Fight fans who know the Sonny Liston story know the former heavyweight champion of the world had, shall we say, a testy relationship with cops. Liston, who had himself a pretty lousy 1964 – with him shockingly losing the crown to massive, loudmouth underdog Cassius Clay that February – had another bad experience at the hands of the law at the end of the year.
Liston was pulled by the cops in Denver, on Christmas Day no less, this his umpteenth arrest (reports are sketchy, but some say Sonny had the bracelets put on him no less than 19 times during his adult life), and his Christmas was duly ruined. According to reports from the archives, two policemen who were on duty on Christmas Day noticed a man who was, as they called it, “staggering through a parking lot.”
The as yet unknown man got into his Cadillac and drove away, this in “erratic” fashion. The two cops pulled over the car, and upon doing so they recognised the…
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