BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Ironically, Floyd Patterson's manager Cus D'Amato
had his New York State license revoked over his own underworld
connections. When Patterson finally signed to meet Liston for the world
title, the venue was Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois.
Leading up to the fight, Sonny Liston was the major betting-line favorite, though
Sports Illustrated predicted a Patterson victory in 15 rounds. James J. Braddock, Jersey Joe Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Rocky Marciano, and Ingemar Johansson all picked Patterson to win. Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali)
predicted a KO by Liston in the first five rounds. The fight also
carried a number of social implications, as Liston's connections with
the mob were well known and the NAACP had urged Patterson not to fight
him, fearing that a Liston victory would tarnish the civil rights
movement.
Patterson also claimed that John F. Kennedy did not want him to fight Liston.
The one-sided nature of the bout was a major surprise. Patterson was
expected to try to employ his speed and agility to counter Liston's size
and power, but apart from an excellent jab in the opening seconds
Patterson showed a complete lack of aggression or guile.
Sports Illustrated
writer Gilbert Rogin characterized the match as "bathetic", claiming
Patterson did not punch enough, and had inexplicably sought to clinch
with his far heavier opponent while making the basic error of failing to
tie up both Liston's arms. Liston bulled Patterson around while using
his free hand to batter him with body blows, before shortening up and
connecting with two double hooks high on the head.
The fight only lasted 2:05 before Patterson was knocked out. It was the
third-fastest knockout in a world heavyweight title fight and the first
time the champion had been knocked out in round one. Rogin discounted
speculation that Patterson had thrown the fight, suggesting that "mental
problems" had been responsible for his poor performance.
On winning the Heavyweight
Championship of the World, Liston had a speech prepared for the crowd
that friends had assured him would meet him at Philadelphia airport. But
on arriving, Liston was met by only a handful of reporters and public
relations staff. During an era when white journalists were still able to
describe black sportsmen in stereotypes, Liston had long been a target
of racially charged slurs; he was called a "gorilla" and "a jungle
beast" in print. There was a mocking suggestion that a ticker-tape
parade could use torn-up arrest warrants, and one sportswriter
facetiously suggested Liston's defeat of Patterson proved that in a fair
fight, evil will always triumph over good. There were even
unsubstantiated rumors that his management got charges dropped after he
raped a chambermaid.
Some writers thought Liston brought bad press on himself by a surly and
hostile attitude toward journalists; he also had a reputation for
bullying people such as porters and waitresses
and was disdained by many African-Americans. Asked by a young white
reporter why he wasn't supporting the campaign for Civil Rights in the
South, Liston replied "I ain't got no dog-proof ass."
However, 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."
Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. He
particularly resented a 1961 arrest by a black patrolman for loitering,
claiming to have merely been signing autographs and chatting with fans
outside a drug store.
One 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. 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. After he
won the title, Liston relocated to Denver permanently, saying, "I'd
rather be a lamppost in Denver than the mayor of Philadelphia."
Patterson and Liston had a rematch held on the evening of July 22, 1963, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This time, the fight lasted 2:09 and Liston again won by a knockout as
he knocked Patterson down three times, with the three-knockdown rule
being in effect.
After this victory, Liston was loudly booed.
On the evening of February 25, 1964 in Miami, Florida, he fought Cassius Clay,
whom odds-makers had made a 7–1 underdog. Some were surprised during
the referee's instructions to see that Ali was considerably taller than
Liston, the so-called "Big Bear". When the fight started, it became
apparent that Liston was not in top condition.
Although he initially got through with some punches to the body, Liston
had little offensive success after round two. Ali found him easy to hit
and began to score with his quick jab and long right, and a cut opened
up on Liston's face in round three. However, Ali's vision became
severely impaired during rounds four and five, and he was unable to be
effective against Liston. At one point, Ali was leaning on Liston "like a
drunk leaning on a lamppost" as he held him at bay with one extended
arm while wiping his own eyes with the other.
Liston, however, was unable to capitalize on this. Once Ali's eyes
cleared, the fight became increasingly one-sided as he began to land at
will; throughout the sixth Liston was mercilessly pummeled with
combinations. Although Liston was losing, he seemed able to continue,
and it was a stunning surprise when he declined to come out for the
seventh round. The Liston camp attributed his retiring to a shoulder
injury; some, claiming inside knowledge, disputed this and said Liston
used the same arm to throw a chair after the match.
Liston quitting was thought particularly remarkable because he had once
fought several rounds with a broken jaw. However, some writers have
contended that Ali inflicted more punishment on Liston than is usually
acknowledged, and maintain that Liston's motivation was probably to
spare himself further trauma.
The promoter alleged that the night before the bout Liston had been visibly inebriated.
Liston lost twenty pounds during his initial preparation for the
rematch, but there were again rumors of alcohol abuse in training.
On May 25, 1965, he faced Muhammad Ali again. The bout was originally scheduled for Boston, Massachusetts, but Ali, just days before the fight was to take place, was hospitalized with a hernia.
The rescheduled match was held in the city of Lewiston, Maine.
Less than two minutes into the fight, while he was pulling away from
Liston, Ali hit Liston with a punch that did not seem to have much
weight behind it; Liston went down, rolling onto his back, but Ali did
not go to a neutral corner as mandated by the rules, and accordingly
referee Jersey Joe Walcott
never counted over Liston. Ali yelled hysterically at Liston, running
around the ring, arms aloft. During this time Liston made a half-hearted
attempt to get back to his feet, before again rolling onto his back.
After Liston got up the fight resumed, but was quickly interrupted by Nat Fleischer
climbing into the ring opining that Liston had been KOed. Walcott
accepted this view and awarded the fight to Ali. However, Fleischer was
quite wrong in his interpretation of how the rules applied: since Clay
had deliberately not gone to a neutral corner, Walcott had been correct
in not counting Liston out; the actual time Liston had been down was
beside the point.
A photograph showing Ali standing over Liston is one of the most
heavily promoted photos in the history of sports, and was chosen as the
cover of the
Sports Illustrated special issue, "The Century's Greatest Sports Photos."
While Liston publicly denied taking a dive,
Sports Illustrated
writer Mark Kram said that years later Liston told him, “That guy [Ali]
was crazy. I didn’t want anything to do with him. And the Muslims were
coming up. Who needed that? So I went down. I wasn’t hit.”
Former champions Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, and Gene Tunney, as well as Ali opponents George Chuvalo and Floyd Patterson, all stated that they considered the fight to be a fake. Ali biographer Wilfrid Sheed opines in his book
Muhammad Ali
that Liston planned to throw the fight by using an actual knockdown as
the opportunity to do so. However, Sheed says that the punch that
knocked Liston down "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.” 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.
After the second loss to Ali, Liston took a year off from boxing. He returned in 1966, winning four consecutive bouts in Sweden, co-promoted by former World Heavyweight Champion Ingemar Johansson. These knockout victories included one over Amos Johnson, who had recently defeated Britain's Henry Cooper. In 1968, he won seven fights, all by knockout.
America's first look at Liston since the Ali rematch was in a nationally broadcast fight with No. 5–ranked Henry Clark, whom he overpowered in seven rounds. A 10-round decision over Billy Joiner in St. Louis continued his run of victories and Liston at 38 years old (but having the appearance of a man of 50
seemed on the verge of making a comeback to the big time. He talked of a fight with Joe Frazier, claiming "it'd be like shooting fish in a barrel". But in December, Liston was knocked out cold in the ninth round by Leotis Martin
after dominating most of the fight and decking Martin with a left hook
in the fourth. However, Martin's career ended after that fight because
of a detached retina he suffered during the bout.
Liston won his final fight, a tough match against future world title challenger Chuck Wepner in June 1970.
The referee stopped the bout in the 10th round; Wepner needed 72 stitches and suffered a broken cheekbone and nose.
BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY - Personal life
Liston married Geraldine Clark in St. Louis, Missouri, on September
3, 1957. He had a stepdaughter and the Listons subsequently adopted a
boy from Sweden. Geraldine remembered her husband as, "Great with me,
great with the kids. He was a gentle man."
In the midst of negotiations for a match with Canadian Champion George Chuvalo, Liston was found dead by his wife in their Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971.
On returning from a trip Geraldine had smelled a foul odor emanating
from the main bedroom and on entering saw Sonny slumped up against the
bed, a broken foot bench on the floor. The date of death listed on his
death certificate is December 30, 1970, which police estimated by
judging the number of milk bottles and newspapers at the front door.
Following an investigation, Las Vegas police concluded that there were no signs of foul play and declared it a heroin
overdose. An autopsy revealed traces of morphine and codeine of a type
produced by the breakdown of heroin in the body, but the advanced state
of decomposition meant that tests were inconclusive and officially
Liston died of lung congestion and heart failure.
He had been suffering from hardening of the heart muscle and lung disease before his death.
Some,
however, believe that the police investigation was a coverup, and the cause of Liston's death remains unresolved.
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. Liston's wife also reported that her husband would refuse
basic medical care for common colds because of his dislike of needles.
This, coupled with the fact that Liston was never known to be a
substance abuser (besides heavy drinking), prompted rumors that he could
have been murdered by some of his underworld
contacts. Sonny's wife had a vivid dream the night of December 28, in
which Sonny was in a shower shouting "Help me, Geraldine, help me,
Geraldine."
[37]
Additionally, authorities could not locate any other drug
paraphernalia that Liston presumably would have needed to inject the
fatal dose, such as a spoon to cook the heroin or an appendage to wrap
around his arm. This only added to the mystery surrounding his death. A
friend of his told
Unsolved Mysteries
that Liston had been in a car accident a few weeks prior to his death,
was hospitalized with minor injuries, and received intravenous medicine.
This is believed to be the source of the puncture wound that
authorities found upon discovering his body.
Sonny Liston is interred in Paradise Memorial Gardens in Las Vegas, NV. His headstone bears the simple epitaph: "A Man."
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