Download or read book The Devil and Sonny Liston written by Nick Tosches and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The anti-Ali, Sonny Liston represents everything that is compelling and terrifying about boxing. An overwhelmingly powerful fighter, Liston rose from a desperately poor childhood to street criminal to world heavyweight champion. He then became the pawn of a series of criminal organizations and was shadowed throughout his life by government investigations, arrests, and the rumor of corruption. The Devil and Sonny Liston is not just the biography of a boxer; it is one of the greatest organized-crime stories ever told and confirms Toschess place as one of the most powerful and original writers of our time. Toschess acclaimed biography of Dean Martin, Dino, sold more than 110,000 copies From the rappers Wu-Tang Clan to writer Thom Jones, people are fascinated by Sonny Liston and by boxing in general. King of the World by David Remnick sold more than 100,000 copies. Tom Cruises Cruise/Wagner Productions is at work on a movie based on this book. A collection of Toschess best writing, The Nick Tosches Reader, is due out in 2000. Tosches is a contributing editor of Vanity Fair.
Download or read book Sonny Liston Was a Friend of Mine written by Thom Jones and published by Back Bay Books. This book was released on 2009-11-29 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author's world encompasses dilapidated fight arenas, state mental hospitals & chaotic emergency rooms. The inhabitants are his brilliantly etched characters, who battle desperately against fate in a game of life they cannot win but dare not lose. As we approach the end of the century & the millennium, no one writes better or more vividly than Jones does about the personal, private apocalypses we all face in our darkest moments. In one story, a Vietnam vet, a Recon Marine, swims alone across the English Channel, the Straits of Gibraltar, & the Bosporus to maintain "the edge" that kept him alive in wartime - & that is all he now has left. In another, a brilliant doctor verges on a breakdown. In the title story, a young amateur fighter stoically endures repetitive beatings because he knows the world of boxing shields & protects him from the even crueler world outside of the ring. A number of these stories have appeared in different forms in the New Yorker, Playboy, & Esquire.
Download or read book Sonny Liston written by Rob Steen and published by Jr Books Limited. This book was released on 2008 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A biography of the controversial fighter follows Liston from the mean streets where he was a petty criminal, to the heavyweight championship and the tragic end of his life.
Download or read book Sonny Liston the Real Story Behind the Ali Liston Fights written by Paul Gallender and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-08 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sheds new light on Liston's tragic life and his extraordinary boxing career.
Download or read book The Murder of Sonny Liston written by Shaun Assael and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-10-18 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The basis for SHOWTIME Sports Documentary Pariah: The Lives and Deaths of Sonny Liston A daring investigation into the mysterious death of Heavyweight Champion Sonny Liston, set against the dawn of the 1970s, when the mob was fighting to keep control of the Las Vegas Strip, Richard Nixon was launching America's first war on heroin, and boxing was in its glory days. On January 5, 1971, Sonny Liston was found dead in his home—of an apparent heroin overdose. But no one close to Liston believed that his death was accidental. Digging deep into a life that Liston tried hard to hide, investigative journalist Shaun Assael treats the boxer’s death as a cold case. The result is a page-turning whodunit that evokes a glorious and grimy era of Las Vegas. Elvis Presley was playing two shows a night at the International. Howard Hughes was running his empire from the penthouse suite of the Desert Inn. And middle America was flocking to the Strip, transforming it from an exclusive playground for the mob to a mecca for corporate dollars. But the city was also rotting from within. Heroin was pouring over the border from Mexico, and the segregated Westside was on the cusp of a race war. The cops, brutally violent, were barely holding it together. Driving through town with the top of his pink Cadillac down, Sonny Liston was the one celebrity who was unafraid to bridge the two sides of Las Vegas. Cashing in on his fading notoriety in the casinos, he was dealing drugs, working for a crime syndicate, and trying to break into Hollywood—all with a boxer’s faith that he could duck any threat, slip any punch. Heroin addiction was the only knockout blow he didn’t see coming. The Murder of Sonny Liston takes a fresh look at the legendary boxer, the town he called home, and one of America’s most enduring mysteries.
Download or read book Blood Brothers written by Randy Roberts and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2016-11-01 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “engrossing and important book" (Wall Street Journal) that brings to life the fateful friendship between Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali In 1962, boxing writers and fans considered Cassius Clay an obnoxious self-promoter, and few believed that he would become the heavyweight champion of the world. But Malcolm X, the most famous minister in the Nation of Islam, saw the potential in Clay, not just for boxing greatness, but as a means of spreading the Nation’s message. The two became fast friends, keeping their interactions secret from the press for fear of jeopardizing Clay’s career. Clay began living a double life—a patriotic “good negro” in public, and a radical reformer behind the scenes. Soon, however, their friendship would sour, with disastrous and far-reaching consequences. Based on previously untapped sources, from Malcolm’s personal papers to FBI records, Blood Brothers is the first book to offer an in-depth portrait of this complex bond. An extraordinary narrative of love and deep affection, as well as deceit, betrayal, and violence, this story is a window into the public and private lives of two of our greatest national icons, and the tumultuous period in American history that they helped to shape.
Download or read book The Murder of Sonny Liston written by Shaun Assael and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Las Vegas, the 1970s. Richard Nixon was launching America's first war on heroin; boxing was in its glory days; The Strip was being transformed from a playground for the mob to a mecca for corporate dollars. Sonny Liston was cashing in on his fading notoriety in the casinos, dealing drugs, working as an enforcer for a crime syndicate, and trying to break into Hollywood as an action star. On January 5, 1971, Liston was found dead in his home, with heroin in his blood. Accidental OD-- or murder? Assael treats Liston's death as a cold case, and takes a fresh look at Liston and the town he called home.
Download or read book Flying Over Sonny Liston written by Gary Short and published by Western Literature and Fiction. This book was released on 1996 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Western States Book Award for poetry, Flying Over Sonny Liston explores with courage, compassion, and bone-deep wisdom the complicated and some times heartbreaking task of being human in the modern world, in the modern West. Whether he writes about the tortuous interior landscape of the family or the vast and often abused terrain of the Nevada desert, Gary Short is unfailingly honest, tender, and gifted with a vision for the all-revealing detail, the larger, wrenching truth. Although many of the poems are about death or express a deep and painful anger, the book is about survival. We often find in these poems a movement from the dark into a blazing light of realization that acts as a counter to sorrow, from comprehension to forgiveness, and an awareness that the daunting challenge of being human is won not in loud victories but through the delicate graces of mercy, trust, and hope.
Download or read book The Phantom Punch written by Rob Sneddon and published by Down East Books. This book was released on 2015-10-04 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two bouts between Cassius Clay and Sonny Liston are widely considered the most anticipated and controversial fights in heavyweight boxing. Cassius Clay won the first bout in Miami Beach in February 1964, when Liston refused to come out for the seventh round. The second fight took place in Lewiston, Maine, fifteen months later in May 1965. Halfway through the first round, Ali countered a left from Liston with a fast right, knocking Liston down. He did not get up. Ali’s right was so fast many spectators never even saw it. It was quickly dubbed the Phantom Punch and rumors began to swirl that Liston had thrown the fight. Many who believed Liston—a brutal fighter who picked up boxing in prison—had also thrown the first fight the year before in Miami were now vindicated. Journalist and sports historian Rob Sneddon takes a fresh look at the infamous Muhammad Ali–Sonny Liston fight of May 25, 1965, which ended in chaos at a high school hockey rink in Lewiston, Maine. Sneddon digs deep into the fight’s background and comes up with fascinating new takes on boxing promotion in the 1960s; on Ali’s rapid rise and Liston’s sudden fall; on how the bout ended up in Lewiston —and, of course, on Ali’s phantom punch. That single lightning-quick blow triggered a complex chain reaction of events that few people understood, either then or now. Even if you’ve seen films of the fight and think you know what happened, this book will change your perspective on boxing’s greatest controversy.
Download or read book Justice for Sonny Liston written by Philip Brown and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2018-08-29 with total page 105 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sonny Liston rose from near slavery to become Heavyweight Champion at a time when there was only one champion and the title was one of the most prestigious in world sport. The novelist and Civil Rights activist James Baldwin who interviewed Sonny said he was "complicated, dedicated and spiritual." In a tag that would astonish the boxing world he also said he was a "Teddy Bear". This book invites you to take a second look at a talented and determined fighter who intimidated opponents well before the bell and won 50 out of 54 contests. Sonny's left jab was admired by Mike Tyson, his right hand was described as a 'train wreck' and it won him 39 KOs. His mysterious death in Las Vegas was probably the work of Mafia figures who exploited him throughout his career.
Download or read book Sonny Boy written by Robert Steen and published by . This book was released on 1993-01-01 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Sonny Liston in a New Light written by Paul Gallender and published by . This book was released on 2017-01-26 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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, 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.
Download or read book Dark Trade written by Donald McRae and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-06-05 with total page 709 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 1996 WILLIAM HILL SPORTS BOOK OF THE YEAR PRIZE. In the early 1990s, Donald McRae set out to discover the truth about the intense and forbidding world of professional boxing. Travelling around the States and Britain, he was welcomed into the inner sanctums of some of the greatest fighters of the period - men such as Mike Tyson, Chris Eubank, Oscar de la Hoya, Frank Bruno, Evander Holyfield and Naseem Hamed among them. They opened up to him, revealing unforgettable personal stories from both inside and outside the ring, and explaining why it is that some are driven to compete in this most brutal of sports, risking their health and even their lives. The result is a classic account of boxing that remains as fresh and entertaining as when it was first published almost 20 years ago. McRae approaches his subjects with wit, compassion and insight, and the result was a book that was a deserved winner of the William Hill Sports Book of the Year prize.
Download or read book Ali s Knockout Punch written by Michael Burgan and published by Capstone. This book was released on 2017-01-01 with total page 65 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ItÕs one of the most famous sports images of all time. Former heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston is sprawled on his back in the boxing rim. Muhammad Ali stands over Liston, holding his right hand as if ready to throw another punch. The reigning world champion had just thrown a short, right-handed punch to the side of ListonÕs head. In a flash, Liston had gone down. The photo of the angry Ali standing over the fallen challenger was taken in an instant by photojournalist John Rooney, but the controversy over the 1965 fight lingers to this day.
Download or read book Boxing and the Mob written by Jeffrey Sussman and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-05-08 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More than any other sport, boxing has a history of being easy to rig. There are only two athletes and one or both may be induced to accept a bribe; if not the fighters, then the judges or referee might be swayed. In such inviting circumstances, the mob moved into boxing in the 1930s and profited by corrupting a sport ripe for exploitation. In Boxing and the Mob: The Notorious History of the Sweet Science, Jeffrey Sussman tells the story of the coercive and criminal underside of boxing, covering nearly the entire twentieth century. He profiles some of its most infamous characters, such as Owney Madden, Frankie Carbo, and Frank Palermo, and details many of the fixed matches in boxing’s storied history. In addition, Sussman examines the influence of the mob on legendary boxers—including Primo Carnera, Sugar Ray Robinson, Max Baer, Carmen Basilio, Sonny Liston, and Jake LaMotta—and whether they caved to the mobsters’ threats or refused to throw their fights. Boxing and the Mob is the first book to cover a century of fixed fights, paid-off referees, greedy managers, misused boxers, and the mobsters who controlled it all. True crime and the world of boxing are intertwined with absorbing detail in this notorious piece of American history.
Download or read book Night Train written by Nick Tosches and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Dazzling... An unforgettable journey to some of boxing's darkest places' Steve Bunce, author of Bunce's Big Fat Short History of British Boxing Shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2000 A breathtakingly brutal and evocative account of the life of infamous boxing world champion Sonny Liston Sonny Liston is one of the most controversial men the boxing world has ever seen. He rose from a childhood of grinding poverty to become 1962's heavyweight world champion. He spent time in prison, he was known to have mob connections, he was hated and vilified by his public. And after he lost the world title to Cassius Clay in a spectacular fall from grace, he died under mysterious and never fully explained circumstances. Sonny Liston's life story is an unsolved mystery and an underappreciated tragedy. In uncompromising detail, Nick Tosches captures the shadowy figure of Liston, this most mesmerising and enigmatic of boxing antiheroes.
Download or read book Sonny Liston written by Andrew Sturgeon Young and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
