Ali and Liston: The Boy Who Would Be King and the Ugly Bear

by Bob Mee

Overview

Three months after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, two prizefighters named Charles “Sonny” Liston and Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr. stepped into a boxing ring in Miami to dispute the heavyweight championship of the world. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, and rumors were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Neither could be a hero in the eyes of the media.
Against this backdrop of political instability, of a country at war with itself, in a time when ordinary African-American people were maimed and killed for the smallest acts of defiance, Liston and Clay sought out their own individual destinies. Liston and Ali follows the contrasting paths these two men took, from their backgrounds in Arkansas and Kentucky through to that sixteen-month period in 1964 and 1965 when the story of the world heavyweight championship centered on them and all they stood for. Both Ali and Liston’s tracks are followed as their paths diverge: Ali going on to greatness with his epic fights and Liston catapulted back into oblivion until his mysterious death in 1970. Using original source material, it explores a riveting chapter in sports history with fresh insight and striking detail. Liston and Ali is a valuable addition to the literature about these world icons and their opponents.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781628731781
Publisher:	Skyhorse
Publication date:	10/11/2011
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	344
File size:	878 KB

About the Author

Bob Mee is the boxing analyst and commentator for Eurosport TV. He has previously written on boxing for the Daily Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, and Boxing News. His other books include The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Boxing, The Heavyweights, and Bare Fists. He lives in England.

Table of Contents

Introduction 7

1 Maybe they think I'm so old because I never was really young 12

2 This is the Atomic Age, Peaches 20

3 I figured I had to pay for what I did 24

4 That's why you can't be rich 31

5 I am not a social friend of Mr Carbo's, Mr Chairman 47

6 Where you going? I don't know 58

7 Just address the envelope 'Cassius Clay, USA' 70

8 It's nice to be nice 77

9 Don't dump your trash on us 85

10 A blues song just for fighters 91

11 He must have died last night 101

12 That blankness of not knowing 113

13 Still the bad guy 128

14 Even Cleopatra was ringside 134

15 I pity a man who hates 139

16 God save the King, God save boxing 147

17 I'll be as good as people will let me be 152

18 I want to make a beautiful life 159

19 He's just a little boy in the dark and he's scared 164

20 Rumble, young man, rumble 174

21 This kid is out of his mind 179

22 A dancing bear and a freak who never stops talking 183

23 What the hell is this? What did they do? 191

24 I am his best friend, at least in Philadelphia 207

25 To Boston and Suitcase Sam 212

26 Every gangster wants to be Al Capone 216

27 He could have died 223

28 Sonny? You out there? 227

29 Yes, it's me in your town 230

30 Of moose and men 233

31 The boy is gone 245

32 Of scientific triumph and lofty purpose 249

33 Get up, you bum! Get up, you bum! 256

34 He's gonna mess himself up so nobody won't go to see him 266

35 Sonny's last years 276

36 Nobody never gets killed in Vegas 282

37 I'm not scared to die. I've made my peace 286

Afterword 288

Postscript 290

Appendix 292

Endnotes 299

Bibliography 325

Index 327