Publication Date:November 15, 2008 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days Shipping:International shipping available Condition:Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The career of Charles "Sonny" Liston has attracted more debate and hostility than that of any other master of the squared circle. Even now, there remain more questions than answers: How much was he controlled and manipulated by underworld figures? Did he take a dive in the momentous bout with Cassius Clay? When was he born and how and why did he die? What is certain is Sony's standing as one of the most formidable punchers ever to enter the ring. Despite all the efforts of the boxing fraternity, he was finally allowed to fight for the world title nine years after turning professional. Grasping his chance with indecent haste, he deposed Floyd Patterson with a first-round knockout, then repeated the dose a year later. He was not seen as a suitable role model by the civil rights movement because of his criminal past and dubious associates, and was reluctant to participate in the pursuit of racial equality. Meanwhile, he was constantly pursued and badgered by the police, compelling him to move from state to state in search of refuge. A larger than life character with a life of ups and downs, ending in tragedy, this is a mesmerizing portrait of one of the most formidable boxers of all time.
Customer Reviews:
If already familiar w/ Liston story, don't buy this bookNovember 21, 2008 1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I purchased this book to kill time while waiting for the bio's of Joe Gans and Harry Greb to be released, and didn't expect very much from it since no one had bothered to write up a review for it and because it's only 233 pages and was written by a sportswriter with whom I am unfamiliar. Well, I was right not to expect a whole lot. As author Rob Steen admits in the book's first chapter, 'The Sour Science', he holds antipathy for the sweet science and this is evident throughout the book. I would have been willing to put up with this bias ('tho I am a big fight fan, I am not blind to its problems) if Steen were a master storyteller and a good writer, but he is not. This left me only to hope that he would reveal enough information with which I was not already familiar to justify the $20 that I had shelled out. Again, this was not the case. The only thing that Steen revealed which had not been mentioned in most of the articles and TV programs about Liston was that he had insisted that a clause be inserted into the contract between the company that held the rights to the closed-circuit broadcast of his first bout with Clay/Ali and the individual venues that would screen it that stipulated that those venues could not segregate their patrons by race (which demonstrates that the 'Bear' did, in fact, take a stand on civil rights) and Steen also provides the reader with the long-forgotten opinions of Marty Marshall, Liston's first conqueror, on his bouts with him. One is also left feeling disappointed by the brevity of Steen's accounts of each of Liston's 54 pro bouts (save the ones with Marshall), particularly since he spends so much time writing about Liston's mob connections, the mob's control of boxing, and Clay/Ali's ties to the Black Muslims (remember, the book's only 233 pages, so something had to give, and given that these aspects of Liston's and Ali's respective careers/lives had been so well documented by others, I would have thought that they would have been given short shrift to allow for a greater discussion of other aspects of Liston's life). All in all, the book is a decent read, but if one were desirous of learning about Liston's life and career, but unwilling to spend $20 or the time it would take to read 233 pages, I suggest that one go online at their local public library and read William Nack's article on Liston, 'O Unlucky Man', which ran in the February 4, 1991 issue of Sports Illustrated and from which Steen gleaned MANY passages for his own book.
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