sonny liston interview sonny liston interview

"[35] However, in 1963 in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, Liston broke off a European boxing exhibition tour to return home and was quoted as saying he was "ashamed to be in America. 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. [100] A successful racehorse which won the Irish St Leger classic race in 2021 was named Sonnyboyliston. Liston was a heavy favorite. 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. But he spoke to his friend Resnick on the day of the fight and was told not to bet on the champion. Banker said he was told by police that Liston had been seen at a house that would be the target of a drug raid. Patterson's fatal mistake was that he "did not punch enough and frequently tried to clinch with Liston. ", Knopfler compared writing a song about Liston to the work a sculptor performs on a statue. 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." In his own words in Thomas Hauser's 1991 biography: "The punch jarred him. He was scared of the black-power movement. Ali called it "the anchor punch." . The fight ranks as one of the shortest heavyweight title bouts in history. 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. Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot. 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. He said it was taught to him by comedian and film actor Stepin Fetchit, who learned it from Jack Johnson. The most iconic photo in boxing history documents the knockout that almost nobody saw happen. The mysterious life of 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. "[54] Hall of Fame matchmaker Teddy Brenner also disputed the shoulder injury, claiming he saw Liston use the same arm to throw a chair in his dressing room after the match. He won eight fights that year, six by knockout. He then left the fighters to go over to McDonough. Paul R Gallender, 2012. According to a New York Times report the day after the fight, Clay was indeed an official member of the Nation of Islam. [citation needed], Liston competed in the 1953 United States National Championships at Boston Garden and passed the preliminaries, stopping Lou Graff in the second round on April 13, but lost in the quarterfinals to 17-year-old Jimmy McCarter on April 15. Roy Harris, who had gone 13 rounds with Floyd Patterson in a title match, was crushed in one round by Liston. Underworld connections and his unrecorded dates of birth and death added to the enigma. On April 21, 1955, he defeated Marshall in a rematch, dropping him four times en route to a sixth-round knockout. Knopfler said the track "uses a lot of the country-blues style of playing that I started to absorb when I was young.". Audiences at home were confused and outraged. The most iconic photo in boxing history documents the knockout that almost nobody saw happen. "[35] Although largely illiterate through lack of schooling, Liston was a more complex and interesting individual than has often been acknowledged. "[18], After Liston was released from prison on October 31, 1952, he had a brief amateur career that spanned less than a year. "He said: 'Look what they did!' "[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. He had the whole package. He used the platform to expound on the political theory that was so reviled in white America, defending Malcolm X and condemning racial oppression this was still months before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 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]. Good lord, Sonny's mitts are massive. I didn't want anything to do with him. 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. Washington University Libraries, Film and Media Archive, Henry Hampton Collection. He could probably drive his thumb through your skull like Michael Myers, It's crazy to think about the fact that Sonny Liston was an actual gangster running with gangs.. and then he looks so soft spoken in the interview. [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him. [21], Liston made his professional debut on September 2, 1953, knocking out Don Smith in the first round in St. Louis, where he fought his first five bouts. And I said, 'Whoa, whoa, back up, baby. 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 . [36], Jack Dempsey spoke for many when he was quoted as saying that Sonny Liston should not be allowed to fight for the title. The toxicology report said his body was too decomposed for the tests to be conclusive. All Rights Reserved. Furthermore, that count cannot be started until the fighter scoring the knockdown goes to and remains in a neutral corner. They fought for a third time on March 6, 1956, which Liston won by a ten-round unanimous decision. . I'm the best ever. You really never watched the first fight did you? And, while Patterson was growing as a fighter, Sonny was taking on mostly journeyman and starting to age. 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. 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. The fight quickly descended into chaos. Maybe he was. 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. He also took his gun. For his part, Liston said that the referees inability to keep track of time doomed him, as he didnt know when to get up from the mat. Also, McDonough did not bang on the canvas or motion a number count with his fingers. Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was "no phantom punch." After Ali's win against Sonny Liston, he wouldn't . That would prove to be an understatement. Clay brought Malcolm X along with him to Miami, and amid the controversy, the fight was almost canceled. Sit down!' In his 1965 rematch with Ali, Liston suffered an unexpected first-round knockout that led to unresolved suspicions of a fix. He also had a reputation for bullying people such as porters and waitresses. [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. The highly-anticipated May 1965 rematch between the heavyweight champions almost didn't happen. I never saw. ", Hutchison, Phillip J. ", Chuck Wepner on Liston's intimidating appearance. Before he left for his bout with Clay, Sonny's training in Denver took him to some strange places. He won by a seventh-round technical knockout, and seemed on the verge of making a comeback to the big time. The opening round was fought an extra eight seconds, since both fighters and referee Barney Felix apparently did not hear the bell. In the 2001 film Ali, Liston was portrayed by former WBO Heavyweight Champion Michael Bentt. [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. Liston was particularly known for his immense strength, formidable jab, long reach, toughness, and his infamously intimidating appearance. And the Muslims were coming up. Unfortunately for Martin, however, his career ended after that fight due to a detached retina he suffered during the bout. Carwin probably wasn't even that tall. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Tocco called the police, and they broke into the house. It was more likely that Liston was out of shape according to a story in Esquire at the time, Liston trained as normal, running around five miles a day, eating hot dogs and drinking beer. He was also possibly much older than his listed 32 years than anything else Liston was the second-youngest of 25 children to parents who didnt exactly keep records of birthdates. 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. [42], Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. Tale of the tape: Fight poster for Sonny Liston v Cassius Clay in 1964. . After the second loss to Ali, Liston stayed out of the ring for more than a year. "He had a deadly fear of needles," said Davey Pearl, a boxing referee and friend of Liston's. In that same book Liston was quoted two years after the fight: "Ali knocked me down with a sharp punch. The following year, Sonnydetermined to reunite with his mother and siblingsthrashed the pecans from his brother-in-law's tree and sold them in Forrest City, Arkansas. "You're putting things on and you're taking this out and molding it," Knopfler said. [55], There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight. 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. "I'm doing a portrait of a life, really, in a way, so you are trying to get the whole thing into just a few verses. Dude was only 6'2 and his hands dwarfed Lesnar's. "From Bad Buck to White Hope: Journalism and Sonny Liston, 19581965. In "Sailing to Philadelphia," a duet with James Taylor, Knopfler told of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon traveling from England to North America to draw the Mason-Dixon line. I know!" 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. [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. [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. 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. 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." Controversy followed with claims that Liston had been drinking heavily the night before the fight and had entered the bout with a lame shoulder. On May 7, backers of the rematch ended the court battle by pulling the fight out of Boston. "It really has made an impact, actually from the very first time I performed it on 'A Prairie Home Companion,"' Knopfler said in a telephone interview. [76][77] Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. Sonny Liston was one of the hardest hitters the boxing world has ever seen. [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. In an interview with The Associated Press shortly before his death in May 2009, Liston said he regretted . Suffolk County, where Boston is located, ultimately pulled the plug, leaving them without a venue with less than a month to go. There was something caustic in both eyes." Reminds me of former UFC fighter Shane Carwin. For those too young to remember, Sonny "The Big Bear" Liston was a legendary heavyweight boxer. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. Sonny Liston | Boxing's Most Intimidating and Unwanted Champion Rainy Day Boxing 302K subscribers 5.6M views 1 year ago Join Rainy Day Boxing for an in depth career tribute to arguably the most. I'm Sonny Liston, I'm Jack Dempsey, there's no one like I'm from their . Liston won his final fight, a tough but one-sided match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970. One memo, dated 24 May 1966, outlined an interview with Houston gambler Barnett Magids, who believed Liston would win. The photo depicted Ali standing over his opponent, Sonny Liston, after delivering a final blow that knocked Liston to the ground. Maule, Tex (March 9, 1964). Muhammad Ali biographer Jonathan Eig shared a new theory as to why Sonny Liston may have taken a dive in the boxers' second bout. But a Senate subcommittee hearing turned up no evidence of any match-fixing, and doctors confirmed his explanation that hed taken such damage to his shoulder that he couldnt feel his arm. [14], Tobe Liston inflicted whippings so severe on Sonny that the scars were still visible decades later. Muhammad Ali (at the time a rising contender named Cassius Clay), however, predicted a knockout by Liston in the first five rounds. The Murder of Sonny Liston is an absorbing, albeit speculative, attempt at addressing the mystery that died with the man. [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". 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. It burned like hell. Soon, he was known as Cassius X, eschewing the last name given to his enslaved family by their owners. That got him killed. My man. Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. Biographer Wilfrid Sheed wrote in his book, Muhammad Ali: A Portrait in Words and Photographs, that Clay's protests were heard by ringside members of the Nation of Islam who initially suspected Dundee had blinded his fighter, and that the trainer deliberately wiped his own eyes with the corner sponge to demonstrate to Clay's approaching bodyguards that he had not intentionally blinded him. When Patterson met with the president in January 1962, Kennedy suggested that Patterson avoid Liston, citing Justice Department concerns over Liston's ties to organized crime. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. 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. Sonny Liston fought for only $10,000 during his career. On the album's lyric sheet, below the Liston song, Knopfler includes a famous quotation from Liston from 1962: "Some day, they're gonna write a blues for fighters. In the novel, Liston not only drinks but also pops pills and works as a sometime enforcer for a heroin ring in Las Vegas. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. Some writers thought Liston brought bad press on himself by a surly and hostile attitude toward journalists. The story goes that Liston was born somewhere . [56] Sports Illustrated writer Tex Maule wrote that Liston's shoulder injury was legitimate. (, Shaun Assael. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. He had a whiplash, so they took him to the hospital," said boxing trainer Johnny Tocco. He then outpointed Julius Griffin, winner of the New York Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions, to capture the Intercity Golden Gloves Championship on March 26 (representing Chicago). What are you doing? Mike DeJohn was the highest paid boxer at $15,000 while James Dickey received $20,000. ", This page was last edited on 7 February 2023, at 06:36. [71] Credence to the latter theory is provided by the fact that Liston, immediately after his fight with Chuck Wepner, seemed more concerned about supporting the proposed Ali-Frazier bout and Ali's claims to be champion than promoting his own career.