Joe Louis rated Liston's jab one of the best in boxing history.
Knocked out #2-rated heavyweight contender Roy Harris (27-1) in one round.
Liston claimed he was born in 1932, yet his rap sheet for his 1950 arrest for armed robbery listed his age as 22, making him born in 1928.
Liston was the youngest heavyweight boxing champion to die (age 38).
Lived in a $50,000 Las Vegas home.
Made a comeback in 1968-69 and won 14 straight before losing to Leotis Martin. In his next fight he bounced back to TKO Chuck Wepner shortly before his mysterious death in 1970.
Made over $4,000,000 in his career.
Served 7 months in jail for beating up a police officer over a parking ticket in St. Louis in the mid-1950s.
Served a prison sentence at Missouri State Penitentiary for robbing a gas station at age 18.
Served time in prison for robbery and later for assaulting a police officer.
Survived by his wife Geraldine and a step-daughter.
Time magazine photograph of Ali standing over Liston, taunting him, is one of the most popularly published in boxing.
Was 35-1 going into the first Ali fight.
Was the favorite fighter of the famous Fab Four, the Beatles, and he appears on their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album cover.
When he won the heavyweight title in 1962 at age 30, he had a daughter age 25. However, it turned out to be his stepdaughter, the daughter of his wife.
When Liston died, he was rated 7th in the world heavyweight rankings by Ring Magazine.
When Sonny KO'd Floyd Patterson in 1962 for The World Heavyweight Championship,he became the only challenger to win that title by a first round KO. In 1996 when Mike Tyson KO'd Bruce Seldon in one round for the WBA Heavyweight Championship, Tyson had won the WBC Heavyweight Championship six months earlier and was seeking to unify the title.
William Friedkin was intended to direct his biopic "Night Train" with Ving Rhames as Sonny Liston.
Won his last fight on June 29, 1970, at the Jersey City Armory, stopping Chuck Wepner in 9 bloody rounds. Wepner, "The Bayonne Bleeder" who inspired Sylvester Stallone to create the character Rocky Balboa, said that the 38-year-old (or 42-year-old, depending on the source) Liston hit harder than did the 33-year-old Muhammad Ali, whom Wepner fought for the heavyweight title in 1975.
World heavyweight boxing champion, 1962-64. Inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, 1991.