“The bad guy isn’t supposed to win”: The Late Nick Tosches’ Take on Sonny Liston [by David Lehman]

Legend has it that Sinatra was prepared to bet a bundle on Sonny Liston in the ballyhooed bout against Cassius Clay in Miami. "Save your money, Frank," he was told. The fix was in.

 

Last night I stayed up late to readThe Devil and Sonny Liston (2000), the late Nick Tosches' excellent biography of Sonny Liston, big bad Sonny of the dead eyes and the murderous fists, who said, "The bad guy isn't supposed to win. I change that."

No question that the Clay fight in Miami was fixed by the mob (as Tosches, pictured left, sees it). He astutely points out that that when a fight is fixed, only the fighter taking a dive knows about it.  The opponent can't be in the know. But, says Nick, even Clay, by this time Ali, must have known that the one-round fiasco in the reamatch in Maine was as bogus as the phantom punch. Liston was not a talented actor, and he fell awkwardly, like a building.

 

"Sonny, I had a lot of money on you. Why didn't you tell me?" "Because you have a big mouth."

 

Why did he throw the fights? Because the odds against him were long and he needed the dough. He had tax troubles. The IRS was on his ass. In the American mind as reflected in the work of sports columnists, he was the bad guy, the thug, the jailbird, the ex-con. A charge of rape, if reported, would have ended his career.

 

Meanwhile Clay entertained the white mainstream media. According to Tosches, the words "media" and "mediocrity" spring from the same root.