Nixon repeated the show's running gag-line, "Sock it to me" a number of times. Both fights were in Summerlin's hometown of Detroit.[23]. Joe McCarthy was a Senator from Wisconsin. "[96], Many people who knew Liston insisted he was afraid of needles and never would have used heroin. Mickey Mantle was a great baseball player for the New York Yankee team. [58] Despite Liston carrying an injury and being undertrained, Clay stated in 1975 that the first fight with Liston was the toughest of his career. Facebook | Liston angrily responded by questioning whether Dempsey's failure to serve in World War I qualified him to moralize. Nixon presented evidence that help prove Hiss guilty in 1950. [47] Sitting on his stool between rounds, however, Liston was breathing heavily as his cornermen worked on his cut. After he got on a subway in the afternoon, four African-American youths approached Goetz and demanded $5 from him. Foreign debts were causing an increase in inflation, as well as a burden on American taxpayers. The year 1959 was a banner one for Liston: after knocking out contender Mike DeJohn in six rounds he faced Cleveland Williams, a fast-handed fighter who was billed as the hardest-hitting heavyweight in the world against whom he showed durability, power and skill, nullifying Williams' best work before stopping him in the third round. [55], There is ample evidence that Liston did carry an injury to his left shoulder into the fight. American boxer Sonny Liston became the world heavyweight champion on September 25, 1962, . Liston was the twenty-fourth of twenty-five children born to an Arkansas sharecropper. John F. Kennedy was elected President of the United States in 1960. [citation needed], Liston competed in the 1953 United States National Championships at Boston Garden and passed the preliminaries, stopping Lou Graff in the second round on April 13, but lost in the quarterfinals to 17-year-old Jimmy McCarter on April 15. It was set around the time of Christ. When Patterson met with the president in January 1962, Kennedy suggested that Patterson avoid Liston, citing Justice Department concerns over Liston's ties to organized crime. Liston beats Patterson We Didn't Start the Fire: The History Podcast. JFK blown away. Boxing. blown away What else do I have to say? This was a tactical nuclear recoilless gun, intended to fire at enemy troops in the case of war with the Soviet Union. Richard Nixon was a member of the House of Representatives from California when he became involved in the trial of Alger Hiss, who was accused of being a Communist and a spy. A few years before Tocco died, he allegedly told one of his good friends, Tony Davi, that he went to Liston's house and found the door locked and his car in the driveway. Famed philosopher George Santayana died in 1952. This was significant because this was Patterson's first time getting a knockout loss on his record. Sep. 25, 1962. The actual year he went into space was 1961. Liston's noticeably more muscular left arm, crushing left jab and powerful left hook lent credence to the widely held belief that he was left-handed, although he fought in an orthodox stance. [85] Geraldine had a daughter from a previous marriage, and the Listons subsequently adopted a boy from Sweden. [52][53] It was the first time since 1919when Jack Dempsey defeated Jess Willardthat a world heavyweight champion had quit on his stool. Liston goes to the body with a left before unloading a barrage. The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team finally won the World Series over the New York Yankees. Fidel Castro's 1960 Address to the U.N. General Assembly. In 1941, he set a Major League record of hitting safely in 56 straight games. Syngman Rhee was the first President of South Korea, serving from 1948 to 1960. Banker said he was told by police that Liston had been seen at a house that would be the target of a drug raid. Stevens organized a sparring session with a professional heavyweight named Thurman Wilson to showcase Liston's potential. Famous author Ernest Hemingway committed suicide. He was more angry about that shot than he was about the car wreck. By Mike Puma. They were captured and he was executed in 1959. "[68], While Liston publicly denied taking a dive, Sports Illustrated writer Mark Kram said that years later Liston told him, "That guy [Ali] was crazy. Top national disk jockey Allen Freed was convicted of payola. 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. Ho Chi Minh, Richard Nixon back again Moonshot, Woodstock, Watergate, punk rock He was still a world-ranked boxer when he died under mysterious circumstances in 1970. He was popularly known for aphorisms, such as "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. "[82] Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. On September 7, 1954, Liston suffered defeat for the first time in his eighth professional fight, losing to Marty Marshall, a journeyman with an awkward style. 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. He later become a U.S. Paul R Gallender, 2012. He is raised by Martians, and when he arrived on Earth he had no knowledge of anything about the planet or its cultures. Liston beat . Sonny Liston, byname of Charles Liston, also called the Bear, (born May 8, 1932?, St. Francis county, Arkansas, U.S.died December 30, 1970, Las Vegas, Nevada), American boxer who was world heavyweight boxing champion from September 25, 1962, when he knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round in Chicago, until February 25, 1964, when he Governor Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to surround Central High School to keep the nine students from entering the school, because he believed black and whites should be segregated, despite Federal laws on integration. Special to ESPN.com. While investigating possible communists in the U.S. Army, the Army's attorney general Joseph Welch responded to McCarthy's interrogation of a young soldier. Liberace was a popular pianist and entertainer, who had his own TV show in the 1950s. He was a harsh leader who had millions of his people executed or sent to labor camps in Siberia. Albert Einstein developed the Theory of Relativity in 1903 and was considered one the world's smartest scientists. Red China entered the Korean War in the 1950s, when it looked like the U.N. forces would defeat Communist North Korea. In 1955, he was overthrown by a military coup. People joked that the car looked like it was going backwards. 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]. The Rosenbergs were a husband and wife who were arrested and executed for selling secrets of the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Liston tried going to school but quickly left after jeers about his illiteracy; the only employment he could obtain was sporadic and exploitative. [51], Liston failed to answer the bell for the seventh round, and Clay was declared the winner by technical knockout. Use your knowledge and skills to help others succeed. She died under suspicious circumstances. Cleroux was an underrated . "[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. We Didn't Start The Fire - MP3 (Remastered by Columbia Records 2014) $0.99, (Notice: The School for Champions may earn commissions from book purchases). The war resulted in a stalemate, and Korea is still divided to this day. He was known for wearing the Arab clothing of the troops he led. The School for Champions helps you become the type of person who can be called a Champion. Have you no sense of decency, sir? Tobe and Helen had 12 children together; Sonny was the second youngest child. ", It was later theorized that a substance used on Liston's cuts by Joe Pollino, his cut man, may have caused the irritation. Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was "no phantom punch." "[35] However, in 1963 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. In his sixth bout, he faced ranked heavyweight Johnny Summerlin (18-1-2) on national television and won in an eight-round decision. [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. North Korea became established as a Communist dictatorship by Soviet Union and Red China, after Japan was defeated. Since the boycott was costing downtown stores and white businesses considerable money, negotiations were made to stop the action. Liston became the world heavyweight champion after knocking out Floyd Patterson in the first round. 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. Liston knocked out Patterson in the first round, gaining the title of World Heavyweight Champion. The first fight was short. Although Liston was widely regarded as unbeatable, he lost the title in 1964 to Muhammad Ali (then known as Cassius Clay), who entered as a 71 underdog. [49], Clay later said that in round five he could only see a faint shadow of Liston during most of the round, but by circling and moving frantically he managed to avoid Liston and somehow survive. Numerous airline hijackings were in the news. [83] Herb Goldman stated that Liston, when in his prime between 1958 and 1963, was the most feared fighter in boxing history. A stoic Liston finished the fight, but lost in an eight-round split decision. The toxicology report said his body was too decomposed for the tests to be conclusive. Afterwards, the youth he paralyzed sued and won a $43 million judgment. [66], Former champions Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Floyd Patterson and Gene Tunney, as well as contender George Chuvalo all declared they considered the fight to be a fake. He told McCarthy, "Let us not assassinate this lad further, senator. Partially deaf singer, whose song Cry was a number-one hit, Johnny Ray actually cried in performing the song. This event was also a starting point for the Civil Rights movement of Martin Luther King and others. Liston, with a 25-pound weight advantage, 214lb (97kg) to 189lb (86kg), knocked out Patterson at 2:06 of the first round, putting him down for the count with a powerful left hook to the jaw. He was killed in a plane crash, along with singers The Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens. After leaving prison, he worked for the Nation of Islamalso called the Black Muslims in the popular press. A new wonder-material Dacron hit the market. Joseph Stalin was the dictator of the Soviet Union. [7] Liston was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. [84], Liston married Geraldine Chambers in St. Louis, Missouri, on September 3, 1957. He then explored human morality and the meanings of love and founded his own church, preaching free love. Because of that, Cage may have thought Sonny was an informant and shot him with a hot dose as retribution. He found a quarter-ounce of heroin in a balloon in the kitchen, and a half-ounce of marijuana in Liston's pants pocket, but no syringes or needles. Rogin discounted speculation that Patterson had thrown the fight, writing: "The genesis of all this wide-eyed theorizing and downright baloney was the fact that many spectators failed to see the knockout blows. [42], Liston's run-ins with the police had continued in Philadelphia. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ("Ike") had been Supreme Commander in the World War II fight against the Nazis. A sex scandal rocked British Parliament. 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. Teens often marked the "good parts" in the book, as they passed it among each other. Thalidomide was a medication intended for pregnant women to combat morning sickness and as an aid to help them sleep. The countries also exchanged prisoners-of-war as a result of the Panmunjom negotiations. Many in the small crowd had not even settled in their seats when the fight was stopped. He talked of a fight with Joe Frazier, claiming, "It'd be like shooting fish in a barrel." He was famous for his brooding and mumbling acting style. Sugar Ray Robinson was the middle-weight boxing champion of the world. Of the 10,000 children born with birth defects, only 5000 lived beyond childhood. It was also big news in the United States and many other countries as well. He later became a popular president of the United States. "[98], Some claim Liston was murdered. Sports Illustrated predicted a Patterson victory in 15 rounds, stating: "Sonny has neither Floyd's speed nor the versatility of his attack. She started singing and touring with the Les Brown Band at age 16 and made her first movie in 1948. In these feckless clinches he only managed to tie up one of Liston's arms. [71] Credence to the latter theory is provided by the fact that Liston, immediately after his fight with Chuck Wepner, seemed more concerned about supporting the proposed Ali-Frazier bout and Ali's claims to be champion than promoting his own career. It's an easy win for Liston and his 14 inch fists and he's extraordinary to watch. His views were important to the world's Catholics. John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962. "[54] Hall of Fame matchmaker Teddy Brenner also disputed the shoulder injury, claiming he saw Liston use the same arm to throw a chair in his dressing room after the match. He was best known for his work chairing the Senate Committee on Government Operations, which focused on suspected communists in the government. He is a relatively elementary, one-track fighter." He was responsible for dropping the atomic bombs on Japan and ending World War II. Bill Haley and the Comets came out with what was considered the first rock-and-roll hit song, Rock Around the Clock. In 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea, starting the Korean War. Chou En-Lai (Zhou Enlai) was the Premier and Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China (also called Red China by Western journalists). But according to Sonny's trainer, Johnny Tocco, once there, his path led to prison: . 1963. He also took his gun. Rocky Marciano was the heavyweight boxing champion of the world. The bout would need to be delayed by six months. He cited Liston's inability to lift his arm: "There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. It gave the impression that he was not such a dour person after all. Chorus. 1 contender in 1960, but the handlers of world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson refused to give him a shot at the title because of Liston's links to organized crime. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former world heavyweight champion, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. The most memorable scene is when the character Marion is stabbed to death while taking a shower, apparently by the mother. President Kennedy was greatly criticized for the failure of the mission. Most large cities had only one station. Doris Day was born on 3 April 1922 and passed away on 13 May 2019 at age 97. In the 2001 film Ali, Liston was portrayed by former WBO Heavyweight Champion Michael Bentt. After Britain and the USA withdrew their financial support for the Egyptian Aswan dam project, General Nasser nationalized the important Suez Canal. He would later employ McCarter as a sparring partner. He died shortly afterward in 1974. [20], Liston signed a contract in September 1953, proclaiming: "Whatever you tell me to do, I'll do. "Liston throws the right with a lot of body behind it so that when he misses he is off balance. Maule, Tex (March 9, 1964). He dropped his "slave name" and changed his name to Malcolm X. Was Pariah boxing legend Sonny Listons OD really a mob murder? After he piloted the first American manned orbital mission aboard the Friendship 7 spacecraft, he was considered and American hero and given a tickertape parade. He later went on to be nicknamed "The King" as the most popular singer ever. Hostages were taken at the US embassy in Tehran and finally released 444 days later. Bernie Goetz was a New Yorker who was concerned about crime in the city. He was discouraged in school from wanting to be a lawyer, because his white teacher said it wasn't a realistic goal for black people. [5][6] Alfie Potts Harmer in The Sportster also ranked him the third greatest heavyweight and the sixth greatest boxer at any weight. The sole judge, referee Harold Valan, thought differently. The United States had been sending the secret U-2 high-flying spy plane over the Soviet Union to take pictures and gather information, when one was shot down by a Russian missile. American Bandstand TV dance show host Dick Clark was accused of payola but found innocent. The United States exploded the first H-bomb and a few years later the Soviet Union then exploded their version of the bomb. [21], Liston made his professional debut on September 2, 1953, knocking out Don Smith in the first round in St. Louis, where he fought his first five bouts. It was a good punch, but I didn't think I hit him so hard that he couldn't have gotten up. [62] The promoters needed a new location quickly, whatever the size, to rescue their closed-circuit television commitment around the country. Brigitte Bardot was a popular French "sex-kitten" movie star. After Liston arose, Walcott wiped off his gloves. His works include such widely heard works ballets from Romeo and JulietandPeter and the Wolf. The car was named after Edsel Ford, who was Henry Ford's son. [107] The story speculates that Liston threw the Ali match for the good of society. Although he was celebrated in Russia as a great poet, his book was banned in the Soviet Union for many years. The book Peyton Place became the number-1 best-seller. The Soviet Union made the mistake of walking out on the U.N. vote, allowing the measure to pass. TV celebrities would also display their skills with the hoop. to their future fights against Muhammad Ali and Liston's tragic end. He even investigated the Voice of America. So why are the crowd so upset when it's over? He rounded out the year by stopping Nino Valdez and Willi Besmanoff. [87], Liston was found dead by his wife, Geraldine, in their Las Vegas home on January 5, 1971. Once he went down, I got excited. ", This page was last edited on 19 April 2023, at 10:57. He was assassinated in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963. Secretary of State for War John Profumo was highly respected and married, but after it was discovered that he had a several week affair with a showgirl named Christine Keeler, he was forced to resign. [16] Listonaged around 13, according to his later reckoningsremained in Arkansas with his father. An interesting and little-known fact is that although Disney forbade the serving of alcoholic beverages in Disneyland, he had a private suite in the park where bartenders would serve drinks to his personal guests. [101], Liston played a fist fighter in the 1965 film Harlow, made a cameo appearance in the 1968 film Head, which starred The Monkees, and played the part of The Farmer in the 1970 film Moonfire, which starred Richard Egan and Charles Napier. Liston won 14 consecutive bouts, 13 by knockout, before fighting third-ranked Leotis Martin, previously beaten by Clark, in December 1969. It was later noted that McCarthy would be careful not to interrogate suspects who might resist his efforts. Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson Pope Paul, Malcolm X, J.F.K. DiMaggio married actress Marilyn Monroe in 1954, but the marriage lasted only 9 months. Color was introduced in 1951, but it was years later until color television became universally popular. His family's home state of Arkansas did not make birth certificates mandatory until 1965. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him, "Get up and fight, sucker!" Since the hearings were broadcast on national television, millions realized that these interrogations were not right. Marilyn Monroe was a popular "sex symbol" movie star. A young woman, Marion Craneplayed by Janet Leighsteals some money from work and leaves town, getting a room at the Bates Motel. It was the third-fastest knockout in a world heavyweight title fight, and the first time the defending champion had been knocked out in round one. Armed Cuban exiles sailed from Florida and landed at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba. Castro was also known for his long-winded speeches. [67] Some felt the knockdown was real but the knockout was fake. "The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him outthe fight is over,'" Walcott said after the fight. [43] A 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. Liston KO'd popular Patterson for title. A sudden violent combination delivered with 30 seconds left in the round electrified the crowd. Syngman Rhee. 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. On April 21, 1955, he defeated Marshall in a rematch, dropping him four times en route to a sixth-round knockout. During the Cold War the European and Asian states under Soviet influence were known as the Communist Bloc (or the Eastern or Soviet bloc). [76][77] Foreman stated: "There wasn't anything missing from Sonny Liston. "Better get me out of this ring," exclaimed Wilson, "he is going to kill me! It was the theme music for the popular movie Blackboard Jungle. He also wrote that Liston's win over Patterson proved that "in a fair fight between good and evil, evil must win." I didn't want anything to do with him. [31] While Liston began working into shape with hopes for a heavyweight title shot, he also continued his criminal behavior. Boston: Little, Brown. (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. After completing his next movie Giant, Dean decided to drive his new 1955 Porsche Spyder to Salinas, California to enter in a sports car race there.

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