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Structure
Interesting Questions, Facts and Information
- There are a total of 15 general entries.
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 Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information
 Sonny Liston
Natural causes. Liston had needle tracks in his arms, and heroin was present in his system. His wife claimed he was deathly afraid of needles, and could not have been a drug addict. Furthermore, Liston's ties to the mob and his wife's insistance that he was not a drug user made it possible that he had been 'hotshotted' (forcibly given a lethal overdose). However, despite all this, the medical examiner ruled 'death by natural causes' and no further investigation was conducted.
| On December 30th, 1970 Liston's wife found him dead in his bed in their Las Vegas home. According to the medical examiner, how long had Sonny been dead? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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At least a week. Sonny's wife had been out of town for two weeks, and returned when she could not get in touch with him. The medical examiner concluded that he'd been dead in the bed for at least seven days.
| Sonny would have one more fight in his career in June of 1970, for which he would be paid only {$13,000.} His opponent would later go on to fight Muhammad Ali for the title in 1975, getting knocked out late in the fight. Sonny TKOed this man in the tenth round of their fight. Who was this boxer? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Chuck Wepner. Liston slowly took Wepner apart to the point where Chuck's face needed dozens of stitches to stop the bleeding.
| On December 6th, 1969 Sonny had a professional record of 49-3 with 38 knockouts when he fought another up-and-coming heavyweight challenger. The fight was relatively close, although by the start of the ninth round Sonny was bleeding profusely from the mouth. In that ninth round, the young fighter hammered Sonny with an overhand right that knocked him nearly unconscious, and left him with his fourth career loss. Who was the fighter that knocked him out in this fight? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Leotis Martin. Broadcasting the fight for ABC Sports was none other than Howard Cossell who, while the referee was counting Sonny out said, 'This fight is going to be over. And perhaps, also the career of Charles 'Sonny' Liston.'
| After the Clay rematch Liston was very unpopular due to the sentiment that he had taken dives (though not as unpopular as Clay when he changed his name to Muhammad Ali). Because of this sentiment, Sonny decided to fight overseas for a while until the controversy has blown over. What country did he fight his next four bouts in? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Sweden. Sonny knocked out four straight opponents in Sweden in 1966 and 1967. He would then return to the USA, where he fought all but one of his remaining bouts.
| Boxing experts questioned the first Clay fight, as Sonny seemed unhurt at the end of the bout, but would not come out of his corner for the seventh round. In the rematch, Sonny was knocked out in the first round by the 'Phantom Punch' which truthfully did not look hard enough to knock Sonny out. Again, boxing experts questioned the outcome. Why was there so much disbelief about Sonny's two losses to Clay? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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All of these (Sonny had ties to the mafia and may have agreed to take dives, Clay was not considered a legitimate heavyweight contender, Sonny had taken extensive beatings at the hands of earlier opponents, but none had even knocked him). Liston had taken thunderous shots from both Cleveland Williams and Zora Folley, but had stayed on his feet and recovered to win the fights. Clay, while a great boxer, had very little firepower compared to most heavyweights, and nobody could believe he'd knocked Sonny out with relatively light punches. Lastly, Sonny was well established with local gangsters, and many believe he had arranged to take dives so the mob could win millions on the long odds. This belief was so prevalent that the FBI launched an investigation into the fights to try to find out if there were foul dealings afoot. Nothing ever came of their investigation however.
| In February 1964 Sonny would lose the title to Cassius Clay. Later it was found that Sonny had tried to blind Clay in the fourth round by having his cornermen apply Muscatele to his boxing gloves and then smearing it in Clay's eyes. Sonny had done this one time before, knocking out a troublesome opponent after he could no longer see. Who was the other opponent, who the Muscatele trick worked on? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Zora Folley. Folley had won the first two rounds of his fight with Sonny, and then been knocked out in the third. After the fight he explained that he could not see due to unexplained stinging in his eyes. Clay managed to survive this ploy and win the title.
| Including the rematch against Floyd Patterson, how many successful title defences did Sonny Liston have as heavyweight champion? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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1. Although history shows that Liston was considered indestructable when he lost the title to Cassius Clay, he had only had one title defence (the Patterson rematch).
| On September 25th, 1962 Sonny Liston became the heavyweight champion of the world when he knocked Floyd Patterson out in the first round. Despite being hopelessly overmatched, Patterson requested a rematch, which took place on July 6th, 1963. Liston would again knock Patterson out. What round did the knockout occur in the rematch? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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1. Patterson managed to last about five seconds longer than in the first fight. Cus D'Amato would later say that Liston was the only man who Floyd could never have beaten.
| Sonny had a professional record of 15 and 1 with 7 knockouts when he was convicted and imprisoned of another felony in January 1957. What crime did Sonny commit this time? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Assaulting a police officer. Sonny badly beat a police officer, and spent the following 8 months in prison. He claimed that the cop had called him a nigger and assaulted him with a nightstick, but in those days the word of a convicted felon, especially a black man, did not have any merit against the word of a police officer.
| Sonny's first loss came against a much smaller man, who broke Sonny's jaw early in the fight and won a unanimous decision. Liston would later beat this man handily in two rematches. Who was the fighter? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Marty Marshall. Marty Marshall would never be a ranked contender, despite his three fights with Sonny. Of the other fighters mentioned in the question, John Summerlin was a good boxer but without world class ability (Sonny beat him twice), and Cleveland Williams would go on to fight the best in the world, despite two losses to Liston.
| At the age of 18 Sonny was sent to prison for a 3 to 5 year sentence for committing what crime? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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Armed Robbery. Liston served 2 years of his sentence before being released in October 1952 at the age of 20.
| Charles 'Sonny' Liston was born on May 8th, 1932 (some say 1928) in St. Francis County AK. He was the youngest of how many children born to his parents? | Charles 'Sonny' Liston
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25. Sonny was the youngest of 25 kids. Even his mother must have been pretty tough ...
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