Sonny Liston the Feared One

When people talk about intimidating fighters there's one name that comes up almost immediately and with good reason. Charles "Sonny" Liston, boxing's bad boy long before Tyson came on to the scene, but the similarities between the two often seem endless.

The start of Liston's life is shrouded in mystery with his birth date one of the most disputed things in a controversial career though it's often believed he was born in Sand Slough, Arkansas. The problem stems from the collection of birth record for poor blacks living in the Southern states, the fact he came from a large family didn't help, he was the 24^th of 25 kids. At a young age he was beaten by his father (Tobe Liston) repeatedly, before running away to live with his mother and cousins, though he'd quickly become a tear away.

He'd have a string of arrests and be involved in all sorts of crime, though it was his arrest for his part in a robbery that would see him put in to jail. It was here that his talent was spotted, his use as a hard handed mob guy (which is what he'd been doing) proved to help him in the ring with understanding that this was a genuine tough man, a hard man who like inflicting pain on people. Though he had some amateur experience winning a golden glove award he didn't go onto have the notable amateur career of some, instead he turned professional in 1953 having 3 fights that year and winning them all. His huge reach (84 inches) was being used to devastating effect with one of the best jabs in history that often seemed to have the power of a straight.

1954 Saw Liston fight 5 times in the year winning 4 of them before suffering his first loss to Marty Marshall after suffering a broken jaw in one of the middle rounds. This helped to improve Liston's reputation as a genuinely tough man as he'd lost on a close split decision, though with a record of 7(2)-1 we were yet to see the murderous power that would become a staple of Liston in the following years. With 1955 having 6 fights for Liston he would avenge the defeat to Marshall (stopping him in 6) as he'd win 5 of the 6 by KO and start to look more like the powerful puncher he looked like being.

Liston would fight once in a 25 month stretch a third fight with Marshall between 1956 and 1958, taking the entire of 1957 out of the ring due to run ins with the law. He'd beat Marshall over 10 rounds in his only fight of 1956. 1958 saw him make up for lost time with 8 straight wins in the year 6 wins coming by stoppage as Liston kept looking more and more hurtful with his punches.

Liston's quality of opponents took a significant step up in 1959 winning all 4 of his fights that year by KO including stopping Cleveland Williams and Nino Valdes who were both tough and highly ranked. In fact Valdes is often said to be the man that Rocky Marciano was "scared of" and ran into retirement rather than face (a myth that's rather widely accepted sadly) whilst Williams would face Ali for the world title 7 years later.

The high quality of opponents would continue to be of a high quality in 1960 as Liston fought 5 times winning 4 by KO. Stopping Williams again, highly ranked Zora Foley and beating Eddie Machen over 12 rounds in his last fight of the year. By now Liston was himself highly ranked and was easily deserving of a title fight against Floyd Patterson who had regained his title from Ingemar Johansson. Instead a rubber match with Johansson was fought (1961) as Cus D'amto seemed to want to keep Patterson away from hard hitting Liston. For 1961 Liston decided to keep beating fighters with 2 KO's in 2 fights before he'd finally get his hands on Patterson.

Patterson was making the third defence of his second reign having beaten tom McNeeley after the third fight with Johansson. Liston was 33-1 having been unbeaten in 8 years and had in fact only gone the distance 3 times in the previous 4 years. Patterson on the other hand had been in 3 wars with Johansson in which both fighters had been bouncing up and down with repeated knock downs. Sadly for Patterson his chin was again his failing as Liston stopped him swiftly, taking just 125 seconds to take the title from Patterson. This was the first time the heavyweight champion had lost a defense of his title in the first round.

A rematch was fought 10 months later, Patterson had the chance to be the first man to regain his title twice (first 3 time champion), however he failed, lasting just 4 seconds longer than in their first encounter. After blasting out the 1952 Middleweight Gold Medal winner he came across a young unbeaten fighter form Louisville Kentucky, a certain Cassius Clay, who, like Patterson had also won a gold Olympic medal, thought his was at light heavyweight in 1960. Clay was 19-0 and had in the pre-fight weigh in was raving like a mad man, some thought he'd been petrified by Liston who had been beating fighters before even entering the ring for the previous few years, his cold demeanour scaring them senseless.

Much to the worlds shock Clay (a 7-1 under dog) was totally schooling Liston, avoiding most of Sonny's shots and landing his almost at will for vast parts of the fight. In the 5^th round Clays vision had seemed to become impaired, a long standing belief is that Liston's corner men put some thing on his gloves though Clay would survive the round it was one he most certainly lost before dominating the 6^th. Liston would pull out of the fight due to injury to his shoulder after that round abound rumours of a fix, at the time of the retirement the score cards had the fight as a draw which looking back looked rather odd. A rematch was ordered, but during the time between fights Cassius Clay would become Muhammad X and then Muhammad Ali as he joined the Nation of Islam and cast aside his slave name.

The rematch would end up being even more controversial than the first match, possibly even having the most controversial finish of any match in history. With former world champion Jersey Joe Walcott the referee his inexperience as a referee showed as after Liston went down from what's often described as the "anchor punch" which had looked to have little sting on it. Ali stood over Liston as Walcott seemed to lose his bearings before trying to get Ali to a neutral corner to start a count. When he had Liston had gotten up though Ring Magazine found Nat Fliescher called Walcott over to say Liston had been down for 17 seconds. The fight was stopped on that advise giving Ali a first round KO victory, though the count should have started when Ali had gone to a corner rather than when the knock down had occurred. The opposite situation to the "Long Count Fight" between Gene Tunney and Jack Dempsey in their rematch.

This would be Liston's final title shot but he'd continue fighting, winning his next 14 straight and only going the distance once. Those these weren't against against the quality of fighters like Williams, Folley, Patterson and Machen. This streak would end against Leotis Martin who despite having his faced badly damaged and losing on the cards landed a perfect punch putting Liston down for the count (legitimately). The first stoppage loss of Liston's career not to be shrouded in mystery.

His final fight would be against Chuck Wepner which would be a TKO win after Wepner's face was left a bloodied up mess. He would retire with a record of 50(39)-4

Liston would be found dead the following year, like many things in Sonny's life his death was also in mysterious circumstances. Theories around suicide and murder have both been circulated but nothing has been confirmed nearly 40 years after his death.

Liston's title reign wasn't one of the best though it's hard not to respect the fighters he beat and the way he was avoided for several years. He had the bad boy style and the fear factor that took until the rise of Mike Tyson to equal, he's also said to have one of the best jabs, which despite lacking the speed of Holmes' it seemed to carry more power. It's hard not link Liston's name with Patterson and Ali though there was so much more to him than just those two fighters.