In The Little Miami Junior High: Fill & Download for Free

The good, positives about living in Ohio definitely outweigh the bad negative ones. I'll start with the positive aspects.Cincinnati, Columbus, Cleveland and Dayton are all fairly big cities. These cities have all the amenities one could want as well as nightlife to big business happenings. Even so there's a definite small town feel.In between Ohio's big cities there are many towns in-between. All have a certain charm.Ohio is absolutely a great place to raise your children.Excellent schools. Overall both public and private k-12 schools throughout the state are highly rated.Quality universities and junior colleges.Beautiful river scenery. Charming green landscapes.Lots of outdoor experiences. From zip lining in Hocking Hills to rafting on the Little Miami river. Much to discover outdoors.Plenty of entertainment. Two major amusement parks (Kings Island, Cedars Pointe) Waterparks, Historic sights, Nightlife, Amish Country and much more.Cost of living is relatively low. Rent, gas, food prices all affordable.Several large companies always hiring (Amazon, DHL, etc) as well as many quality jobs availableBig city atmosphere with friendly small town charm.Now for the negatives in Ohio. The pros far outweigh the cons but still need to be stated. Ohio is a fairly safe, clean state but …Ohio is currently experiencing a deadly fentanyl/ herion epidemic. One of the hardest hit epidemic areas in the US is Ohio. Fentanyl is everywhere here in Cincinnati. It's strong and deadly.Ohio's bigger cities do experience crime just like all bigger cities do.Poverty is prevelant in certain areas. Specifically the closer you get the border with West Virginia. Also as well as inner city areas in Cleveland, Columbus , Cincinnati and Dayton.In some areas segregation is a problem. Obiviously people are low key about it but it's in practice in some towns.Overall Ohio is a nice, average, clean place to live. I moved from Arizona to Ohio with my children several years back. I'm so glad we made the move here to Cincinnati.

I am a former employee of Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida, and I can tell you 25 years later it was still my favorite job of all time. And I've since built a business, fullfilled my dream of becoming an on air television reporter, and worked as an NBA dancer. There's something about the magic of the park. Mind you, I had one of the better jobs in the park. I was a paid performer in the parades and castle shows. I was 16 years old, still in high school when I was first hired and worked there my junior and senior years of high school. In the summers I worked there six days a week a 90 minute drive from my house both ways but couldn't wait to get back to work. I only made $5.50 an hour. We had access to the tunnels below we would get to wear a beautiful extravagant costumes, have wigs put on have our make up done. But what stands out above everything else is the friendships you make during that time last a lifetime. The comeadre among the performers was amazing. We almost never went home after work we all went out or hung out at someone's home. During the holidays after the park closed for the night we would hold all night rehearsals in the park. There was something very cool about being there when it was closed, and you have special access to it it's quiet and beautiful. We would rehearse the shows and the castle at 2 in the morning and because of how big the productions are I'm still aww all over them. What was also outstanding about the job, is it was never the same thing twice. We were always learning new parade routines playing different characters. So in the summers we were dressed as the characters ( characters are based by height, so I was eligible to play some of the seven dwarfs, and Chip and dale, and a few others) and go out in the park and play with kids and families then you have a break then you get ready for the parade then you have a break then you get ready for a castle show. You do this while moving underground. I loved that we had different things to do throughout the day, and they were 12 hour days. And character work in Florida in the summer is tough. Not for the faint of heart. You have hundred degree days 90° days inside a costume but they managed it very well you were limited to the amount of time you could spend out in the sun sometimes only five or 10 minutes depending on how hot it was.Doing it with your friends where in general performers tend to be very fun lively people. I truly believe working this Disney job at just 16 years old made me who I am today. Because it's a tough job, and it's a lot of hard work, it's long hours it's hot it's exhausting I would drive 3 hours a day total to get to work from home And back. But I wouldn't have changed a thing. To this day I'm a very hard workwe and I credit the Disney job for imprinting great work value and ethics in me at such a young age. The only thing I regret is during my senior year I started fooling around a bit on the parade route so they didn't ask me back. Nothing too terrible, just a little immature at the time. However I had graduated high school and was leaving for Miami to go to college so it didn't matter anyway. But because I loved the job so much I didn't want to end on a bad note. I now do freelance reporting work for ABC, owned by Disney, so I guess they have forgiven me.

Sonny stood a chance in both fights, but his best chance would have been in the first fight, if he had been healthy.Although Ali was several inches taller, Sonny had 5 inches of reach on Ali, and if healthy, might have used that reach and his superior boxing skills to ward off Ali’s incredible speed until he got a clean shot at the youngster.CREDIT PICTURE LIFE MAGAZINETime, and a deliberate effort by the boxing establishment has managed to convince most people Sonny LIston was just a highly limited slugger, a brute who was unmasked by Muhammad Ali.None of that is true.Sonny Liston was a truly outstanding technical boxer. Despite his awesome strength and power, Angelo Dundee is quoted in Liston and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King by Bob Mees, summing up the Young Liston who destroyed the top ten on his way to the title, saying:“He [Liston] took his time to set his opponents up, to gauge their skills and reaction time, before finishing them.”Muhammad Ali always said he was lucky in both fights with Sonny, and his manager was more candid. Angelo Dundee is quoted again in Liston and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King, saying:“I don’t know what might have happened if Sonny had been completely healthy. Had he been five years younger and healthy - I don’t want to think about it!”In his book, The Gods of War, boxing historian and writer Springs Toledo argued that Liston, when at his peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s, could be favored to beat just about every heavyweight champion in the modern era with the possible - and just possible - exception of Muhammad Ali.Contrary to what people think today, Sonny was not a one dimensional sluggerThe fights which best exemplify Liston’s strengths are his two short contests with Cleveland Williams.Monte Cox said it best:“Liston used beautiful head movement and what may be the division’s greatest ever jab to avoid most of Williams’ punches and to keep him off balance. Williams does occasionally land with extraordinarily powerful shots, but Sonny shakes each one off. In their combined five rounds of boxing over the course of their two fights, Liston is only shaken briefly once, and never in danger of being dropped. The most astounding thing about his approach is that he is equally comfortable coming forward or retreating—which he does whenever he feels pressured. This runs entirely contrary to the perceived wisdom about Sonny Liston. Although he was a finisher of comparable stature to Dempsey, Louis, Marciano, and Frazier, he was the only member of this shark-like group who was a boxing conservative.”A barometer of how good Sonny Liston was comes with his twice destroying a very good heavyweight champion, Floyd Patterson, in the first round each time - when he was already way past prime, and Floyd was only 27!Sonny Liston - Skills - Reemus BoxingNor was it a freak accident when Liston wiped the floor up with Patterson - Boxing writer and historian Bobby Franklin said, while marveling at Liston's boxing skills at such an advanced age, and commenting on his masterful offense:“It is interesting to note that while the fights were blow outs, Liston did not come out swinging wildly. He took Floyd apart methodically, setting his man up with left jabs and solid body shots. Sonny showed fast hands, using an accurate left jab, along with hooks and uppercuts. He had a definite game plan and executed it perfectly. If they fought a hundred times during that period the result would have been the same."Sonny was one of the few heavyweights who was just as comfortable coming forward or retreating, and used what is generally considered the best and heaviest jab in history to control distance.Sonny Liston was an excellent defensive fighter. He knew all the tricks, had excellent head movement, slipped and ducked, and used his incredible reach, the hardest jab in boxing history, and his strength to move in and out, slip shots, and hold when he had to.Finally, Sonny had shown with Floyd Patterson he knew how to defeat a lightning fast boxer; Patterson was second only to Ali in hand and foot speed in the heavyweights.But age and injury were about to catch up…The first Ali vs. Liston fightIf only Sonny had been either healthy, or young again, for his fights with Ali…Sonny Liston, who did not know when he was born, was at least 36 for the first Ali fight, according to the best records available, police and prison records from his arrests and incarceration in 1950 unearthed by Paul Gallender and Rob Steen in Sonny Liston: His Life, Strife and the Phantom Punch by Rob Steen and Sonny Liston in a New Light: With 4 Excerpts from Sonny Liston by Paul Gallender.But age and injury were not all that weighed against Liston in 1964 against Ali.Sonny Liston, who had intimidated every person who had opposed him since he left childhood, did not know what to make out of Cassius Clay. Clay (Ali) had followed Liston around hurling insults at him. He bought a bus and had "Sonny Liston Will Go In Eight" painted on the side. He and his entourage actually drove the bus to Liston's home in the middle of the night, laid on the horn and shouted insults until the outraged Sonny came out. He began calling Liston a "big, ugly bear."The weigh-in was a circus, with Ali working himself into such a frenzy the doctors almost cancelled the fight due to his spiking blood pressure. Ali later said:“Liston's not afraid of me, but he's afraid of a nut."Sonny was simply not ready for a lightning fast fighter like Ali. Such was his power, Sonny had fought only 13 minutes and seven seconds in the previous 4 years, and 4 minutes and 15 seconds in the past 19 months, and he expected Ali to wither like the others. He did not train properly, sparred intermittently and consumed hot dogs, popcorn and beer. He had badly underestimated Ali and his speed, and the injury added to age and lack of conditioning doomed the Big Bear.In Liston’s defense, his ability to do roadwork was highly limited by a gimpy right knee, and his ability to spar was limited due to an increasingly damaged shoulder!Contrary to popular belief, Sonny put up a stout fight against the lightning fast Ali in their first fight, even though he was badly injured, and, a minimum of 14 years older than Ali!Sonny landed the only hard shots thrown in the first two rounds. Ali landed lightning fast, but basically ineffective, jabs. In the 3rd round at the end of the round, Sonny got Ali against the ropes and landed an effective heavy body attack.In the 4th Ali came out unable to see effectively, evidently from linament which had been rubbed into Sonny’s shoulder by his corner as his shoulder worsened. Despite more urban myth that this was deliberate, there is no proof whatsoever this is so. The linement was legal, and the most likely explanation of how Ali got it in his eyes is that his gloves took if off Sonny’s shoulder.But it wouldn’t matter. Sonny’s bad knee, hurt during Patterson II, also began to act up, and he could not catch Ali, who was running for his life.It didn’t matter, Sonny’s arm was worsening, and Ali began to take over.Sonny was suffering from a severe shoulder injury in his left shoulder from his training camp. When you figure in that Sonny, a left hander fighting orthodox, depended on his jab to set up everything else he did, offensively and defensively, he was a shell of what he should have been.In addition, Sonny was operating on a gimpy knee. His last fight before meeting Ali had to be postponed twice due to a left knee injury. It was still bothering him 8 months later when he faced Ali.He had sought postponement of the fight to have time to heal, but it was denied.The fact he was able to battle Ali evenly speaks volumes of his ability.Indeed, Ali freely admitted the rest of his life that luck was on his side in both Liston fights!Sonny was badly injured before the first Ali fight, but fought anywayListon had tried to postpone the fight to rehab the shoulder or have it surgically repaired. (his knee was bad enough to warrant a postponment as well - but Sonny never got a break from any boxing official, ever)Liston had sought a postponement after the injury in training camp, of the fight for several months to let the injury heal, which the Florida Commission denied. He evidently worsened it dramatically during the fight. (Liston said it was partially torn before the fight, and tore completely in the first round - nonetheless by force of will he fought on until after the sixth, when he literally could not lift the arm at all)In addition, he was operating on a sore knee, which had caused his last fight, eight months before Ali, to be postponed twice!Nonetheless the commission mandated he fight on.Medical evidence that he was badly hurt during the fightIt is certain that Sonny had suffered a torn biceps muscle and tendon in his left shoulder, and a severe rotator cuff tear. His purse had been ordered seized following the loss to Ali in the first fight, and the Miami Beach Boxing Commission did not officially release it until it had accepted medical verification of the injury.The Commission, confident it could steal Sonny’s purse, refused to accept his doctors, or even neutral doctor’s evaluation and verification of the seriousness of his injuries. No, they insisted on selecting their own doctors.And those commission Doctors determined that because of the injury, Liston was unable to answer the bell for the seventh round in the fight at Convention Hall.Those were commission doctors, hired to justify the seizure of Sonny’s purse - but the injuries were so severe they could not ignore the extent of them, and ruled he could not possibly have gone on.Dr. Alexander Robbins, chief physician for the Miami Beach Boxing Commission, diagnosed Liston’s injury as a torn tendon in his left shoulder.Tex Maule, writing for Sports Illustrated said that Liston's shoulder injury was serious, citing first Liston's inability to lift his arm:“There is no doubt that Liston's arm was damaged. In the sixth round, he carried it at belt level so that it was of no help in warding off the right crosses with which Clay probed at the cut under his left eye."Maule also got access to medical records:“A team of eight doctors inspected Liston's arm at St. Francis Hospital in Miami Beach and agreed that it was too badly damaged for Liston to continue fighting. The torn tendon had bled down into the mass of the biceps, swelling and numbing the arm.”Liston went to his Denver home after the fight, then went to Philadelphia for consultation with an orthopedic surgeon. The full extent of his incapacitation, and any treatment he received for it, surgery, or otherwise, will never be known.Dr. Richard C. Bennett of Detroit, who was been the personal physician of Joe Louis and Sugar Ray Robinson, said that the injury, caused by a sudden overstrain, was akin to tennis elbow. Doctor Bennett said the pain alone would have been disabling.And yet the cards were dead even when Liston could no longer raise his arm after the 6th, and had to throw in the towel. (One 58–56 Sonny, one 58–56 Ali, one even)What could Sonny have done in the first fight if he was healthy?We will never know.Ali said in Ali: A Life:“The thing with George, I had to let him hit me, the thing with Sonny, I had to make sure he didn’t hit me!”Would a healthy Sonny have caught Ali sometime in a 15 round fight?We will never know.Nor did Sonny take a dive in the second fightSonny Liston, and the vast majority of experts who were there said it was a legitimate knockout, and because in 55 years, no one has proven it was not.People continue to claim Sonny took a dive, but when asked for proof, have none except their own beliefs. SIX major investigations of the fight over the last 55 years have not turned up one single verifiable bit of evidence the fight was fixed, not one.There is no doubt though, and almost all historians agree that the second Liston vs Ali fight was a huge mess, and the officiating a disaster. That said, they also agree that Liston was down, unable to defend himself, and had the fight continued, Sonny would have taken a serious beating.Why did the fight take place in an ice rink in Lewiston, Maine? Well, the WBA, which had a rule against automatic rematches, stripped Ali for the second fight, put pressure on all fifty state boxing commissions not to license a rematch between the Ali and Liston, and it was extremely difficult to find a venue for the fight.Finally, Massachusetts agreed to hold the fight, which caused a suspension of the Massachusetts Boxing Commission by the WBA. The fight was set for November 16, 1964, at the Boston Garden. Liston was listed as a betting favorite by 13-5. Three days before the fight, Ali suffered an incarcerated inguinal hernia. He underwent immediate surgery at Boston City Hospital. "It was such a marvelously developed stomach, I hated to slice it up," said one of the attending physicians.We spoke of Ali’s luck earlier - the six month delay in the second fight was ruinous for Sonny. He had trained the entire time from the first fight, after his rehab on his shoulder. He was in the best shape of his life - and then the fight was postponed. Sonny’s close friend Joe Louis said Sonny was not able to retain his edge over the delay, didn’t have enough money to stay in camp, and his shoulder, still troubling him, would not allow on and off training.The fight was rescheduled, but rumors of organized crime involvement forced the fight out of Boston. Governor John H. Reed of Maine offered to host the fight in Lewiston, Maine, a small town of about 41,000, 140 miles north of Boston.The venue selected was St. Dominic's Hall, a junior hockey rink. Lewiston was the smallest city to host a heavyweight title bout since Jack Dempsey fought Tommy Gibbons in Shelby, Montana (population 3,000) in 1923. It remains the only heavyweight title fight held in the state of Maine.So the fight was a mess from the start, which has contributed to the conspiracy theories through the years.On May 25, 1965, the rematch took place. About halfway through the first round, Liston threw a left jab, and as he stepped forward to follow up with an overhand right, Ali went over his jab with a fast right counter, knocking Sonny down. Liston, on his back, rolled over, got to his right knee and then fell on his back again. Many watching did not see Ali deliver the punch. The fight turned into complete chaos. Referee Jersey Joe Walcott, a former World Heavyweight Champion himself, had a hard time getting Ali to go to a neutral corner. Ali initially stood over his fallen opponent, gesturing and yelling at him:“Get up and fight, sucker!"Under the rules of the Maine Commission, the referee was authorized to stop his count if a boxer refused to go to the proper corner. He was not authorized to disqualify the fighter unless he struck the defenseless man while he was down, or starting up, with a blatant foul. Ali did neither.After Liston arose, Walcott, who had never resumed his count, wiped off his gloves. He then left the fighters to go over to the timekeeper:“The timekeeper was waving both hands and saying, 'I counted him out and the fight is over,'"Walcott said after the fight:“Nat Fleischer (editor of Ring) was seating beside the timekeeper and he was waving his hands, too, saying it was over."Walcott then rushed back to the fighters, who had resumed boxing, and stopped the fight and awarded Ali a first-round knockout victory. The official time of the stoppage was announced as 1:00 into the first round, which was wrong. Liston went down at 1:44, got up at 1:56, and Walcott stopped the fight at 2:12.Was the knockdown real?Sonny himself said after the fight in his dressing room:I didn't know he (Ali) could hit so hard."Liston also said:“It was a good right-hand punch,"Liston said as well, in answer to another question:“It made me groggy. I got to my knees but fell the second time because I was off balance..."Sonny finally said, mournfully:“I walked into it."Anytime a man leans forward or steps forward into a punch it obviously magnifies the force.Dr. Carroll L. Witten, physician and former Kentucky State Boxing Commissioner, who had studied the reactions of knocked out fighters, was ringside at Lewiston and said:“The side-to-side movement of eyes is commonly associated with temporary unconsciousness and is one of the first things you look for. It is called nystagmus."Dr. Whitten, an accepted expert, who was never accused of any bias, who was there, ringside, said in his professional opinion, Liston was badly hurt.World Light Heavyweight Champion Jose Torres said:“It was a perfect punch."Jim Murray of the Los Angeles Times wrote that it was:“No phantom punch."And Tex Maule of Sports Illustrated wrote:“The blow had so much force it lifted Liston's left foot, upon which most of his weight was resting, well off the canvas."Gil Clancy, who is no friend or admirer of Ali, said another of his fighters was knocked out with the same punch by Ali, and:“Went out completely "for a couple of minutes."Gil Clancy:“In the second [Liston] fight, Ali really hit him. One my fighters, Alex Miteff, fought Ali. Miteff was a tough, tough guy from Argentina. And he was really doing a pretty good job on Ali’s body. All of a sudden, Ali just hit him with a little right hand: down and out for ten. Ten! Just caught him right."At ringside that day in Maine, was, former undisputed World Heavyweight Champion James J. Braddock, who said the suspect Ali right hand merely finished up what an earlier punch had begun.Braddock said:“I have a feeling that this guy (Ali) is a lot better than any of us gave him credit for,, it isn't the knockout punch that sticks in my mind as much as a punch he let go (earlier)....It was a right to Liston's jaw and it shook him to his shoetops. For all we know, it could have been the one that set up the knockout."Former heavyweight champion, Rocky Marciano, watched film extensively of the knockout punch and said:“I didn't think it was a powerful punch when I saw the fight from ringside. Now (after seeing video) I think Clay, seeing the opening, snapped the punch the last six inches."The Rock also said that Sonny had stepped into the punch as he was throwing an overhand right, and walked into the shot.Asked later if Sonny threw the fight, Marciano just laughed:“Sonny would have died rather than thrown it, he really hated Clay, and wanted to win. No, he got caught with a perfect punch by the fastest guy I ever saw."There will always be conspiracy theories about the fight, as there are about any controversial event. But the best researchers in the entire world have spent 55 years trying to prove the fight was thrown, and have not unearthed one teeny weeny bit of evidence it was.What really occurred at Lewiston in Ali vs. Liston II? Joe Frazier put it best:“Sonny got old, and got his ass beat, it happens to all of us if we stick around too damn long."And that is also crucial: Dave Anderson of the New York Times said Liston "looked awful" in his last workout before the fight. Liston's handlers secretly paid sparring partner Amos Lincoln an extra $100 to take it easy on him. Lincoln himself said after the fight, he knew it would happen, that Sonny had just gotten old.Sonny's sparring partner Amos Lincoln said:“All of us, if we hang around long enough, get to this day. Sonny just got old."Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote that Liston's handlers knew:“He [Sonny] didn't have it anymore."In the end, like with most things, there are always questions, but the vast bulk of the evidence was that as Rocky said, Sonny hated Ali too much to take a dive, and he didn't.Perhaps the second fight, if Sonny had not walked into a perfect shot, would have shown his age - it should have, he was at least 37, and probably a lot older.Sonny spent the rest of his life trying to get another title shotSonny spent the rest of his life trying to get a third shot at Ali - who was perfectly willing to fight him, if someone put up the money.For over a year after the second loss, Sonny could not get a fight anywhere - no promoter would put him on a show. (Sonny’s license was not revoked - that is a never was fantasy)Fifty years on, Cassius Clay v Sonny Liston remains a pivotal moment | Sean IngleWhen the WBA stripped Ali for giving Sonny a rematch, the WBA, WBC, and Ring, refused to rank Sonny so he would not be able to fight for the title, despite Sonny being 36–3 and the clear number one contender.Meantime, Eddie Machen, who Sonny had beaten while Eddie ran for his life, losing by a huge margin, was allowed to fight for the WBA title against Ernie Terrell. I asked my father, a real fight fan, why Liston, who had handily defeated Machen, was not allowed to fight; my Dad looked me in the eye and said, “Sonny Liston will never be allowed to fight for the title again. It is not fair, but he is blackballed.”Make no mistake, Sonny was not officially suspended, he was just plain blackballed.When Sonny finally began fighting again, he won four fights by knockouts, and yet, mysteriously, was still unranked when Ali was stripped in 1967, and the “eight top contenders” were assembled to fight for the title. Included, incredibly, among the eight was Floyd Patterson, who Sonny had defeated twice in a total of 246 seconds.Ellis defeated Leotis Martin, Oscar Bonavena, and Jerry Quarry who had beaten Patterson), to win the vacant title.When asked if he would defend against Sonny Liston, Ellis said NO.Joe Frazier had declined to take part in the tournament, and was awarded the heavyweight title in New York. He held that interesting title until he beat Ellis and became undisputed champion.Joe’s camp also refused a fight with Sonny, who had remarked fighting Joe would be :“Like shooting fish in a barrel, it would be that easy.”Interestingly, Joe was willing to fight Sonny - but his management team, which had promotional control, refused anyway.Sonny then ran off 10 more wins, for 14 straight wins since Ali, 13 by knockout, until he fought Leotis Martin in December of 1969. Sonny, who was at least 37, and perhaps as much as 10 years old, was easily winning the fight. Liston had dropped Martin at 2:11 of the fourth round, but Martin recovered. In the 7th, he caught Sonny with a freak punch, for the only stoppage of Sonny’s career other than the Ali fights.Sonny would fight one last time before he died, against Chuck Wepner, on June 29, 1970.Appropriately, since this was Sonny Liston’s last fight, it was a slaughter, literally.Chuck Wepner, who fought great heavyweights like Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, said no one ever hit him harder than Liston.Wepner said getting hit by Sonny was like getting hit with a baseball bat, literally. Chuck wasn’t exaggerating, as he walked out of that fight with a broken nose, a broken cheek bone and 72 stitches! Knocked down in the 5th, Wepner quipped afterwards he should have stayed down. Wepner said:“Sonny made George [Foreman] look like Mr. Friendly!"That was Sonny Liston’s last fight, and he won 15 of 16, 14 by stoppages, after he fought Ali five years earlier.There were six investigations, three offical, into the second Ali-Liston fight, and noone ever found one tiny bit of evidence it was fixedLet us dispose of the urban myth that Sonny took a dive in either fight with Ali.It has been 56 years since Ali fought Sonny, and in that time, through all the official inquires, Senate hearings, and investigative reporting, no one has produced the tiniest bit of proof that Sonny took a dive in either fight, none, nada, zilch, zippo.Many people on this site and elsewhere on the net breathlessly write that Sonny took a dive - and when asked for proof have NONE AT ALL.But the establishment used that myth as a fine reason to downgrade and forget Sonny…There has been a deliberate downgrading of the Great Sonny Liston.Time and a deliberate effort by the boxing establishment has downgraded Ali’s incredible victories over the most feared heavyweight in history, Sonny Liston. This is shameful, in that it diminishes an extraordinary accomplishment by the 22 year old Ali, and degrades a generational talent in Sonny Liston.Sonny Liston - Skills - Reemus BoxingPeople have forgotten how feared Liston was. By 1964 he was considered unbeatable. He had lost once in 36 bouts – and that defeat in 1954, during which he suffered a broken jaw but fought on, merely added to his reputation. One contemporary profile said he was "surprisingly fast, remarkably quick" and noted his punishing jab while the former heavyweight champion Joe Louis admitted,:“I'm glad he wasn't around when I was fighting."Sir Henry Cooper, the European and British heavyweight Champion who twice fought Ali, and had a who's who of opponents in the 50's and 60's, had one name glaringly missing from his resume: Sonny Liston. When asked why, Sir Henry said,:“I don't even want to see him walking down the street, let alone in a gym!"But Sonny was not, as James Baldwin noted, “a good negro,” and the establishment truly hated him.After Ali’s first victory over Sonny, a Boxing Illustrated editorial remarked,:“INobody wants to be reminded of Sonny Liston. The idea is to forget him."And shamefully, forget him people did.Johnny Tocco, who worked with Mike Tyson, Foreman and Liston, said the reputation of Sonny as a brute was a media creation:“They made him a monster,” Tocco complained.Sonny himself sadly summed it up, saying the fights are like the movies:“There has to be good guys, and there has to be bad guys,” Sonny explained.Sonny said if he won the title, he wanted to be a champion for everyone, and:“I want people to like me.”Of course, the establishment, including the media, saw that never happened.Fifty years on, Cassius Clay v Sonny Liston remains a pivotal moment | Sean IngleMuhammad Ali said:“Liston was the best fighter of all time, other than me. Of all the men I fought in boxing, Sonny Liston was the scariest."George Foreman said:“Sonny Liston could whip any other heavyweight in history except for Ali."But most folks, sadly, do not remember that…CREDIT TO:All rankings and statistics to BoxrecCREDIT FOR QUOTES AND DETAILS TO THE FOLLOWING:A Blues Song Just for Fighters: The Legend of Sonny Liston by JJ ParkerAli: A Life by Jonathan EigBoxing IllustratedGods of War by Springs ToledoListon and Ali: The Ugly Bear and the Boy Who Would Be King by Bob MeesSonny Liston: His Life, Strife and the Phantom Punch by Rob SteenSonny Liston in a New Light: With 4 Excerpts from Sonny Liston by Paul GallenderSonny Liston - Skills - Reemus BoxingThe Devil and Sonny Liston by Nick ToschesThe Gods of War by Springs ToedoUnbeaten : Rocky Marciano's Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World" by Mike Stanton