohn in six, number one rated challenger Cleveland Williams in three and Nino Valdez in three. In total, he fought four times, winning all by knockout.
In 1960, Liston won five more fights, including a rematch with Williams, who only lasted two this time, with knockout wins over Roy Harris in one round and top contender Zora Folley in three rounds. Eddie Machen was the only contender not knocked out by Liston, with Liston beating him on a lopsided twelve round decision.
But Liston had difficulty getting a deserved shot at Floyd Patterson whose handlers tried to use Liston's links with the mob as an excuse against the fight.
In 1962, Liston finally signed to meet world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson for the title. The fight was going to be held in New York until the New York commission denied him a license.
As a result, the fight moved to Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois. Liston and Patterson met on September 25 of that year, and Liston became world champion by knocking out Patterson in the first round.
He was not a popular champion, and Liston was very disappointed that on his return to his hometown of Philadelphia, the fans did not come to cheer him. Jerry Spinelli, the author of the children's novel Stargirl, included him in its dedication because its protagonist has an analogous experience.
Patterson and Liston signed for a rematch, held on the evening of July 22, 1963, in Las Vegas, Nevada. This fight lasted exactly two seconds longer than their first fight, with Liston once again knocking Patterson out in the first round.
Ali versus Liston
Liston did not box again that year, and in 1964, he met a young contender named Cassius Clay on the evening of February 25 in Miami. Liston lost his title when he quit in his corner before the start of the seventh round, claiming he had hurt his shoulder. Some believed the fight was fixed, and doubted that Liston's shoulder injury was real.
On May 25, 1965, Liston again encountered Clay, now known as Muhammad Ali. The bout was originally scheduled for Boston, Massachusetts, but Ali, a week before the fight, was hospitalized with a hernia. The rescheduled match was in the town of Lewiston, Maine.
Less than two minutes into the fight, it was over. While he was pulling away from Liston, Ali hit Liston with what came to be known controversially as a "phantom punch," and Liston, who had never been knocked off his feet, went down. In the chaos that followed, referee (and former heavyweight champion) Jersey Joe Walcott never began his count over Liston and instead followed after Ali to make him go to a neutral corner, while Ali bounded around the ring yelling hysterically at Liston. The photograph of the conclusion of the fight is one of the most heavily promoted photos in the history of the media, and was even chosen as the cover of the Sports Illustrated special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos". Referee Walcott stopped the fight after the two men began boxing again because a ringside sportswriter yelled out that Liston had been lying on the canvas for more than 10 seconds.
Many believed the fight was fixed.[2] George Chuvalo, who sat in the fourth row at ringside and later fought Ali twice, said, "It was a phony." Floyd Patterson also said he did not believe the fight was on the level, as did former heavyweight champions Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney and Joe Louis. [1]. However, Sports Illustrated in 1965 ran a frame-by-frame analysis and concluded that the punch was real. [3]
Subsequent fights
Liston took one year off from boxing, returning in 1966 and 1967, winning four bouts in a row in Sweden, including one over Amos Johnson. In 1968, he won seven fights, all by knockout, including one in Mexico.
In 1969, he had three wins and one loss. Among his wins was a 10-round decision over Billy Joiner at St. Louis, but in his last bout that year, he lost by a knockout in nine rounds to Leotis Martin at Las Vegas. Martin's career ended after the fight because of a detached retina. Liston won his last fight by knockout in 1970, against Chuck Wepner.
Death
Liston was at the end of his fighting career when, on January 5, 1971 he was found dead by his wife in their Las Vegas home. The time of death has been placed as six to eight days prior to that, and several sources list December 30, 1970 as his date of passing. He was believed to have been 38 years old. In the course of an obviously flawed investigation, Las Vegas police claimed they found no signs of foul play. Many believed the police investigation was a sham. [1]
The precise cause of Liston's death is mysterious; the police declared it a heroin overdose, yet Liston was well known to have a phobia of needles. After winning the title, Liston at first refused to go on an exhibition tour of Europe when he was told he would have to get shots before he could travel overseas. All this prompted rumors that he could have been murdered by some of his underworld contacts. In the opinion of some, the case of Liston's death remains unsolved. [1]
This death was documented on the show Unsolved Mysteries.
Liston is interred in Paradise Memorial Gardens in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Trivia
- Liston's half brother, E.B. Ward, was the father of musician B.B. King (Totally unsubstantiated , and highly unlikely:1/Liston's parents had 17 kids together, and his mother, (a Mr.Ward being the father), had others? 2/The oldest E.B. Ward on record was born in 1915, only 7 years before King's 1925 birth.3/ All other sources list a sharecropper named Albert King as BB's father.)
- Liston's image appears on The Beatles's album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
- Liston made a cameo appearance in the 1968 film Head, which starred The Monkees.
- Liston played the part of the "Farmer" in the 1970 film Moonfire, with Richard Egan and Charles Napier.
- He is 6'0.5 inches tall.
- Liston has been the subject of songs by Sun Kil Moon, The Animals, The Mountain Goats, Phil Ochs, Morrissey, Chuck E. Weiss, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Tom Petty, and Mark Knopfler.
- Liston appeared in a 1960s Braniff Airlines TV commercial with Andy Warhol. [1]
- Liston's favorite song was "Night Train". He was known to repeat both versions (Jimmy Forrest's original 1952 version and James Brown's 1965 smash hit) during long rope jumping sessions.
- Liston was friends with The Kray Twins.
- The exact dates of Sonny Liston's birth and death are both unknown.
- Brian DeVido's 2004 novel Every Time I Talk to Liston (Bloomsbury USA) details a boxer's attempts to draw inspiration from visits to Liston's Las Vegas grave.
- Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", can be heard on his 2004 album Shangri-La.
- Liston is mentioned in the Billy Joel song "We didn't Start the Fire": "Liston beats Patterson."
- Liston is mentioned in the Sun Kil Moon song "Glenn Tipton". This song is also found on Mark Kozelek's 2006 live solo album "Little Drummer Boy". Lyrics: "Cassius Clay was hated more than Sonny Liston. Some like KK Downing more than Glenn Tipton. Some like Jim Nabors, some Bobby Vinton. I like 'em all..."
- Liston is mentioned in the Roll Deep song "Badman": "Youths go missing in the system, get banged up like Sonny Liston"
- Liston is mentioned in the Wu Tang Clan song "Triumph": "Sound convincing, thousand dollar court by convention hands like Sonny Liston"
- Liston appears as a character of James Ellroy's novel "The Cold Six Thousand".
- Hunter S. Thompson's novel Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas mentions Liston: "The idea that two heroin pushers in a white Cadillac convertible would be dragging up and down the Strip, abusing total strangers at stoplights, was prima facie absurd. Not even Sonny Liston ever got that far out of control."
- The TV show E-Ring features a character named Samantha "Sonny" Liston.
- "The Munsters" episode 23, season 1, entitled "Follow That Munster" (original air date 2-25-1965) references Liston when Lily calls herself "Sonny Liston" as she stikes Herman in the jaw, knocking him down.
See also
- Muhammad Ali versus Sonny Liston
- List of heavyweight boxing champions
- List of male boxers
- List of WBC world champions
Liston is referenced in the song "Love Love Love" by the Mountain Goats.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nick Tosches, The Devil And Sonny Liston, 2000, Little, Brown, USA, ISBN 0-316-89775-2
- ↑ Andrew Vachss, Only Child, Vintage, 2003. Vachss further explains the way such a fix would have been engineered in Two Trains Running, Pantheon, 2005.
- ↑ Sports Illustrated, June 7, 1965
External links
- International Boxing Hall of Fame - Sonny Liston
- The Cyber Boxing Zone - Sonny Liston
- Muhammad Ali vs Sonny Liston - Great Audio track
- Liston's death
| Preceded by: Floyd Patterson |
Heavyweight boxing champion 1962 – 1964 |
Succeeded by: Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) |
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