sonny liston interview

sonny liston interview

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.". He allegedly later told an assistant that he took a dive because he was afraid of the consequences of beating Ali he thought it would put a target on his own back. 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. Liston returned to the United States and won seven fights, all by knockout, in 1968, increasing his string to eleven. In the months ahead of the fight, Muhammad Ali went all sorts of routes to get into Sonny Liston's head. 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. These transcripts contain material that did not appear in the final program. He was a gentle man. Larry Merchant, then a writer with the Philadelphia Daily News, wrote: "A celebration for Philadelphia's first heavyweight champ is now in order. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. Dude was only 6'2 and his hands dwarfed Lesnar's. He would not close in until the accumulated inside damage and Liston's own frustration had sapped the challenger's strength and will." But former Las Vegas police Sgt. Known for his powerful punch, the majority of his victories were knockouts. [97], "The month before he died, some guy ran into Sonny while he was making a left turn. There are echoes of slavery in his upbringing." [62] The promoters needed a new location quickly, whatever the size, to rescue their closed-circuit television commitment around the country. One memo, dated 24 May 1966, outlined an interview with Houston gambler Barnett Magids, who believed Liston would win. On July 28, 1963, Liston joined a group of 500 African Americans in Denver who marched to a post office to mail letters urging the Colorado congressional delegation to pass the Kennedy administration's civil rights package. [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. [105], Singer/Songwriter Rod Picott wrote and recorded a song titled "Sonny Liston" for his 2022 album "Paper Hearts and Broken Arrows. "Nat Fleischer [editor of The Ring] was sitting beside McDonough and he was waving his hands, too, saying it was over." Ali did neither. C'mon now, this is for the title, this is the big apple. 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. Dave Anderson of the New York Times said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. [59], Liston trained hard for the rematch, which was scheduled to take place November 13, 1964, in Boston. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him outthe fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. "And I suppose Sonny Liston always stuck with me. [89], Following an investigation, Las Vegas police concluded there were no signs of foul play and declared Liston's death a heroin overdose. ", The Liston song appears on an album called "Shangri-La." Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. Walcott never began a count in the ring because of Ali's non-compliance and his physical struggle with getting Ali to go to that neutral corner. "[35], U.S. President John F. Kennedy also did not want Patterson to fight Liston. (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. As Liston pursued his target Clay retreated, using his foot speed to slip away into open space in the ring, largely circling to the left and away from the threat of a Liston left hook. In his 1965 rematch with Ali, Liston suffered an unexpected first-round knockout that led to unresolved suspicions of a fix. "He said, 'Cut the gloves off. 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. [93] Liston had been hospitalized in early December, complaining of chest pains. 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. RARE Sonny Liston Interview before the first Ali fight 1964 in Color Legends of Boxing in Color 2.47K subscribers Subscribe 16K views 8 months ago Very Rare interview with Sonny Liston and. Sports Illustrated predicted a Patterson victory in 15 rounds, stating: "Sonny has neither Floyd's speed nor the versatility of his attack. said Liston's Philadelphia dentist, Dr. Nick Ragni. This is a place for friendly and civil debate about the greatest sport on earth. I know it", Liston said afterward. Because of the shirt he wore during robberies, the St. Louis police called Liston the "Yellow Shirt Bandit." Sonny Liston, I think was possibly the greatest intimidator of all time. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Ali is waiting to hit me, the ref can't control him. With the proceeds, he traveled to St. Louis to live with his mother. The ending of the fight remains one of the most controversial in boxing history. It is hardly the first recording by a rock musician about boxing. He was paroled after serving six months of a nine-month sentence, and was not prohibited from boxing during 1957. Byrne sought an injunction blocking the fight in Boston because Inter-Continental Promotions was promoting the fight without a Massachusetts license. "At about noon on the day of the fight, (Magids) reached Resnick again by phone," the memo read. (, Shaun Assael. According to Liston's trainer, Willie Reddish, Liston cancelled a planned tour to Africa in 1963 because he refused to get the required inoculations. 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. In an Associated Press poll, 64 of 102 reporters picked Patterson. 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 . [61] The new date was set for May 25, 1965. Gallender claimed, "A lot of officers knew Sonny was dead before Geraldine returned home on January 5, but they chose to let him rot. His fists measured 15 inches (38cm) around, the largest of any heavyweight champion. Liston knocked out Hermann Schreibauer of West Germany at 2:16 of the first round. Watch the interview you be the judge. Liston retired in his corner due to an inflamed shoulder. 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. Sad how they portrayed sonny in such a negative light he seems like a genuinely kind person. [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. "[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. 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. Very rare interview of Sonny Liston talking about how he got started in boxing, his fights with Williams and Patterson and his training routine. After two rounds, Wilson had taken enough. [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. Knopfler said the track "uses a lot of the country-blues style of playing that I started to absorb when I was young.". "[69] The fact that Liston did not complain about the clear breach of boxing rules (being declared knocked out without a count) and Ali's obvious state of bewilderment, shouting at Liston "Nobody will believe this" and asking his handlers "Did I hit him? 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. 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.'" The photo depicted Ali standing over his opponent, Sonny Liston, after delivering a final blow that knocked Liston to the ground. [8] Convicted and sentenced to five years in the Missouri State Penitentiary, Liston started his prison time on June 1, 1950. I didn't want anything to do with him. Officially, Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure. For me, the most fascinating thing about Liston was the fact that his birth date is unknown. Liston was particularly known for his immense strength, formidable jab, long reach, toughness, and his infamously intimidating appearance. He took one and went down. In his sixth bout, he faced ranked heavyweight Johnny Summerlin (18-1-2) on national television and won in an eight-round decision. He said he could not hear McDonough, who did not have a microphone. One mile up on a mountain 13 miles west of Denver is the Shrine of Mother Cabrini. "He was afraid of needles," echoed Father Edward Murphy. 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." But by the sixth round his sight had cleared, and a clearly enraged Clay fought a blisteringly aggressive round landing numerous combination punches. Joe Louis commenting on TV at ringside said "It's looking good for Sonny Liston". "[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. I dont have to be what you want me to be, Clay told agitated reporters. It made a champion out of Clay, who declared that hed shook up the world.. Subsequently, Liston spent some months in Denver where a Catholic priest who acted as his spiritual adviser attempted to help bring his drinking under control. What are you doing? Liston said he quit because of a shoulder injury. Sonny Liston was one of the hardest hitters the boxing world has ever seen. 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. 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. Rogin wrote. Ali would lose his title a year later, though it didnt happen in the ring. 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]. 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. I was about to say look at those mitts! 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, . He won by a seventh-round technical knockout, and seemed on the verge of making a comeback to the big time. 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. [48] The challenger, his arms held high in surrender, was demanding that the fight be stopped and Dundee, fearing the fight might indeed be halted, gave his charge a one-word order: "Run! Elizabeth Bear wrote the short story "Sonny Liston Takes the Fall", published in The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2008. [92] He had been suffering from hardening of the heart muscle and lung disease before his death. He was more angry about that shot than he was about the car wreck.

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