Found this on another Web site very good little read have a look:
On a late October evening in 1992 my father and I made a last-minute decision to make the eight-hour trip from Northern California to Las Vegas for the Riddick Bowe-Evander Holyfield Heavyweight title fight.
We drove all night and arrived in Las Vegas at six o'clock in the morning. We had some time to kill until our afternoon hotel check-in time. I had read an article in a sports magazine about Sonny Liston and his untimely death. The article told the story of how he was buried in Las Vegas directly under the flight path of McCarran Airport. Without really knowing the city too well we decided to try to find his grave.
After about thirty minutes of driving around we came to Paradise Memorial Gardens, directly under the flight path of the airport. However, with some five thousand headstones, it seemed like a long-shot that we were going to find the grave of Sonny Liston.
Then out of the blue, like a Liston jab, a headstone loomed up at me:
I had found the grave of Sonny Liston, and little did I know that the knowledge of this site would change my life forever. I was an eighteen year old who knew very little about Sonny as a man or as a fighter.
The knowledge that I did have was through short clips of him losing his title to Cassius Clay. As far as I knew, his claim to fame was that he lost to the man who would become the best of all time.
After visiting the grave his career started to intrigue me. I began looking everywhere for facts on Sonny Liston. I searched old boxing magazines, books, or sports encyclopedias for information. I found very little reading on Sonny specifically. Most of the stories had some link to Muhammad Ali, the man who took his title.
Sonny Liston had become a footnote in boxing history. I still had a thirst for more information, I wanted to know about the man and the fighter. I knew that there had to be more information out there.
He was the heavyweight champion, at one point the baddest man on the planet.
After beginning college in California and then spending a year in New York I wanted a change, specifically warmer weather. I wanted to move to a place that was closer to California, but not California. And I wanted to finish school. It finally came down to a choice between Arizona State University or University of Nevada at Las Vegas. Being a boxing fan, the decision took exactly two seconds to make.
A week after I arrived in Las Vegas I decided to take a ride out and visit the burial site. It had been four years since my original visit, but I was pretty sure that I could still locate his grave. Sure enough, I walked right to it.
Since my first visit, I would ask people in boxing questions about him. I would ask old-timers about him, his fighting style and what he was like as a person. In 1994 HBO did a spectacular in-depth documentary on his life that put a lot of the images I had in my head onto the screen. I had become pretty knowledgeable on his life. Being a big boxing fan I was also becoming knowledgeable on the sport in general. Living in Las Vegas, and knowing that Mike Tyson resides here, I was aware of the location of his home as well.
On a late June afternoon in 1997 my girlfriend and I decided to catch a matinee of the recently released "Batman Forever." While waiting in line to buy tickets, I noticed that Mike Tyson and a few bodyguards were in line a few people back.
It was really shocking to see him since he was only three days away from fighting Evander Holyfield for the second time (this would be the fight known forever as "the bite fight").
Being a fan of his, I couldn't pass up the chance to wish him well on Saturday night, and asked him if I could ask him something. He said, "sure".
Knowing that Tyson is a huge boxing fan himself and very well read on old-time fighters, I asked, "Did you know that Sonny Liston is buried right around the corner from your house?"
"What are you talking about?" he replied.
I said, "Really, he is buried literally five hundred yards from your front door."
For the next ten minutes or so I tried to explain exactly where his grave was. Mike Tyson is not too good with directions. As I left he said thanks for the tip. We both entered the theater.
Afterwards, on the way home (by chance I had to pass by Paradise Memorial Gardens), who other than Mike Tyson was pulling into the cemetery, entourage and all.
I decided that this was another opportunity that I couldn't pass up. I had to show Mike Tyson exactly where the grave was.
As he sat in the passenger seat of a brand new Range Rover, I decided I had to approach him, because he wasn't moving. I walked up to the car and the tinted window slid down. Mike Tyson was staring me dead in the eye.
"Hey man, who the hell are you?" he asked.
"Mike, I'm just a big fan of yours and I was on my way home and I saw that you had stopped in here so I thought I'd show you where to find the grave." I muttered it so fast it's a wonder he understood me.
I actually believe that I was more nervous than Michael Spinks was when Tyson wiped him out in ninety-one seconds.
Tyson jumped out of the car and said, "Let's go."
Just like that. No friends. No bodyguards. Not that I was an imposing figure, but it was one on one.
That's when I started to have bad thoughts. I started to sweat and I got a huge knot in my stomach. I started to second guess myself. What if I can't find the grave?
I'm out here, all alone, in the middle of a cemetery with Mike Tyson, the baddest man on the planet. I thought, 'If I don't find this grave it could be curtains for me.'
Again, I walked right to it. Tyson was amazed.
He had been living so close to the grave of one of his heroes and didn't even know it. We talked for about ten minutes out there that day. He talked about how Liston's relationship with the media was similar to his own.
And he said something that I'll never forget.
When speaking of the media he said, "It's hard when everyday in the newspaper you read that you're a motherfucker and the next day it says that you're a motherfucker. Pretty soon you start to believe that you're a motherfucker."
And to this day I still think about that comment. Mike Tyson is not a "bad guy.'" Sure, he has been known to make some questionable decisions and maybe fly off of the hook now and then. But believe it or not, he's human.
Tyson has been labeled a deviant by society very much the way that Sonny Liston was. And in many of the same ways as Liston, he is merely living up to the label that we have placed on him.
I told Mike that Liston had no family left in town, so I was going to have his grimy headstone cleaned. He looked at me and said I was a good man. Since that day we have talked a handful of times, mostly about boxing and Sonny Liston.
When looking at Tyson's and Liston's careers side by side you can find many similarities.
They were both raised by single women. Both got into their share of trouble as kids. Liston looked at a catholic priest, Father Murphy, as a father figure. The late Cus D'Amato was looked at as a father by Tyson. Much like Liston, Tyson is very fond of fast cars and fancy clothes.
When faced with adversity they both became very different people. Liston with Ali, and Tyson with Holyfield.
Confronted with a man in front of him that truly believed he would win and wasn't afraid, Tyson turned to dirty tactics. In their first fight he tried head-butting, elbowing, and kneeing, but still lost. In the second fight he found the easiest way out, a disqualification.
In Liston's first fight with Ali there was the incident with a solution that got into the eyes of Ali. Many believe that it was done intentionally to blind Ali and score an easy knockout. It didn't work and Liston quit after round 7, blaming a hurt shoulder.
Liston's second match with Ali ended in controversy after he got hit with "the phantom punch."
These were two guys who at the time were seen as unbeatable. And when faced with another real fighter they found other ways to get out of a tough fight rather than take a beating.
I lived up to my word and had the headstone cleaned. Sonny Liston was the heavyweight champion of the world, $20 is a small price to pay to show a little respect to the champ.
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In late August 1998, I was attending a fight card at the Las Vegas Hilton when a baseball cap caught my eye. It read "Sonny Liston: Night Train." I remembered reading about a movie that was going to be made by director Billy Friedkin about his life. It was being written by Shane Salerno, and was going to star the up and coming actor, Ving Rhames. Sure enough, it was Ving wearing the hat. To that point all I knew about Ving Rhames was that he was in Pulp Fiction and that he had played Don King in "The Don King Story." Oh yes, and when he received his Golden Globe award for that role he insisted on national television that Jack Lemmon take it.
I went up and introduced myself, and told him that Sonny Liston was my favorite fighter. "You got knowledge?" he asked.
"I've read everything there is to read on him," I replied.
Then it was time for my standard question, "Did you know that Sonny Liston is buried here in Vegas?"
He said that he had read that he was, but didn't know where. "Do you know where he's buried?" he asked. I told him that I did and I would be happy to take him out there.
After the fights we made the twenty-minute drive from the Hilton to the cemetery. Again I had butterflies in my stomach, wondering what would happen to me if I couldn't find the grave in the dark. Not to worry, we found it with no problems, and even took some pictures of Ving at the grave. Kind of spooky, but he wants to know everything about the man since he will be representing his life on film, which is scheduled for release later this year. He feels like he owes that much to Sonny Liston.
As we left Paradise Memorial Gardens we began talking about Sonny's death and the mystery surrounding it. I told him that I had a general idea where his house was, and that I had seen it on television. Since we were already out and in an inquisitive kind of mood, we decided to try and hunt it down. What better way to get into the story and do research for the film than actually visit these places.
After ten minutes of driving up and down the street we came to what we thought was the house. Since it was 11 o'clock at night, Ving didn't want to go and knock on the door (if you have ever seen Ving Rhames, you know why). So I went up and knocked on the door, not knowing what I was in for.
A middle-aged man answered the door and asked if he could help me. I started out by saying that this may sound like an odd question, but, was this by any chance the house that Sonny Liston died in. His answer was "yes." I explained that I was with this actor, Ving Rhames, who was going to be playing Sonny in an upcoming major motion picture. And without me even asking, he invited us in. He went on to show us around the house, the bedroom and even the exact place where his body was found. It was a very surreal experience: hanging out with a movie star all night who was interested in the knowledge that I had, and ending up in the home where Sonny Liston died.
As I drove Ving back to the hotel we talked more about the movie and how he was looking forward to making it. He promised me a "gig" on the movie, we exchanged phone numbers and he said he'd keep in touch. He called two months later and asked me to do some research for him. Liston died almost thirty years ago, but he wanted me to track down as many people as I could who were in town who knew Sonny Liston. He gave me one lead. Mildred Stevenson was Liston's housekeeper for the last three years of his life, she was alive and living in Las Vegas. We met and I recorded our two hour conversation that ranged from Liston's relationship with his wife, to his drinking, to her suspicions about his death. She was a very interesting lady with great stories. I felt like I was getting closer to knowing what Sonny Liston was all about.
Mildred gave me other tips as far as others I could contact that were still around. In all, I've done five interviews with people who knew Sonny. Ving will be listening to them in trying to get a character sketch so he can better understand the man he is playing. He is very intent and serious about playing this role the best he can, as well as getting to the bottom of Liston's death.
Through the interviews and research I've done, as well as my conversations with Mike Tyson and Ving Rhames, I feel that I'm starting a get a feel for who Sonny Liston was.
Nick Tosches' new book, The Devil and Sonny Liston, is a good place to start for anyone interested in his life and times. Tosches' does a great job in setting up the story of Sonny Liston. The research he did into the Liston geneology is marvelous. It helps paint a picture of why Sonny Liston developed into the man he was.
Sonny Liston was one of his father's twenty-five children. The day he was born in Arkansas, his name and the date were carved into a nearby tree. A short time later the tree was chopped down. He moved to St. Louis with his mother and began getting into trouble. He was finally jailed for beating up an off duty police officer. After many run ins with the law he was incarcerated again for armed robbery. While in prison he took up boxing, and won the prison tournament. Once he was free he pursued a boxing career and was guided by Mob boss, Frankie Carbo. In 1962, he was given a shot to fight for the title and he knocked out Floyd Patterson in one round. In a return bout he again knocked out Patterson in one. Liston then lost his second title defense to the then young and brash, Cassius Clay. Liston was found dead six years later in his Las Vegas home from what the Coroner called "natural causes." Nobody knew exactly when Sonny Liston was born, nobody knew exactly when he died.
I can't say exactly why I'm so attracted to this story. It is a very tragic story, one of much pain and sorrow. It may be because I am so far removed from the way he had to live, it is so different from any lifestyle that I've lived. I may be attracted to his life because it is a closed book, it has come and gone, nothing new is going to happen. But is it? Many people feel that his death is still a mystery, Ving Rhames included. This is part of the reason why he agreed to play him in the movie, to bring closure to the life of Sonny Liston. As well as to let people see the real Sonny Liston, the private man that the public didn't see. People remember Sonny as a mean, brooding, thug. Ving will make sure that that changes.
By just knowing where Liston is buried I have gained friendships and experiences that I'll forever cherish.
I feel that I've gotten to know Mike Tyson and Ving Rhames each a little bit, and Sonny Liston a lot. This is a man who, when he was alive, was seen not as a celebrity or a hero, but as a criminal or an anti-hero. I think that is why Tyson can relate to him. I never met Sonny, he has been dead for almost thirty years, but I feel like I know him pretty well. Even though he has passed, there is still more to be learned about him and his story. I have not gone out and looked for these "Sonny Liston encounters," they have just happened. But I'm not counting out another one.
