Sonny Liston Pulls Gun on Muhammad Ali On Video

One of the most iconic images of Muhammad Ali today is where Ali is standing over Sonny Liston. That picture was taken on May 25, 1965, at the world Heavyweight Championship match between Muhammad Ali and Sonny Liston. This was the boxing legend’s second time fighting Liston in a highly anticipated match-up that still remains one of most controversial in boxing history.

Many boxing fans look up to Ali as their idol but the dark side of Ali was that he loved talking crap. Unlike Floyd Mayweather who doesn’t swear, Ali would call you names and make up crazy poems that will get under your skin. In the Thrilla In Manilla Muhammad Ali would call Joe Frazier “ugly,” “Uncle Tom” and “gorilla”. Rumor is that he even threatened an opponent’s family with a gun prior to a boxing match and that he also turned up outside of Frazier’s hotel waving a rifle around. It’s on Thrilla in Manilla (documentary) but that was found untrue as there was no real proof.

He would taunt you. Ali even drove a big red bus that he bought in Chicago that he and his father painted that read, “Sonny Liston is great but will fall in eight”, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The bus also said, “World most colorful fighter Cassius Clay”. In case you don’t know, Cassius Clay is the real name of who would soon turn into the legendary Muhammad Ali.

One time Sonny Liston scared the crap out of Ali by pulling a gun on Muhammad Ali inside the casino floor at the Desert Inn and firing several rounds.

In Ali’s book, “Soul of the Butterfly”, Ali said that was the only time he was scared.

This video, that is all over Youtube, is fake. That is not Sonny Liston in the video, however it is a reenactment.

In the book, “The Greatest, My own Story Muhammad Ali” writes,

“Liston turned the tables on me. I had been talking that morning to Willie Reddish, one of Liston’s trainers. He told me Liston was down at the Thunderbird, gambling.”

“Why don’t you go over and spend a little money, too?” he said.

The promoters had given me money to use on the gambling tables to help stimulate business. I had been looking for Sonny and I had a new poem that I wanted to read to him, “I’ll be there in about an hour,” I told Reddish.

“But I’m not coming to spend money. I’m coming to run him outta the saloon.”

When I got to the Thunderbird, Liston was deep in a dice game. I started shouting at him, “Come on, you big ugly bear! Let’s get it on! Come on!” Liston kept rolling the dice, hardly looking up. “I’ll whip you right now!” I said. “Floyd Patterson was a nobody. You’ll knockout Floyd Patterson but I’m the real champ. I’m too fast for you and you know it! Put up all your money, Sonny! If you think you can whip me.”

“He was still playing it cool, rolling the dice. All the gambling had stopped. People were leaving the slot machines, the blackjack tables, the keno areas, coming over to see what was going on.”

“I walked straight up to him. He was still trying to roll the dice.”

“Suddenly he reached in his pocket and pulled out a long black pistol, pointed it straight at my head, pulled the trigger: BANG! BANG!”

“I ducked. A chill went through my spine. BANG! BANG! He was still aiming at me. I leaped over the black jack table, then the dice table, scattering chips and cards all over the floor, ducking and dodging all the way out in the streets, and behind me the pistol: BANG! BANG!”

“When I got back to my hotel room, I threw myself on the bed, panting. My heart was beating fast, my hands were shaking. I was thinking maybe I should leave Liston alone. I knew I was only acting crazy, but he might be crazy for real. I was still shook up and hour later when a reporter came and told me that Willie Reddish was laughing. They said the joke was on me. Liston’s gun was loaded with blanks. Willie had set it up he told Liston I was coming and prepared him with a blank pistol.”

That was the only time Ali got a piece of his own medicine. On Jan. 5, 1971, Liston’s body was discovered in his Las Vegas home. Coroners determined he had died at least a week earlier. The cause of death remains a mystery.

Officially, Liston died of heart failure and lung congestion but needle marks found in his arm suggest he may have died of a heroin overdose. Some believe mobsters murdered him. Ultimately, the true cause of Sonny Liston’s death was the mystery.

One thing is for sure we will always remember Sonny Liston thanks to Muhammad Ali.