THE PREFIGHT MOODS OF SONNY LISTON. Sonny Liston Interview 82,818 views Apr 2, 2014 1.3K Dislike Share Save haNZAgod 93.2K subscribers Subscribe A rare interview with former Heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Liston.. He took one and went down. Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. [59], Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. Inter-Continental said local veteran Sam Silverman was the promoter. "But can he hit!" [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. Watch the interview you be the judge. A grateful Liston found there was no need to give chase. Skeptics called the knockout blow "the phantom punch." There are no official records of his birth 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. It'll just be for slow guitar, soft trumpet and a bell.". The most iconic photo in boxing history documents the knockout that almost nobody saw happen. [15] In 1946, Helen Baskin, along with some of her children, moved to St. Louis to seek factory work. It was the first time in his career that Liston had been cut. 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, . His wife said he was a kind & gentle hearted person who cared deeply for children & that no one ever saw that side of him except those closest to him, I believe theres a documentary somewhere on YouTube Id recommend watching it. You really never watched the first fight did you? One memo, dated 24 May 1966, outlined an interview with Houston gambler Barnett Magids, who believed Liston would win. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. Once he went down, I got excited. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" After two rounds, Wilson had taken enough. Knopfler said the track "uses a lot of the country-blues style of playing that I started to absorb when I was young.". You could feel the deflation, see the look of hurt in his eyes. [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. Liston was depicted as a bad guy by the media, a handbreaker for the mafia. [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]. Please read the rules before posting/commenting. The ending of the fight remains one of the most controversial in boxing history. Concert Preview/Interview: John Lodge of the Moody Blues on Reprising "Days of Future Passed . Writer Jack McKinney said, "I watched Sonny. Larry Merchant, then a writer with the Philadelphia Daily News, wrote: "A celebration for Philadelphia's first heavyweight champ is now in order. He could have remained typecast as a musician performing rock songs. Liston was the subject of a 2008 feature film based upon his life titled Phantom Punch. So I went down. Tocco called the police, and they broke into the house. [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 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. [83] Herb Goldman stated that Liston, when in his prime between 1958 and 1963, was the most feared fighter in boxing history. Sonny Liston shot a gun at Muhammad Ali. Walcott never did pick up the count. Less than 10 days later, he was Muhammad Ali, a name given him to Elijah Muhammad, the head of the Nation of Islam. The fight lasted four seconds longer than the first one. 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." Sonny Liston was one of the hardest hitters the boxing world has ever seen. 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. Authorities theorized that he was undressing for bed when he fell over backward with such force that he broke the rail of the bench. But he spoke to his friend Resnick on the day of the fight and was told not to bet on the champion. 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. [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. 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. 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. On September 7, 1954, Liston suffered defeat for the first time in his eighth professional fight, losing to Marty Marshall, a journeyman with an awkward style. [35] There are several theories as to why: (1) publicist Harold Conrad and others believed Liston had been deeply involved as a bill collector of a loansharking ring in Las Vegas. Even before the first punch was thrown, the May 25, 1965 bout between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston . The governor of nearby Maine, John Reed, stepped up and volunteered to host it in the small town of Lewiston, where a resort and ice rink could provide some infrastructure. He was 6ft 1in (1.85m), and had an exceptionally powerful physique, with a disproportionately long reach at 84 inches (2.13m). 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. Liston was particularly known for his immense strength, formidable jab, long reach, toughness, and his infamously intimidating appearance. Numerous fans booed and started yelling, "Fix!" 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. Joe Louis commenting on TV at ringside said "It's looking good for Sonny Liston". 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. I know!" 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. "[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 had a deadly fear of needles," said Davey Pearl, a boxing referee and friend of Liston's. 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'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. It was probably Liston's best moment in the entire fight. Officially, Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot. Thom Jones titled his 2000 collection of short stories Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine. Soon, he was known as Cassius X, eschewing the last name given to his enslaved family by their owners. Patterson's fatal mistake was that he "did not punch enough and frequently tried to clinch with Liston. 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. Rode with the muggers in the dark and dread and all them sluggers went down like lead. Audiences at home were confused and outraged. 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. "[82] Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. The film starred Ving Rhames as Liston and was produced by Rhames, Hassain Zaidi and Marek Posival. [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. While true he also sent women to the hospital, which his sparring partner confirms. Even before the first punch was thrown, the May 25, 1965 bout between .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston, during which the photo was snapped, was already shaping up to be the stuff of legends. Liston tried going to school but quickly left after jeers about his illiteracy; the only employment he could obtain was sporadic and exploitative. Boston: Little, Brown. ", Ali clearly did not think he knocked Liston out. [51], Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. Tosches, Nick (2000). Press J to jump to the feed. At one point, Liston had Clay against the ropes and landed a hard left hook. That got him killed. Suddenly, the world had to come to grips with a new kind of heavyweight champion. Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. The Murder of Sonny Liston: A Story of Fame, Heroin, Boxing & Las Vegas Pan publisher; 2017. The Murder of Sonny Liston is an absorbing, albeit speculative, attempt at addressing the mystery that died with the man. Both fights were in Summerlin's hometown of Detroit.[23]. [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. Half a mile above and beyond the shrine, looking down from the summit of the mountain, is a statue of the Sacred Heart. He was a gentle man. Cleveland Williams was the last person to defeat Liston and made $100,000 for his efforts. Underworld connections and his unrecorded dates of birth and death added to the enigma. I dont have to be what you want me to be, Clay told agitated reporters. "There's no doubt that he was mean," Knopfler said of Liston. After the second loss to Ali, Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. Liston's story, Knopfler said, "is great for a writer for many reasons. 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. Sonny Liston, once the heavyweight champ, died at the age of who-knows-what some days before Dec. 30, 1970. Before he left for his bout with Clay, Sonny's training in Denver took him to some strange places. Philadelphia wanted nothing to do with him. Top contender Zora Folley was stopped in three rounds. Some writers thought Liston brought bad press on himself by a surly and hostile attitude toward journalists. Liston retired in his corner due to an inflamed shoulder. He is a relatively elementary, one-track fighter." His father, Tobe Liston, was in his mid 40s when he and his wife, Helen Baskin, who was almost 30 years younger than Tobe, moved to Arkansas from Mississippi in 1916. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. Clay confessed later he had been hurt by the punch, but Liston was unable to press his advantage home. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. There's never been anybody as ruthless. Sonny Liston, I think was possibly the greatest intimidator of all time. [52][53] It was the first time since 1919when Jack Dempsey defeated Jess Willardthat a world heavyweight champion had quit on his stool. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. knockout kimbo slice evander holyfield nogueira wladimir vitali klitschko haye mma brutal bareknuckle headbutt lowblow foul dirty boxer funny bob sapp david cesar chavez joe frazier rocky marciano larry holmes felix trinidad jackson new tribute video highlight dirtiest best brock lesnar julio cesar ricky hatton randy couture israel vasquez juan manuel marquez antonio margarito felix tito trinidad antonio rodrigo minotauro marco antonio barrera john ruiz freddie roach hector camacho pernell whitaker willie pep sugar ray robinson shane mosley antonio tarver roy jones joe cortez lennox lewis david haye haymaker wladimir vitali vladimir klitschko klitchko prediction prefight postfight press conferencetex cobb gerry cooney jerry pierre coetzer floyd roger mayweather arturo gatti rocky graziano graciano tony zale dariusz michalczewski rocky rocchigiani henry maske james toney vassily jirov vasily unbelievable knockout ko k.o. Liston kept running into trouble with the law and Ali had a target on his back after the assassination of Malcolm X, whom he had disavowed after Elijah Muhammad forced him out of the Nation of Islam. According to Liston's trainer, Willie Reddish, Liston cancelled a planned tour to Africa in 1963 because he refused to get the required inoculations. Alois Stevens, suggested to Liston that he try boxing, and his obvious aptitude, along with an endorsement from Stevens, who was also a priest, aided Liston in getting an early parole. Roy Harris, who had gone 13 rounds with Floyd Patterson in a title match, was crushed in one round by Liston. . [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. Wepner needed 72 stitches and suffered a broken cheekbone and nose. But as it approached, there were fears that the promoters were tied to organized crime and Massachusetts officials, most notably Suffolk County District Attorney Garrett H. Byrne, began to have second thoughts. The fight lasted less than one full round, with Ali knocking out Liston at the 1:44 mark. 589 Share 23K views 1 year ago Rare interview of Sonny Liston colorized. [72], "I was an 'intimidator' until I fought Sonny Liston. [citation needed], The fight turned out to be a mismatch. In the first fight, in Miami, a 22-year-old Cassius Clay danced around the ring, taunted Liston, promised reporters hed shock the world, and then delivered on that promise with a blistering late attack that prompted Liston to toss in the towel after the sixth round. All Rights Reserved. [22], Early in his career, Liston faced capable opponents. After repeated overnight detention by the St. Louis police and a thinly veiled threat to his life, Liston left for Philadelphia. [34] Many African-Americans disdained Liston. Name: Sonny Liston Birth Name: Charles L. Liston Hometown: Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Birthplace: Johnson Township, Arkansas, USA Died: 1970-12-30 (Age:40) Stance: Orthodox Height: 185cm Reach: 213cm Referee: Record Pro Boxer: Record Amateur Boxer: Record Managers: Jack Nilon, Joe (Pep) Barone, Eddie Polino, George Katz, Frank Mitchell, Dick Sadler My man. Sit down!' In these feckless clinches he only managed to tie up one of Liston's arms. Mike DeJohn was the highest paid boxer at $15,000 while James Dickey received $20,000. [8] Convicted and sentenced to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary, Liston started his prison time on June 1, 1950. He said they found Liston lying on his bed with a needle sticking out of his arm. And, while Patterson was growing as a fighter, Sonny was taking on mostly journeyman and starting to age. He would later employ McCarter as a sparring partner. Ali would lose his title a year later, though it didnt happen in the ring. (. 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 death under mysterious circumstances. "[75], Future world heavyweight champion George Foreman, who sparred with Liston after Foreman's amateur career, assessed Liston's jab as the most formidable he faced and Liston as the strongest man he encountered in the ring, describing Liston as having the most natural talent and skill. He pulled the same stuff Walcott did against Marciano. The second fight? ", The Liston song appears on an album called "Shangri-La." [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. Mark Knopfler's tribute to Liston, "Song for Sonny Liston", appeared on his 2004 album Shangri-La. In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. Muhammad Ali biographer Jonathan Eig shared a new theory as to why Sonny Liston may have taken a dive in the boxers' second bout. "He had a left like Henry's hammer," Knopfler sings, "a right like Betty Bamalam. [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. He is seen in the far left part of the row, wearing a white and gold robe, standing beside the original-look Beatle wax figures. "I was rooting around in my childhood, maybe the way you do when you get to a certain age," Knopfler said. 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.". When Walcott got back to Liston and looked at the knockdown timekeeper, Francis McDonough, to pick up the count, Liston had fallen back on the canvas. [93] Liston had been hospitalized in early December, complaining of chest pains. . In the 2020 film One Night in Miami, Liston is played by Aaron D. Alexander. Tobe and Helen had 12 children together; Sonny was the second youngest child. I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey, there's no one like I'm from their . 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. After demolishing these top-ranked fighters in the heavyweight division, Liston was regarded as the top-contender champion-in-waiting. World light-heavyweight champion Jos Torres said, "It was a perfect punch." The champion was stripped of the belt when he refused to be drafted into the armed services during the Vietnam War, and he didnt box again in a match that counted until 1970. .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. The previous month, Schreibauer had won a bronze medal in the European Championships. Sonny Liston is considered by many as the most intimidating boxer of all time with a devastating jab which is widely regarded as one of the best in heavyweight history. 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. The year 1959 was a banner one for Liston: after knocking out contender Mike DeJohn in six rounds he faced Cleveland Williams, a fast-handed fighter who was billed as the hardest-hitting heavyweight in the world against whom he showed durability, power and skill, nullifying Williams' best work before stopping him in the third round. But others contend he just was not the same Liston. Interview Date: March 13, 1989 Camera Rolls: 2104-2105 Sound Rolls: 248 Editorial Notes: Interview with , conducted by Blackside, Inc. on March 13, 1989, for . 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." [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". [85] Geraldine had a daughter from a previous marriage, and the Listons subsequently adopted a boy from Sweden. Dennis Caputo of the Clark County Sheriff's Department was one of the first officers on the scene. [79][80][81] These include Muhammad Ali, who stated in a 1975 interview that he was a great admirer of Liston's talents: "Liston had a tremendous jab, could punch with either hand, was smart in the ring and as strong as any heavyweight Ive ever seen. Controversy followed with claims that Liston had been drinking heavily the night before the fight and had entered the bout with a lame shoulder. We cooked up that shoulder thing on the spot. According to a New York Times report the day after the fight, Clay was indeed an official member of the Nation of Islam. Three days before the fight, Ali needed emergency surgery for a strangulated hernia. His death was, too. Liston returned to the United States and won seven fights, all by knockout, in 1968, increasing his string to eleven. Also, scar tissue, possibly from needle marks, was found in the bend of Liston's left elbow. RARE Sonny Liston Interview before the first Ali fight 1964 in Color Legends of Boxing in Color 22K views 10 months ago On the Spot show with Max Goldberg featuring the heavyweight champion. said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. Night Train is like $11 on Amazon, peep that if you want to get more of the story, i don't like how max was squeezing sonny's bicep. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. Liston's wife also recalled that her husband would refuse basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles. There are echoes of slavery in his upbringing." And it was probably for the best ticket-buyers didnt exactly get their moneys worth. The bout would need to be delayed by six months. Because of the shirt he wore during robberies, the St. Louis police called Liston the "Yellow Shirt Bandit." 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.. For confetti we can use torn-up arrest warrants." "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. 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 . 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. There were plenty of tough questions after the first fight for Liston, too, namely, why didnt he come out for another round?