Didn't call him the big bear for nothing. But in all seriousness, yeah Liston was very civil with men he almost just killed.
Yeah and poor Patterson still doesn’t know if he’s Arthur or Martha and puts his hands up defensively as if he thought Liston was about to hit him again.
I do see the rationale on why Cus D Amato and President Kennedy were reluctant to have Floyd Patterson fight Sonny Liston in the autumn of 1962.
Cus conspiring with the most powerful man in the world to keep Sonny from winning the title. Corruption goes all the way to the top.
Not only did he hug them, but he did so with great energy, and continued until they passed out or said: "UNCLE!"
He does, poor Floyd. Think id have been jumping through the ropes away, if Liston has just knocked me flying!
LOL, the well intended but deadly Bear Hug made me think of - OF MICE and MEN and the line “Tell me about the rabbits George!! Man, I hope Sonny didn’t own any rabbits. Apologies for my weird sense of humour. More seriously, we know that Sonny apparently did like both Williams and Patterson. I don’t know about hugs for any other opposition - though he probably had to hug the policeman in order to pick him up and put him in the dumpster. If I was really cynical, I might think that the hugs for latter career opp. might’ve been a PR exercise to endear Sonny to the fans. In the cases of Cleve and Floyd, I do think the sentiment was legit. SIDE NOTE: Jack Dempsey was always more than happy to pick up his hapless KO victims. A good tradesman. Always cleaned up after his work was done.
