Sonny Liston's age

sonny is the biggest mystery of boxing, we cant know for sure.
His brother curtis was born in 29 and there was no record of a charles liston before 1930 so maybe in the early 30's?
Thats what I read once, dont know if its true.

 

Ive read that archie moore was younger than his listed age, that he lied saying he was older in order to start boxing sooner. IDK if its true or not

 

79

 

apparently Charles Liston is not listed on the 1930 census for the Liston household. some have concluded that this means he wasnt yet born.

the 1940 United States census information will be available at the U.S. national archives in April 2012.
it will be interesting to see if a Charles liston appears.

of course that wont settle the matter either.
Sonny Liston may not have even been Charles liston at birth.
the story goes that he was heard calling one of his brothers Charles.

 

Archie Moore was older,not younger than his listed years.Sonny liston was at least five years older.

 

How would it benefit Moore to lie to make himself appear younger?

 

To get fights ?, if they thought he was to old, maybe he thought they would think him past it, or not offer as much money, no different from what some actors do, they lie about there age

 

I wouldn't be surprised if Liston was 40 or older when he beat Patterson. Certainly his face looks early middle-aged in the photos, even dating from the early '60s.

 

Just going by how he looked:

In the 1965 Ali fight, he still had all of his hair, but it seemed to be slightly receding in the front. That would make him most likely in his mid-thirties.
His face still looked young to me, so I'd guess early thirties.

Boxrec says he was born in 1932. I have no idea where that comes from, but it jives with his physical attributes.
His first pro fight was in 1953, as a HW, so again, this must all be pretty close.

 

There are instances of famous fighters continuing their careers into their 50s, and concealing their true ages with phony birth certifcates. Thus, I would not be surprised if what you say is true.

 

Sonny was officially 30 years old and she was 25. She was also his step-daughter. Makes more sense that way. The earliest I hear of him being born was 1928. That would make him 34 at the time of the Patterson fight. There's a lot of misrepresented documents and conflicting records for him and I wouldn't put it passed him to have been a few years older than that. I've heard as far as early forties, which is a stretch, but not unheard of.

 

Records indicate that Moore was 39 when he won the championship in 1952. Same records say he was born in 1913, but most accounts in my knowledge depict he was born in 1916; making him three years younger, or 36. I've heard lots of historians say that he lied about his age and fabricated birth documents. I'm not exactly sure why he would do that, but his first professional fight was in 1938. Which means he was 22, but said he was 25. I've heard Al Bernstein say he was possibly older than he said he was, but Al's the only person I've heard with that stance; everyone else claims younger.