The Life of Sonny Liston

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By Danielle Sobelman

My family have always been great fans of boxing, Even my grandmother enjoyed so much that as a child she used to mention to me the great figures of boxing in her time. She would of course mention Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson, but she would also mention Sonny Liston. Right now someone reading this article may not know who Liston was and actually I should not know who he was because after all he died 8 years before I was born. However, the story of his life has always fascinated me. With an orthodox boxing stance and a record of a total of 54 fights, 50 wins in which 39 were KO’s and 4 losses, this 6ft 1 inch heavyweight champion is certainly a heavyweight champion that is hard to forget.

Charles L. “Sonny” Liston was born in Arkansas sometime around 1930. The exact date of his birth is unknown because at the time Arkansas law did not require that a birth needed to be registered. For official purposes Liston’s birth has been listen as May 8, 1932. He was a second of 13 children of the second marriage of his father Tobe. Tobe was at least 30 years older than Sonny’s mother Helen and he had 13 children from his prior marriage as well. During Sonny’s childhood he was physically abused by his father . When Sonny’s mother Helen moved to St Louis, she opted to leave a young Sonny behind with his father. Determined to escape the abuse from his father and join his mother in St, Louis, Sonny raised the money by selling the pecans that were from the Pecan tree of his brother-in-law.

When Sonny arrived in St. Louis, his troubles began to get worse. When he attempted to get his education, a young Sonny was ridiculed for being illiterate by his peers. This lead Sonny down the path of arm robbery. During his days of crime he was known as the “Yellow Shirt Bandit”, due to fact when he committed his crimes he wore a yellow shirt. In January ,1950, Liston was apprehended and sentence was started on June 1,1950.

During his stint in prison is when boxing became central in Liston’s life. He was encouraged to go into boxing by Rev. Alois Stevens, while serving time in Missouri State Penitentiary. This eventually lead to Liston’s early parole on October 31, 1952. After his him amateur boxing career was brief and only lasted less than one year.

Liston’s professional career began in September,1952 when he signed his very first contract. He became known as the “Big Bear”. Due to his ties to organized crime, specifically the Lucasse Crime Family, lead to his rise in boxing, however due to these ties, Liston was easily taken advantage of and therefore at times turned to drug dealing later in his career to make ends meet.

During Liston’s boxing career he was known as an Anti-hero, while great like Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson were considered Great American Hero’s. Liston had always dreamed to obtain the status of these greats. Due to his criminal history, this was impossible at the time.

The beginning of the end of Liston’s boxing career began in 1964 with his first loss against an unknown boxer named Cassius Clay, who would go on to be known as Muhammad Ali. Prior to this he was considered undefeated and there was 7 to 1 odds that Clay would defeat Liston. The following year, in 1965 Clay would go on and beat Liston again. Living in Las Vegas, Liston would go on to mingling with organized crime and began to sell drugs or act as an enforcer.

Rumors had it the Liston was abusing heroin. When Liston was found dead on January 5, 1971, his death was shrouded in mystery. His death was reported as December 30,1970 because when his body was discovered by his wife Geraldine, his body was so badly decomposed that they were not exactly able to determine the exact cause of death. They had attributed his death to an heroin overdose due to having the metabolites of heroin in his system. It was well known the Liston was deathly afraid of needles. Also, word on the street was that organized crime wanted get rid of Liston because he was angry because he was not properly compensated for throwing the fight against Clay.

Another mystery about his death was that when his wife discovered his decomposed body she waited two hours to call the police, but instead called his attorney and doctor.

The rumors to this day are swirling around whether Liston simply just died or was murdered. Whatever to the truth is, Sonny Liston lived a charmed, yet tragic life.

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