If Sonny Liston had lived till he was 90

No, the joke he lived to 90.

 

I think that he would have made a good commentator.

Liston was actually surprisingly eloquent when you see him in interviews, and he had very good ring intelligence.

 

If Liston was born in 1930 and lived to 90, he would have been Deontay Wilder's third title defense.

 

Realistically, Sonny Liston would have long moved on from his pals like Frank Costello and Blinky Palermo as he would have become a closer friend to the man who took his title on Feb 25 1964, Muhammad Ali. I see Liston coaching a young undefeated prospect by the name of George Foreman, who idolized him. Liston would have been in the corner of Foreman on the night of Jan 22 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica, when Foreman decked champion Joe Frazier 6 times, enroute to removing the heavyweight crown from Frazier's head. Liston would have continued to assist Archie Moore and Dick Saddler in training Foreman in future fights. Sonny becomes friends with past opponents like Eddie Machen, Cleveland Big Cat Williams, and Floyd Patterson, all three often attend various fights together. Geraldine Liston becomes a Den Mother for a group of Boy Scouts, she bakes a really good set of cakes for her scouts. To keep fit, Sonny runs a few marathons with former champion Ingemar Johansson. Liston even takes quite an interest in a young Mike Tyson, helping him in shoring up his boxing techniques, improving his stamina with Kevin Rooney. I see Liston visiting our Classic boxing site, he even changes the minds of few of his critics here by taking them out to a good steak dinner, those critics after a night out with Liston change their minds about Liston's losses. Liston would stop by every now and then to tell us about his fights before he retired. Later, Liston takes out the scouts on camping trips, at one of those hikes, a Bear appears, the scouts appear frightened, Liston and the Bear hug each other like long lost buddies, alleviating any fears from the young scouts. Liston makes the young scouts stewed rabbit, telling the scouts that he once stewed a rabbit in 1962. In the morning after breakfast, Sonny tells the youngsters that their clothes will have to be washed, suddenly a Washerwoman appears, snags their clothing and takes it deep in the woods and washes their clothing. Upon their return from the wilderness, Liston learns that he has been named has been named the official Den Father, much like Fred Mc Murray in the Disney 1966 classic, Follow Me Boys.

 

Would Foreman have listened to Liston at that point?

I've heard the anecdote about Foreman not being interested in having Moore work on his fight plan and strategy against Ali. Which is... insane. Isn't that sort of thing the exact reason you'd hire Moore? Have him do an extensive film study of your opponent and come up with a plan to beat him?

 

Maybe he'd let Tyson befriend him but I don't think it would be a good idea.

He wasn't that old and a couple of these authors who supposedly wrote the "true story" of the two fights with Ali and how Liston died -- it's all speculation. These authors are not trustworthy. They have offered theories presented as fact. One of them writes that Liston had some business with a junkie jazz musician dope peddler named Red Rodney and that he had Sonny bumped off. This writer provides no proof that this happened. And so, it is proposed that somebody pointed a gun at Liston and offered him a choice of death by gunshot or by heroin overdose -- a "hot shot" in street parlance. But the autopsy states that traces of morphine were found in his body but that doesn't sound to me like an O.D.

I suspect that the truth was mundane: He died of natural causes, probably heart or circulation related. That's not the kind of sensational story that writers and the curious public like. Liston did have circulatory problems. He told Barbara LaFontaine of Sports Illustrated that his feet tended to swell at night. Called edema, that's a possible symptom of heart disease. I find that more plausible than the hot-shot theory. Liston was a longtime alcoholic and it's not unlikely that his lifestyle had damaged his health.

 

That's a good one, Richard. I especially like the fantasy of Liston allying himself with the Boy Scouts through Gerry's baking recipes. It sounds so warm and cute and cuddly.

 

I could not wait to test one of Geraldine's cakes, made me want to go back to scouting. Ha Ha.

 

He feared Liston and Liston was like a father figure to him while Moore was more like a friend to him.
That's why I think he would listen Sonny who would work with Moore in his corner.