Muhammad Ali was pushing 60 when I saw him on the Today Show. Matt Lauer asked Ali what he considered to be his greatest accomplishment in or out of the ring. "Beating Sonny Liston," was the response. Surprised by the answer, Lauer asked the question again, putting more emphasis on the out of the ring part. "Beating Sonny Liston," Ali said, as matter-of-factly as he did the first time. Gilbert Rogin's characterization of Liston as "the nearest piece of talent to Godzilla" was the way most boxing people felt about Sonny before and while he was champion. Angelo Dundee said Liston stood over the heavyweight division like "a colossus." When Joe Louis said, "Nobody's gonna beat Liston 'cept old age," there was no reason to think otherwise. And then the impossible happened.
Sonny took the biggest fall in the history of sports. In a span of fifteen months in the mid-1960's, heavyweight champion Charles "Sonny" Liston went from being unbeatable to being unmercifully seen as a pariah. Today, the memories of Liston are little more than a footnote to Muhammad Ali's career. The photograph of Ali standing over Liston has defined Sonny for half a century. It has so obscured his talent and character that people seem far more interested in knowing how Sonny died than how he lived.
Sonny Liston In A New Light is a penetrating look at boxing's first super heavyweight. It is the definitive biography of a man who was tagged as too big, too black and too fierce for most of America in the 1950's and 1960's. This is the story of who Sonny Liston really was and a remarkable glimpse into who he has become. It is unlike any book you have ever read.
In A New Light is a revised version of the my first book, Sonny Liston - The Real Story Behind the Ali-Liston Fights. This new edition is three parts biography and one part posthumous autobiography. The latter portion has been provided by Josie Roase, a medium who connected with Sonny shortly after I finished writing "The Real Story.". Everything you are about to read is the truth.
Sonny took the biggest fall in the history of sports. In a span of fifteen months in the mid-1960's, heavyweight champion Charles "Sonny" Liston went from being unbeatable to being unmercifully seen as a pariah. Today, the memories of Liston are little more than a footnote to Muhammad Ali's career. The photograph of Ali standing over Liston has defined Sonny for half a century. It has so obscured his talent and character that people seem far more interested in knowing how Sonny died than how he lived.
Sonny Liston In A New Light is a penetrating look at boxing's first super heavyweight. It is the definitive biography of a man who was tagged as too big, too black and too fierce for most of America in the 1950's and 1960's. This is the story of who Sonny Liston really was and a remarkable glimpse into who he has become. It is unlike any book you have ever read.
In A New Light is a revised version of the my first book, Sonny Liston - The Real Story Behind the Ali-Liston Fights. This new edition is three parts biography and one part posthumous autobiography. The latter portion has been provided by Josie Roase, a medium who connected with Sonny shortly after I finished writing "The Real Story.". Everything you are about to read is the truth.
