SONNY LISTON 2.0
Ali-Liston 2 is one of the most controversial fights ever.
round. Henry Clark was next. Liston stopped him in seven at the Cow Palace in Daly City, a workmanlike win for an ABC-TV audience. Columnist Shirley Povich dismissed Clark as merely “an open target which Liston took too long to chop down.” The press noted changes in Liston. “The old venom is gone,” wrote a journalist after Liston’s boring stoppage of Roger Rischer in Pittsburgh. In the ring, he seemed slower, “strong but plodding.” George Foreman, fresh from his gold medal win at the 1968 Summer Olympics, sparred with Liston at this time and said the former champion was as impressive as ever, not even blinking when Foreman landed a “monster shot.” Yet there were reports that another sparring partner, Mac Foster, had knocked Liston loopy. Liston’s trainer, Dick Saddler, denied this but admitted in Archie Moore’s syndicated column that Foster “gave Sonny a bad time.” As the tournament went on without his name on the marquee, Liston forged ahead like a rusted old tank. He fought in Missouri, Texas, Arizona, any state that would host him. By the end of 1969, four and a half years since Lewiston, he’d won 14 consecutive fights, 13 by knockout. This sounded impressive, but Liston’s comeback campaign consisted mostly of pushovers and journeymen, one of whom, Sonny Moore, had 30 losses on his record. Willis Earls, whom Liston defeated in Juarez, had lost four of his last five. Liston outweighed him by 34 pounds. There was talk that Liston might fight Joe Frazier, who was recognized as heavyweight champion in five states, or Jimmy Ellis, who had emerged as the tournament winner and WBA titleholder. With a title shot in the offing, Liston was booked to fight on ABC’s Wide World of Sports . The contest would take place at the Las Vegas Hilton on December 6, 1969. The opponent was Leotis Martin, a good but not great contender from Philadelphia. It was a disaster. Martin, a 3-1 underdog, knocked Liston stiff
“Of Liston, it can only be said he does not even know how to lose well,” wrote a New York columnist. “He is a loser’s loser.” Few have ever had to climb out of such a hole to restart a career. Nixon after Watergate, maybe, or Tyson after the ear bite. With the public and press against him, Liston laid low. But not for long. There were occasional sightings of him, usually in traffic court paying fines. He showed up in Las Vegas, all smiles, to watch Ali defend the championship against Floyd Patterson. He popped up in Alaska, where he boxed a few exhibitions, and then he and his wife took part in a television fundraiser to help children with multiple sclerosis. Liston told reporters that he liked kids and wanted to help. He also talked about dying and facing God. “Man, when you get ready to kick off, you’re going to be scared,” Liston told the Associated Press. “You’d better be able to show in Heaven that you did something good on Earth.” Fourteen months after the Lewiston mess, Liston turned up nearly 4,000 miles away in Sweden to begin his comeback. Fighting in Stockholm and Gothenburg, he knocked off four opponents in just under 10 months. Still, U.S. promoters wouldn’t touch him, not with the consequences of the phantom punch still reverberating across the boxing scene. California and Nevada rejected Liston’s bid for a boxing license. The United Kingdom and Denmark blocked him, too. Proof of how far Liston had fallen came when Ali was stripped of the title for refusing the military draft. New York promoter Mike Malitz proposed an eight-man elimination tournament to name a new champion. Liston’s name was nowhere on the list. This was presumably because New York state had officially banned Liston since 1962 due to his connections to organized crime. But it was also because Liston’s old mystique had turned to vapor. Even Patterson,
the man Liston had twice crushed in one round, was in the tournament. But not Liston. Liston resumed fighting stateside in March 1968, three years after the bizarre loss to Ali. After promising that he’d broken his underworld ties (and receiving a character reference from entertainer Sammy Davis Jr., another of Liston’s many unofficial manager-mentors), Liston was licensed in California, Nevada and Massachusetts. First up for Liston’s American comeback was Bill McMurray in Reno. Liston stopped him in four, but observers were underwhelmed. Then, Los Angeles fans booed as Liston struggled with Billy Joiner, who surrendered before the eighth
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