March 8, 1961 Another tune-up/warm-up bout for Sonny Liston. This time at the Auditorium in Miami Beach. Sonny Liston 31-1-0 (21 KO's) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania vs. Howard King 37-21-8 (14 KO's) Reno, Nevada This is the 'second time' these boys will face each other. Back on February 23, 1960 - Sonny won by a TKO 8. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The #1 Heavyweight, at 6' 0 1/2" and a 'husky' 219 lbs., claims an age of 27, though that has been disputed, as some suggest he is every bit of 33 with a few more months added. Howard 'Honeyboy' King, the 6' 2" 204 lb. 'journeyman' has been in the ring with everybody. The 33 year-old is always ready to fight, and is no easy 'walk-in-the-park', as he can suprise you with his fast hands, with a left hook to the body and a right hand to the chin. The Fight Round 1 Sonny comes out 'plodding', and Howard jabs and moves, trying avoid any heavy punches fom the bigger man. Liston lands a good left hand that drives 'Honeyboy' back, but King ducks under Sonny's punches and fires a good left hook to the body. Sonny sets the pace, and uses his long left as a 'battering ram', pushing King backwards. King throws a left-right that scores, and a right over the top. Liston steps back, and rams a left hook to Howard's head, then a short right to the rib-cage which makes King whince. Sonny stalks, as King moves briskly as Round 1 ends. This content is protected
Round 2 Howard King comes out as the aggressor, and tries to back Liston up with fast left-rights, and a double left hook to the body. Liston is bothered by the speed, and steps back to adjust. Sonny plants his feet, and unloads a counter left, that stops 'Honeyboy' in his tracks. Sonny presses, and starts dropping a barrage, and floors King for a '9-Count' with a right-hand and short left hook. Howard gets up, and ties up Sonny as he moves in. Liston lands a hard left that wobbles King, but misses badly with follow up punches, as King ducks under the hard but slow punches. King makes it to the bell. Round 3 Sonny comes out with 'bad intentions', and lands a hard '3-punch' flurry which hurts King, who backs up. Sonny pursues and drops a hard right and left hook to the body which bends Howard in half. At the 0:43 Mark, Liston lands a pulverizing right-hand which drops Howard King, who is counted out by Referee, Cy Gottfried. Sonny Liston wins by knockout at 0:53 of Round 3. This content is protected
February 23, 1960 The Auditorium - Miami Beach Charles 'Sonny' Sonny Liston vs Howard 'Honeyboy' King I Sonny Liston 26-1-0 (17 KO's) - 6' 0 1/2" - 211 lbs. vs. Howard King 35-19-8 (13 KO's) - 6' 2" - 195 lbs. The 211 lb. Sonny Liston, #2 Heavyweight ran into a tougher opponent than he expected. The 195 lb. Howard King, proved to be a tough customer, and stood and fought Liston thru the first '2' Rounds, instead of backing away. In Round 3, the smaller 'Honeyboy' went toe-to-toe with Liston, and matched the Philadelphoa Heavyweight punch-for-punch. King would not back down in battling the Top-ranked Heavyweight evenly for Round 3. Sonny started to break through King's guard in Round 4, and hammered away at the Reno Heavyweights body. In Round 5, Sonny pounded King with a barrage, and nearly floored Howard with a left hook and ponderous right hand, and had him ready for a knockout by Rounds end. After a slow-paced 6th Round, where both boys too a breather to catch their 'second wind'. Action picked up in Round 7. Sonny went all-out to put the 'Honeyboy' away, and pounded with a relentless boxy attack, hurting King with hard left hooks, and right uppercuts. But King hung on and would not go down. Late in Round 7, Sonny landed a crunching left hook that weakened King, and followed up with a right hand smash to the Howard's mid-section, dropping him for a 9-Count. King got up, and Sonny pounded away. But King would not go down and made it to the bell ending Round 7. After getting checked by the Referee after the round, the bout was halted as the Referee would not let the fight resume. Sonny Liston was awarded a TKO 8. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sonny Liston claimed his age was 27 1/2, prior to this bout. Sonny Liston received his largest fight purse in his professional career for this bout. Entering this bout, the 32 year-old Howard King had gone 1-8-2 in his previous '11-bouts', and his last victory was on August 6, 1958. After this bout, Texas Boxing Enterprises offered Sonny Liston a fight contract to go to Texas to fight #3 Heavyweight - Cleveland Williams in Houston for a bout set for March 21, 1960. It was to include a fight purse guarantee, 25% of the live-gate plus training expenses. The offer was turned down.
bump I bumped this for two reasons. Cleveland Williams is described as the #3 heavyweight, does this perhaps reflect that he was much more highly rated by the NBA than by Ring Magazine. And Liston seems to have had some trouble with King in the early part of this fight. Too bad there doesn't seem to be film.
Sonny was the damned Bossman in the late 50's thru the beginning of the 60's...I honestly believe that he was either past his prime, or just about to be past it when he ko'ed Patterson for the title in '62.* * This content is protected
