Charles L. LISTON
"Sonny"
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Lugar de Nacimiento: St. Francis County (Arkansas), USA.
Fecha de Nacimiento: 8 de mayo, 1932.

Récord  Amateur: ?
Récord Profesional: 54 fights; 50+ (39 KO); 4-
1962-1964: World Heavyweight Champion

Falleció el 30 de diciembre de 1970.

Charles L. Liston, grandson of a freed slave, was born in Arkansas, probably in 1928, to an immense family of 25 brothers and sisters.

Liston's childhood was a tough one and had no schooling but plenty of work in the fields.

His father was a brutal man who beat Sonny and believed he should work for the family and not go to school. Liston hated him and he was separated from both of his parents when his mother moved to St Louis. She was scared Tobe would hurt Sonny and the child went to live with relatives. Sonny was a large and intimidating figure from his early teens but he was still very much a child.

The police officers who would come to know him so well when he moved to the city to find his mother often referred to him as a kid. When Liston arrived in St Louis he instantly fell in with a crowd who pulled off a string of petty robberies.

It was as a teen-age tough in St. Louis in the late 1940s that Liston, unable to read or write, became notorious as a stickup man and petty thief whose arrests, according to a deputy police chief years later, were "sausage pinches." ("You pick the guy up, put him on the steel for 20 hours, feed him a baloney sandwich, send him home.")

Sonny was the muscle in the operation and the gang, which judging by police records was three strong, pulled off a series of attacks. But they upped the anti when they met a man with a gun and a car. After pulling off an armed robbery on a petrol station the police caught Liston and he found himself in prison - the university for so many boxers.

Like so many of his fellow fighters who have found themselves behind bars, Liston was introduced to boxing by the jail's Roman Catholic priest.

Sonny found that he had naturally devastating power and he cleaned up the prison boxing circuit. He nearly beat one opponent to death and he dethroned the jail's reigning heavyweight hardman to cheers from the three thousand inmates watching.

Well-fancied St Louis professional Thurman Wilson lasted two rounds with Liston before quitting when he visited the prison for sparring.

It was his phenomenal fistic ability that would lead to Liston securing his freedom early.

He was paroled after agreeing to pursue the sport.

Placed in the custody of Frank Mitchell, a bulwark of the black community in St. Louis and owner of a small stable of fighters, in a brief amateur career, spanning less than a year, Liston captured the Chicago Golden Gloves championship on March 6, 1953, with a victory over Ed Sanders, and the Intercity Golden Gloves championship by decision over Julius Griffin. In the United States National (A.A.U.) Championship, Liston was defeated by Jimmy McCarter of Chester, Pennsylvania.

He then turned pro under a list of managers so mercurial that when Sen. Estes Kefauver's investigators asked Liston questions, he could not identify who owned pieces of him at any given time. He did admit knowing the notorious mobster Frankie Carbo and his lieutenant, Frank "Blinky" Palermo.

George Foreman was his sparring partner from 1969-1970.

Palmarés Amateur de Sonny Liston:

1952

1953

REGRESO A PÁGINA DE INICIO

Nota: Éste palmarés está incompleto y puede ser inexacto.

Responsable: [email protected]
(Ultima actualización: Abr-15-2007)

Special Thanks to Mike DeLisa