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Sonny Liston was the baddest fighter in the history of Planet Earth - inside or outside the ring.
Sonny Liston's fists were a massive 14 inches around (or 15 inches, depending on whom you ask), and Sonny's wing span was a ridiculous 84 inches - the greatest wingspan (reach) of any heavyweight champion in boxing history, with the exception of Primo Carnera.
Sonny Liston destroyed all of the top-ranked heavyweights of his day (except for the ones who refused to fight him), including Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Cleveland Williams.
(Muhammad Ali's handlers, most notably Angeo Dundee, continually ducked Folley, Machen, and, most especially, the fearsome Cleveland Williams, while Ali was on the way up. During their repeated verbal sparring sessions, which occurred over a period of many months, prior to their first fight, Sonny Liston often told Ali to "go fight Cleveland Williams, and then get back to me." Ali's handlers were not ****** - they knew Williams would demolish Ali, whom Liston knocked out twice in two of the most vicious brawls in heavyweight boxing history.)
Henry Cooper, the former British Heavyweight Champion, flat-out refused to fight Sonny Liston - under any circumstances. Cooper knocked Ali down in their first fight with a thunderous left hook (Ali would have been knocked out if the bell hadn't saved him), and Cooper had been quoted as saying, on more than one occasion, "If Mr. Liston approached me on the street, I would walk the other way."
Ingemar Johanssen, who was the reigning heavyweight champion at the time, when Liston was busy cleaning out the division in the early 1960's, constantly ducked Sonny Liston...Liston called him out on several occasions in front of the national media, but the silence from Johanssen was deafening. Johanssen had won the title by knocking out the former champion, Floyd Patterson.
During a 1987 interview, Floyd Patterson said he was convinced Liston threw both fights to Ali. According to Patterson, Ali's cut man for the first fight had contacted all of his friends and relatives before the fight and told them that it was fixed, and that they should bet everything they had on Ali (this was also mentioned in a casino sports betting paper in 1991, as well).
Liston's handlers and cornermen got wind of the scheme and put their money down on the "sure thing", and everybody cleaned up - due to the 7-1 odds against Ali at the time of the first fight. In the second fight, Liston was STILL the favorite, the odds were 7-5 in Liston's favor - and all the wise guys cleaned up yet again.
Six months after supposedly knocking out Liston with a six-inch right hand, Ali could not finish off a badly injured Patterson (who foolishly went into the fight with a very bad back).
Sonny Liston absolutely mauled Floyd Patterson, knocking him out in the first round - TWICE.
Sonny Liston did time in prisons and prison camps. He beat the hell out of both inmates and guards, while incarcerated. Liston was constantly harassed by the Feds (J. Edgar Hoover had Liston on his "su****ious persons" list), the police and the Mob. He was followed by policemen almost everywhere he went. Liston once got into a brawl with six policeman who proceeded to beat Liston over the head with billy clubs - yet Liston survived the clubbing, and took all six of the policemen OUT. And yet...Ali's ridiculous "phantom punch" knocked out Liston? Please...as P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Both fights with Ali were fixed, and this is a fact, not speculation - and people who were close to both Liston and Ali have admitted as much over the years. Liston's bodyguard at the time of the first Ali fight, asked Sonny if he should bet more money than he already had on Liston to win. Sonny told him that boxing was funny and you never knew who would actually come out on top in a heavyweight championship fight. After Liston failed to come out of his corner for the 7th round during the first Ali fight, Liston's bodyguard knew what was up. He asked Liston later, why he hadn't bothered to inform him that the fight had been fixed. to which Liston said, "With your big mouth, we would have both ended up in the river wearing concrete shoes...I just did what I was told."
Watch Sonny Liston's fights. Pay close attention to all the fights you can lay your hands on before the Ali (Clay) fights. Liston routinely knocked fighters' senseless with his JAB (he also knocked more than a few heavyweights' TEETH out with that same left jab). And his right hand was absolutely fearsome. Sonny could knock you out with either hand.
But, mysteriously, when he fought Ali the first time, he threw a total of maybe FIVE right hands during the entire fight. And most of those right hands were fly-swatter punches. If you watch all of his other fights leading up to the first Ali fight, you will notice that he set boxers up with his left, and when he went for the kill, he used lefts and rights in combination, especially a powerful straight right, or right hook to the head. (Or a right uppercut, he had a ferocious right uppercut.) He threw a good number of right hands in every single fight he ever fought - except for the Ali fights.
The eyes don't lie. Watch the fights.
There exists reams and reams of evidence that overwhelmingly proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Sonny Liston threw both fights with Ali. (Read "The Devil and Sonny Liston," by author Nick Tosches, for starters.)
And consider this -
Ever watch Ali's fight with Doug Jones? This fight took place about 11 months before Ali's first fight with Liston. Doug Jones was a journeyman light heavyweight (14.5 pounds lighter than Ali during the time of their fight at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 1963)...Ali's handlers wouldn't let Muhammad fight Cleveland Williams or Zora Folley or Eddie Machen, or ANY of the top contenders of the day, so Ali agreed to fight Doug Jones, as one of his two tune-ups for the first fixed fight with Liston.
Jones was the agressor duing the entire fight with Ali, and he came forward incessantly with great success - despite the great disparity in their weights (and the alleged disparity in their boxing prowess). Ali won a unanimous decision in this fight, and many observers thought that THIS fight was fixed, and that Jones had clearly won, despite Ali's strong showing in the last two rounds of this 10-round fight. You can watch this fight on DVD, or online...ESPN sometimes shows it on their "ESPN Classics" channel. Listen to the boos and watch the reaction of the Madison Square Garden crowd after you watch it...I watched this fight and I thought that it was, in the very least, a draw...Jones won at least five of the first seven rounds, and if I had to pick a winner on the night in question, it would have been Jones...Doug Jones stunned Ali in the first round with a good shot to the head.
Watch the fight. Then tell me that Ali is "The Greatest"...
Henry Cooper knocked Ali down (and almost out) with one punch. Chuck Wepner knocked Ali down with one punch. Joe Frazier knocked Ali down with one punch. Sonny Banks knocked Ali down with one punch.
Nobody ever knocked Sonny Liston down with one punch - except Muhammad Ali...
Contary to popular opinion, Muhammad Ali was one of the most overrated fighters in history.
And he got the title handed to him via a total setup.
Think about this - if the Liston/Ali fights were fixed (which they were), how many other Ali fights were fixed? Tell me that a boxer who gets knocked down by Henry Cooper is one of the greatest fighters in history? Tell me that a boxer who loses a fight to Doug Jones (a journeyman light heavyweight), is one of the greatest fighters in history? How many more of Ali's fights were fixed. Watch the movie "Raging Bull" and ponder this important question...
Boxing's murky past is checkered with countless fixed fights, various and sundry Mob goings-on, and sordid, shady dealings behind closed doors. It's a fact of life, and anybody on the inside will tell you this. The same holds true for ALL professional sports, but that is not the subject of this post.
Sonny Liston was the most fearsome (and accomplished) heavyweight champion in history. And in my humble but informed opinion, he would have knocked out Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson and yes, even Rocky Marciano. (During a made-for-TV boxing special back in the mid-1980's, an in-his-prime, Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson admitted that he would have been afraid of fighting only one man in heavyweight boxing history - Sonny Liston.)
Nobody could stand up to Sonny Liston - unless the outcome had already been predetermined.
***Interesting sidenote - Much has been made over the years of Liston's alleged (and absolutely irrefutable) Mob connections...Sonny Liston won the last fight of his career, in June of 1970 against Chuck Wepner...and many people have alleged over the years that Liston was supposed to take a dive in the Wepner fight, but he refused...six months after the Wepner fight, Liston turns up dead - the result of an alleged "heroin overdose," which is a circumstance that seems very unlikely, in the least, given the fact that it was common knowledge among anyone who ever knew him, that Sonny Liston, the baddest fighter in the history of Planet Earth, was deathly afraid of only one thing - needles.
Sonny Liston's fists were a massive 14 inches around (or 15 inches, depending on whom you ask), and Sonny's wing span was a ridiculous 84 inches - the greatest wingspan (reach) of any heavyweight champion in boxing history, with the exception of Primo Carnera.
Sonny Liston destroyed all of the top-ranked heavyweights of his day (except for the ones who refused to fight him), including Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Cleveland Williams.
(Muhammad Ali's handlers, most notably Angeo Dundee, continually ducked Folley, Machen, and, most especially, the fearsome Cleveland Williams, while Ali was on the way up. During their repeated verbal sparring sessions, which occurred over a period of many months, prior to their first fight, Sonny Liston often told Ali to "go fight Cleveland Williams, and then get back to me." Ali's handlers were not ****** - they knew Williams would demolish Ali, whom Liston knocked out twice in two of the most vicious brawls in heavyweight boxing history.)
Henry Cooper, the former British Heavyweight Champion, flat-out refused to fight Sonny Liston - under any circumstances. Cooper knocked Ali down in their first fight with a thunderous left hook (Ali would have been knocked out if the bell hadn't saved him), and Cooper had been quoted as saying, on more than one occasion, "If Mr. Liston approached me on the street, I would walk the other way."
Ingemar Johanssen, who was the reigning heavyweight champion at the time, when Liston was busy cleaning out the division in the early 1960's, constantly ducked Sonny Liston...Liston called him out on several occasions in front of the national media, but the silence from Johanssen was deafening. Johanssen had won the title by knocking out the former champion, Floyd Patterson.
During a 1987 interview, Floyd Patterson said he was convinced Liston threw both fights to Ali. According to Patterson, Ali's cut man for the first fight had contacted all of his friends and relatives before the fight and told them that it was fixed, and that they should bet everything they had on Ali (this was also mentioned in a casino sports betting paper in 1991, as well).
Liston's handlers and cornermen got wind of the scheme and put their money down on the "sure thing", and everybody cleaned up - due to the 7-1 odds against Ali at the time of the first fight. In the second fight, Liston was STILL the favorite, the odds were 7-5 in Liston's favor - and all the wise guys cleaned up yet again.
Six months after supposedly knocking out Liston with a six-inch right hand, Ali could not finish off a badly injured Patterson (who foolishly went into the fight with a very bad back).
Sonny Liston absolutely mauled Floyd Patterson, knocking him out in the first round - TWICE.
Sonny Liston did time in prisons and prison camps. He beat the hell out of both inmates and guards, while incarcerated. Liston was constantly harassed by the Feds (J. Edgar Hoover had Liston on his "su****ious persons" list), the police and the Mob. He was followed by policemen almost everywhere he went. Liston once got into a brawl with six policeman who proceeded to beat Liston over the head with billy clubs - yet Liston survived the clubbing, and took all six of the policemen OUT. And yet...Ali's ridiculous "phantom punch" knocked out Liston? Please...as P.T. Barnum once said, "There's a sucker born every minute."
Both fights with Ali were fixed, and this is a fact, not speculation - and people who were close to both Liston and Ali have admitted as much over the years. Liston's bodyguard at the time of the first Ali fight, asked Sonny if he should bet more money than he already had on Liston to win. Sonny told him that boxing was funny and you never knew who would actually come out on top in a heavyweight championship fight. After Liston failed to come out of his corner for the 7th round during the first Ali fight, Liston's bodyguard knew what was up. He asked Liston later, why he hadn't bothered to inform him that the fight had been fixed. to which Liston said, "With your big mouth, we would have both ended up in the river wearing concrete shoes...I just did what I was told."
Watch Sonny Liston's fights. Pay close attention to all the fights you can lay your hands on before the Ali (Clay) fights. Liston routinely knocked fighters' senseless with his JAB (he also knocked more than a few heavyweights' TEETH out with that same left jab). And his right hand was absolutely fearsome. Sonny could knock you out with either hand.
But, mysteriously, when he fought Ali the first time, he threw a total of maybe FIVE right hands during the entire fight. And most of those right hands were fly-swatter punches. If you watch all of his other fights leading up to the first Ali fight, you will notice that he set boxers up with his left, and when he went for the kill, he used lefts and rights in combination, especially a powerful straight right, or right hook to the head. (Or a right uppercut, he had a ferocious right uppercut.) He threw a good number of right hands in every single fight he ever fought - except for the Ali fights.
The eyes don't lie. Watch the fights.
There exists reams and reams of evidence that overwhelmingly proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Sonny Liston threw both fights with Ali. (Read "The Devil and Sonny Liston," by author Nick Tosches, for starters.)
And consider this -
Ever watch Ali's fight with Doug Jones? This fight took place about 11 months before Ali's first fight with Liston. Doug Jones was a journeyman light heavyweight (14.5 pounds lighter than Ali during the time of their fight at Madison Square Garden on March 13, 1963)...Ali's handlers wouldn't let Muhammad fight Cleveland Williams or Zora Folley or Eddie Machen, or ANY of the top contenders of the day, so Ali agreed to fight Doug Jones, as one of his two tune-ups for the first fixed fight with Liston.
Jones was the agressor duing the entire fight with Ali, and he came forward incessantly with great success - despite the great disparity in their weights (and the alleged disparity in their boxing prowess). Ali won a unanimous decision in this fight, and many observers thought that THIS fight was fixed, and that Jones had clearly won, despite Ali's strong showing in the last two rounds of this 10-round fight. You can watch this fight on DVD, or online...ESPN sometimes shows it on their "ESPN Classics" channel. Listen to the boos and watch the reaction of the Madison Square Garden crowd after you watch it...I watched this fight and I thought that it was, in the very least, a draw...Jones won at least five of the first seven rounds, and if I had to pick a winner on the night in question, it would have been Jones...Doug Jones stunned Ali in the first round with a good shot to the head.
Watch the fight. Then tell me that Ali is "The Greatest"...
Henry Cooper knocked Ali down (and almost out) with one punch. Chuck Wepner knocked Ali down with one punch. Joe Frazier knocked Ali down with one punch. Sonny Banks knocked Ali down with one punch.
Nobody ever knocked Sonny Liston down with one punch - except Muhammad Ali...
Contary to popular opinion, Muhammad Ali was one of the most overrated fighters in history.
And he got the title handed to him via a total setup.
Think about this - if the Liston/Ali fights were fixed (which they were), how many other Ali fights were fixed? Tell me that a boxer who gets knocked down by Henry Cooper is one of the greatest fighters in history? Tell me that a boxer who loses a fight to Doug Jones (a journeyman light heavyweight), is one of the greatest fighters in history? How many more of Ali's fights were fixed. Watch the movie "Raging Bull" and ponder this important question...
Boxing's murky past is checkered with countless fixed fights, various and sundry Mob goings-on, and sordid, shady dealings behind closed doors. It's a fact of life, and anybody on the inside will tell you this. The same holds true for ALL professional sports, but that is not the subject of this post.
Sonny Liston was the most fearsome (and accomplished) heavyweight champion in history. And in my humble but informed opinion, he would have knocked out Jack Johnson, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson and yes, even Rocky Marciano. (During a made-for-TV boxing special back in the mid-1980's, an in-his-prime, Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson admitted that he would have been afraid of fighting only one man in heavyweight boxing history - Sonny Liston.)
Nobody could stand up to Sonny Liston - unless the outcome had already been predetermined.
***Interesting sidenote - Much has been made over the years of Liston's alleged (and absolutely irrefutable) Mob connections...Sonny Liston won the last fight of his career, in June of 1970 against Chuck Wepner...and many people have alleged over the years that Liston was supposed to take a dive in the Wepner fight, but he refused...six months after the Wepner fight, Liston turns up dead - the result of an alleged "heroin overdose," which is a circumstance that seems very unlikely, in the least, given the fact that it was common knowledge among anyone who ever knew him, that Sonny Liston, the baddest fighter in the history of Planet Earth, was deathly afraid of only one thing - needles.
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