The birthdate of Sonny Liston is one thing that no one seems to know, with his mother claiming he was born in 1928, but Sonny believed it was 1932. Does anyone know which one is expected to be correct, and how old do people usually say he was when he fought his biggest fights? I wonder as a four year difference would IMO possibly give him a lot more credit if he was older than he claimed to be.
1492. Didn''t you go to grade school? He taught Jem Mace, sparred with Mendoza and defeated Joe Goss under a nom de guerre.
Sonny's true date of birth has been a subject of debate for a long time. In the GREAT book - "The Devil and Sonny Liston", Sonny's date of birth is dscussed and one of Sonny's friends stated, to the effect, that Sonny was older than his "official record" indicated. Sonny did in fact look older than 32 when he fought Ali in 1964. Also, when Sonny was arrested, prior to his boxing career, he gave a different date of birth, which if accurate, made him older. Grebfan9 www.firstroundboxing.com
Which really proves nothing. Basketballer Greg Oden looks older than Noah but he is only 22 years old. I don't think Sonny- as an adult- ever looked too young. The myth-making machine regarding Liston is a force of nature.
The bio THE DEVIL AND SONNY LISTON offered some evidence off police records and speculation from friends that Liston was older than he claimed and born as early as 1927. Since then, the census of 1930 has become available. Another poster looked up his family and off the detail presented in that bio (county-father's name) found his family. Charles Liston was not listed as born yet in the 1930 census. I checked the census myself just out of curiousity. I would judge the census the best evidence so far---so Liston was born sometime after 1930. I see no reason to doubt 1932. As for police records, there might be reasons, such as being able to purchase liquor legally, for Liston at some point to claim to be older than he really was.
He was older than he said he was,prolly what his mother said.His date of birth has been lost since someone cut a treee up.As they had 30 something kids they used to carve each kid's DOB on the tree.But somebody chopped down Sonny's tree and it was forever forgotten.
Thanks for that. It seem strange now that something so natural as knowing the day you were born would be forgotten, but I guess there's a lot of mystery surrounding all aspects of Listons life.