Sonny Liston

Charles L. Liston was born into abject poverty in rural St. Francis County, Arkansas, one of twenty-five children born to an abusive sharecropper father. Having never attended school and illiterate his entire life, Liston fled to St. Louis as a teenager, turning to petty crime. Sentenced to Missouri State Penitentiary in 1950, Roman Catholic prison chaplain Father Alois Stevens introduced Liston to boxing, discovering his terrifying natural punching power and immense 84-inch wingspan.

Paroled in 1952, Liston won the National Golden Gloves before turning professional. Over the next decade, despite being shunned by the boxing establishment for his mob-connected management, Liston obliterated the top heavyweight contenders, knocking out Zora Folley, Cleveland Williams, and Nino Valdes.

On 25 September 1962 in Chicago, Liston challenged world heavyweight champion Floyd Patterson. In one of the most brutally one-sided title fights in history, Liston knocked Patterson out in two minutes and six seconds of the first round. He repeated the feat ten months later in Las Vegas, knocking Patterson out again in the first round. Although he lost his title to Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) in 1964 in Miami Beach and in their controversial 1965 rematch, Liston compiled a career record of 50 wins with 39 knockouts before his mysterious death in Las Vegas in December 1970.