Sonny Liston ~ 'Career After Cassius Clay'

[Bill Paxtom]

~ March 1966 ~

What They Said

Ernie Terrell



Ah, Sonny should go away. He made it bad for all of us. Just when Boxing was starting
to gain some respect again, he went out and ruined it.

As for his {2} losses to {Cassius} Clay. I was not shocked at all. I had been smacking that
'Old Man' around for nearly 2-Years before he got in the Ring with Clay.

Sonny is a tired old man now. I call him 'Grand-Pappy'. I sent him a box of Slippers and a Pipe,
and a bottle of 'Old Grand-Dad' Whiskey for Christmas {December 25, 1965}. He's done.

If we fought, I'd slap him silly for the entire fight. He couldn't hit me 3-Years ago, so I highly
doubt that he could hit me now. I'd shut him out.

[Master]

Sonny put on a good long run of good wins into early 70's when he mysteriously died. Spoiler alert.

[IamInuit]

You need to stop this ridiculous attempt to slander Ali. Its getting a little long in the tooth dont you think? Its become a mammoth tusk. Another attempt I see coming in sideways as if Ali had something to do with his misfortune with promoters etc or something to do with the rankings.Yeah as if the second fight had nothing to do with it. There was only 1 governing body then and they did things differently because of that fact. Liston did very little after the second fiasco to get himself into contention. For anyone interested in the times and Sonny Listons place in it they should read "The Devil and Sonny Liston" by Nick Tosches.


You didn't get into contention again in those days by fighting guys like Dave Bailey, Elmer Rush and Willis Earls and ending the run getting knocked out by Leotis Martin. The guy fought 15 times before his big showdown with Chuck rice paper skin Wepner from 1966 to 1969. That is 5 fights a year for 3 years having never fought anyone. Rightly or wrongly the boxing world turned its back on him because of the phantom-punch and he did nothing to rectify that. He made the bed he slept in not Ali.
He was dead 6 months after the Wepner fight. Surprised you didn't blame Ali for that also.