"The bad guy isn't supposed to win": The Late Nick Tosches' Take on Sonny Liston [by David Lehman]

Legend has it that Sinatra was prepared to bet a bundle on Sonny Liston in the ballyhooed bout against Cassius Clay in Miami. "Save your money, Frank," he was told. The fix was in.

 

Last night I stayed up late to readThe Devil and Sonny Liston (2000), the late Nick Tosches' excellent biography of Sonny Liston, big bad Sonny of the dead eyes and the murderous fists, who said, "The bad guy isn't supposed to win. I change that."

No question that the Clay fight in Miami was fixed by the mob (as Tosches, pictured left, sees it). He astutely points out that that when a fight is fixed, only the fighter taking a dive knows about it.  The opponent can't be in the know. But, says Nick, even Clay, by this time Ali, must have known that the one-round fiasco in the reamatch in Maine was as bogus as the phantom punch. Liston was not a talented actor, and he fell awkwardly, like a building.

 

"Sonny, I had a lot of money on you. Why didn't you tell me?" "Because you have a big mouth."

 

Why did he throw the fights? Because the odds against him were long and he needed the dough. He had tax troubles. The IRS was on his ass. In the American mind as reflected in the work of sports columnists, he was the bad guy, the thug, the jailbird, the ex-con. A charge of rape, if reported, would have ended his career.

 

Meanwhile Clay entertained the white mainstream media. According to Tosches, the words "media" and "mediocrity" spring from the same root.

 

​So "they" told Sonny what to do and how to profit.

 

Most writers idoloze Ali. Not Tosches. He writes with a perfect contempt for the braggart who never met a microphone he didn't like. In Tosches' view, Liston had a much better sense of humor than Ali.​

 

RIP Nick Tosches, 1949-2019, author of a helluva book on Dean Martin. Goes without saying that the opinions in this piece are Nick's. not necessarily mine. -- DL

Comments

[Another DL]

This is how rumors and conspiracy theories get started and spread. That the Miami fit was thrown by Liston is implausible, not least because in a prior round Liston's team put some caustic substance on his gloves that blinded Ali for a full round. Ali managed to evade him until his vision returned. Hardly the act of someone about to take a fall. At a certain point Ali became known as a dancer in the ring, so people forget that in his early career he consistently won by notable KOs and TKOs. He was a knockout artist, against bums and the best, until the draft problem sidelined him. The TKOs were often him pinning his opponents against the ropes, peppering them with repeated unanswered punches, while waving over the ref with his left hand to stop the fight because he didn't want to continue injuring the helpless.
See https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/jun/05/muhammad-ali-every-fight-professional-61- and many of the fights and knockouts can be viewed on youtube.

Ali beat Liston psychologically as well as physically in both fights. Think the great puncher and finisher, Roberto Duran, "no mas," when he knew was on the way to defeat.

As for the so-called phantom punch in Lewiston, Maine, that rumor only began because of the camera angle that caught the action. Ali's body blocks the punch, but run it in slow motion and watch Ali's body. He is delivering a solid punch. Liston attempted no comeback (he was already ancient). Could he have continued in either fight? He knew he was defeated; it hurt body and psyche to simply acknowledge he lost. But others can't.

[The Best American Poetry]

Thanks for the thoughtful comment. I guess your mind's made up, but you may still enjoy reading Tosches's book. He's a very good writer. -- DL