The sparring partners of Sonny Liston

[Brutu]

It was Doc Broadus who brought George Foreman to Dick Sadler's gym in Oakland
to have him spar with Sonny Liston,when Liston was preparing to fight Henry Clark,
which was months before Foreman won the Olympic gold medal.
Reportly later Foreman had two five round furious sparring session's before he went down
to compete in Mexico.

[Brutu]

Reportly Mac Foster may or may not have knocked out Sonny Liston in a sparring session at
Dick Sadler's gym in Oakland Ca when Liston was preparing to fight Henry Clark in 1968.
Reportly the first round was even,so was the beginning of the second when all the sudden Foster hit Liston with a left hook,Liston sagged into the ropes and his behind almost touching the canvas then Foster hit him with a right hand and Liston fell on a knee and was about to fall face forward,when his seconds grabbed him under the arms and took him to his corner.
They were using 16 ounce gloves.
Foster recieved 30 dollars for the workout and 20 dollars for traveling expenses to get there.

[Collins2000]

Reportly Mac Foster may or may not have knocked out Sonny Liston in a sparring session at
Dick Sadler's gym in Oakland Ca when Liston was preparing to fight Henry Clark in 1968.
Reportly the first round was even,so was the beginning of the second when all the sudden Foster hit Liston with a left hook,Liston sagged into the ropes and his behind almost touching the canvas then Foster hit him with a right hand and Liston fell on a knee and was about to fall face forward,when his seconds grabbed him under the arms and took him to his corner.
They were using 16 ounce gloves.
Foster recieved 30 dollars for the workout and 20 dollars for traveling expenses to get there.

Your source?

[raylawpc]

Try this Collins:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

[Collins2000]

Try this Collins:

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Good stuff.

[Brutu]

I wonder if George Foreman sparred with Sonny Liston's other sparring partners Chester Walton and Clarence Williams when they were being trained by Dick Sadler.
Before he turned pro ,Foreman did an exhibition with Chester Walton before Joe Fraziers fight with Dave Zyglewicz in Houston Texas.

[Brutu]

About the topic of canceled Sonny Liston fights over the years.
According to the Miami(FL.) News March-18-1961.
Liston(212 lbs,rated number one contender)was scheduled to have a 10 round fight with Ted Donald of New Orleans in Nassau Bahamas,but Donald was unable to make it,so instead Liston did a 6 round sparring exhibition with Miami fighter, Herb Siler(195 ibs).
In front of crowd of 3,000.

[Brutu]

Inl July 1968 a Detrot newspaper reported that,Joe Louis and Sunnie Wilson(who owned Brown Bomber Chicken Shack in Detroit and Detoit hotel biuisness man)
had planned to promote a comeback fight with Sonny Liston and Buster Mathis in Detroit Michigan for late July 1968,
but obviously it never happened for one reason or another.

[Brutu]

Another Liston fight that never happened was a planned fight reported in a Canadian newpaper dated August-15-1969 between
Sonny Liston and Bob Cleroux for November 1969 in Montreal Canada.
It was planned to be on National Television.
But that was only a verbal agreement and the fight never happened for whatever reason.

[Brutu]

Reportly Mac Foster may or may not have knocked out Sonny Liston in a sparring session at
Dick Sadler's gym in Oakland Ca when Liston was preparing to fight Henry Clark in 1968.
Reportly the first round was even,so was the beginning of the second when all the sudden Foster hit Liston with a left hook,Liston sagged into the ropes and his behind almost touching the canvas then Foster hit him with a right hand and Liston fell on a knee and was about to fall face forward,when his seconds grabbed him under the arms and took him to his corner.
They were using 16 ounce gloves.
Foster recieved 30 dollars for the workout and 20 dollars for traveling expenses to get there.

The knockout of Sonny Liston at the Oakland Gym by Mac Foster was reportly also seen by his manager and several witness.
Originally the Liston-Clark fight was scheduled for June.23 but postponed no doubt after the knockout in the gym to July.6.(1968).

[Brutu]

Sonny Liston was knocked down in a sparring session by Ray Patterson(Floyd's brother)by a right hand in Sweden in 1966
while preparing to fight Amos Johnson.
There is a photograph of the knockdown on-line somewhere that appeared in Jet Magazine back then.
Liston is on his back with his feet about 2 feet in the air.

Here is the link to the rare photo of Liston finding his butt on the canvas.
Scroll down to bottom of page 50 To see it.

http://books.google.com/books?id=T7oDAA ... pg=PA50&dq

[Brutu]

Two of the last known name boxers to have sparred with Sonny Liston before he died(or was killed),
were Joe Bugner,whom Liston asked to spar with at a gym in NYC in early 1970,
and Jose Luis Garcia who recently came up from Venazeula to train,and sparred with Liston when Liston was training for Chuck Wepner,I think Garcia also sparred with Liston shortly after that when Liston resumed training for a fight with Jerry Quarry before that fight fell through.
The sparring with Liston sounded like it certainly helped Jose Luis Garcia as he knocked out Ken Norton a few weeks after that.

[Roco]

Sorry to be a cynic but that photo has always looked fake to me. I've seen it many times and it's like neither man is reacting to the other being so close. The perspective doesn't look right either.

I'd love it if someone could prove me wrong.

I'm not saying they didn't spar just that the photo doesn't look right.

Agree with this. It doesn't look right to me either.

[Brutu]

I came across a newspaper article from 1972,when Mac Foster was in Japan getting ready to fight Ali.
They briefly interviewed one of Foster's sparrring partners there,
Wayne Kindred
and asked him who hit harder Liston or Foster(Kindred said Foster,but Foster was signing his check of course).
Kindred would have been a sparring partner of Liston's during the late 1960's,
when Liston was on heroin,blubbery,not training and old of course.

[Brutu]

Liston usually spared with a lot of light heavyweights.
One of which was Bobby Sands(aka Weldonl Townsend)who was a pro from 1957-1966.


http://books.google.com/books?id=EzkDAA ... pg=PA32&dq

[Brutu]

Georgie Benton when he was a top middleweight contender reportedly sparred with Sonny Liston at a
Philadelphia gym around 1963.
Reportedly Liston was unable to land a solid punch on him.

[Brutu]

Around the same time in 1963 in Philadelphia, former middleweight champion turned heavyweight Bobo Olson(180 pounds)
had spared with Sonny Liston too.

[Brutu]

Heavyweight boxer Gary Bates may have been one of the last of Liston's sparring partners
who saw him still alive.He is still around.Maybe someone should do an in-depth interview
about his experiences in and out of the ring with Sonny Liston,and what the boxing scene was
like in Las Vegas in the 1960's.

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_ ... &cat=boxer

[Brutu]

Here is a recent interview with George Foreman were his talks about the time
he was a stable-mate and sparring partner of Sonny Liston.

http://BS.com/george-foreman-d ... ton--47293

[raylawpc]

Wayne Heath was a Sonny Liston sparring partner. Sonny reportedly hit Heath with a left hook to the body so hard that Heath literally crapped himself.

[Nile4000]

I don't think Foreman was Liston's "sparring partner" in the classic sense-- I think rather they were stablemates who occassionally sparred.

Famous sparring sessions I would love to have seen:
Jim Corbett-Jim Jeffries
Jack Johnson-Gunboat Smith
Jack Johnson-Sam McVey
Jack Dempsey-George Godfrey
Jack Dempsey-Larry Gains
Joe Louis-Jersey Joe Walcott
Sonny Liston-George Foreman
Joe Frazier-Ken Norton
Joe Frazier-Jimmy Young
Muhammad Ali-Larry Holmes
Jerry Quarry-Ken Norton
Ken Norton-Larry Holmes
Mike Tyson-Greg Page

Also Gerry Cooney-Tim Witherspoon. :surprised:

[Brutu]

Hey Il Duece,can you possibly add to this list?

[matko]

Sonny and George posing in a Liston training camp photo.

Cheers GI....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQP2slQmiaY in this documentary it shows Liston shadow boxing with a sparring partner with wraps and groin guard must be as a warm down ALS just read the Jerry Quarry book "Hard Luck" and sure it mentions Foreman and Liston sparring a couple of times great book too Quarry wanted Liston and also Foreman this guy had no fear

[Brutu]

George Foreman had sparred with Sonny Liston on and off when he was still an amateur.
He was part of Dick Sadler's stable up until after Liston's loss to Leotis Martin in December 1969.
Then Liston and Sadler parted ways,and Johnny Tocco strarting training Liston
and Davy Pearl was his(unofficial)manager.
Tocco had also trained Liston for a time early in his career.

[Brutu]

Jim Robinson was Liston's chief sparring partner while Liston was in Europe in 1966.

(is this the same Jim Robinson who had earlier fought Ali,and whose autograph
someone was trying to get of all of Ali's opponents over the course of his career?

http://www.stripes.com/news/liston-head ... ay-1.17141