Looking Back At Sonny Liston
Sonny Liston was a name I heard years ago. All I really knew was he was a boxer and was born in a shack out at Whittsburg on the county line. St. Francis County claims him, though. So, as I normally do I began to look him up and I have learned he has an interesting story with a sad ending.
Sonny was born Charles Liston and he was unsure of his actual birth year, so he guessed May 8, 1932. It wasn't uncommon for him not to really know his birth year as he came from a poor sharecropper family. He was put to work as soon as possible since he was the 24th out of 25 children born to Tobey Liston and his second wife Helen.
Times were hard and with that many mouths to feed everyone had to do their part. Tobey Liston was a mean man, and according to Sonny, his father was an abusive alcoholic who gave him beatings that scarred him for life. His mother, Helen, left Tobey with several children in tow but Sonny was left behind to endure his father’s hands.
Sonny had had enough and he thrashed pecans from his brother- in- law’s tree in Forrest City to get enough money for a bus ticket to reunite with his mother in St. Louis. He was unable to continue his school education there as he could not read or write so he turned to the streets to make money. He was in and out of jail several times for offensives like robbery, armed robbery and larceny.
While in Missouri State Penitentiary, he found his calling and started boxing with the encouragement of prison director Father Alois Stevens. Sonny was a big boy who became a big man. He stood 6’1” tall and weighed 215 pounds. He was a powerhouse with 14-inch fists, which I'm sure left a mark. His boxing record was 50-4 and included 39 knockouts. Sonny never could shake the trouble with the police of this time and he continued to be in and out of jail.
He became entangled with organized crime figures and even testified before a Senate subcommittee probing underworld control of boxing.
Some of Sonny's more famous boxing bouts were when he became heavyweight boxing champion in 1962 when he knocked out Floyd Patterson in the first round. He was champion until Feb. 25, 1964, when he stopped fighting Cassius Clay ( Muhammad Ali) before the seventh round claiming an injury. In a rematch, Clay knocked him out in the first round on May 25, 1965.
This would follow him the rest of his life. Rumors spread like wildfires that he took a dive and people wondered if the fights were fixed. Sonny denied this of course but he never was able to shake it. He took some time off from boxing and then tried to make a comeback in late 1969 when he knocked out Chuck Wepner in his last fight. Then on Jan. 5,1971, his wife, Geraldine, who had been visiting family, came home to find a dead Sonny Liston. He had been dead for a week, claimed coroners, from heart failure and lung congestion. As normal the mystery of his death sparked rumors of needle marks found in his arms resulting in an over dose or loan sharking involvement.
Regardless of this, Sonny Liston always seemed to be followed by trouble in the ring and in his life and found mystery in his death.
I hope maybe after all these years he has found peace and his talent can overshadow any troubles he had in life. He was an Arkansas boy who became a man with incredible talent and that is what we should be proud of.