The best story surrounding Liston's age is that he was actually Sonny Liston's older brother, but took his brother's name to shake of earlier problems. It's not really backed by anything bus supposition except for Sonny's complete rejection from his world-title camp of just one of his brothers. Could have been about anything - absolutely anything. But this is the story that emerged. So when folks triumphantly wave results of some census or other from whichever year, remember - the real Sonny Liston might have been a different man altogether.
Well technically, regardless of his identity, he was "the Real Sonny Liston". He may not have been Charles Liston but "Sonny" was a name attributed to that specific man, regardless of his real name.
Well he was "Sonny" Liston for the Golden Gloves. In other words, it was a name he appears to have "given" himself. I certainly wouldn't go so far as to say that his older brother was Charles "Sonny" Liston, because I don't believe that story is true, but whatever the truth, "Sonny" was a part of his identify form the very beginning of boxing.
I was listening to Manny stewards heavyweight boxing history on YouTube, (brilliant video by the way) and he mentions Liston being ‘about 40 probably’ when he fought Ali the first time, manny seems the type of guy who would have been told by reliable sources that Sonny was older than his stated age, whether he was nearly 40 i don’t think so, but he definitely looked older than 32
Something is very eerie about Liston and his story. I feel as if there is something just below the surface of those dim eyes we will never know. Sonny's deep sadness one none shall weep for his true life story is simply a fatality to the times.
I have been through Sand Slough I have a story for ya believe it or not and one of the gas pumpers was a squat bullish guy with REALLY long arms and a very familiar name he was nearing 40 somethin probably it was 2006 then. His name was Liston Dexter which I found really weird so I asked about his first name he told me he took his family name for a first name to honour his mother and the last name for his wife his actual birth name on his ID was Barney Lee Dexter however.
Yes, you must resign to that fact. The 1940 Census shows him to be almost 2 years older than stated, so around 34 in the first Ali fight. But the Census is not a scientific measurement. It's compiled by oficials who simply wrote down what people from households declared to them. There's a guy called Paul Gallender who wrote a book about Sony, he claims Sony was born in 1919. There are also other testimonies from those close to Sony who said he was older than stated, by how much I doubt we'll ever know.
That sounds preety spooky Richard. On the joking side, imagine if the next tech that walked in looked like Rocky Marciano!!!
No other sport really throws up characters like Liston, let's be honest. That's what I love about boxing. You get stories like this, that no one really seems to be able to answer.