Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston was known in the boxing ring as the ‘killing machine’. He was known also an animal outside the ring. During his professional career he won fifty fights and has been arrested nineteen times.

His first true achievement – becoming a world heavyweight champion came in 1962 by beating Floyd Patterson. In 1963 he defeated Patterson again with a knock-out in the first round. In 1964 Liston fought against Cassius Clay but he refused to come out for the second round because of shoulder injury and the winner of the mach was Clay. Liston was accused of throwing the match. In 1965 after his rematch with Ali, where he lost in the first round there were made similar accusations and some even claimed that Liston was not actually hit by the winning punch of Ali.

In 1969 after a series of wins Liston had another attempt at the heavyweight title but that ended with being knocked out by Leotis Martin. He won his last fight in 1970 against Chuck Wepner by a knock out. After a year his wife found his body in their home in Las Vegas and although his death still remains a mystery, some believe that he was a victim of a murder.

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