“Once Sonny did time he was a marked man and that followed him into boxing. He was no saint, but I found him sad.”Not so long ago, coinciding with an anniversary of Liston’s death on 30 December, 1970, another old friend, Bill Nack of Sports Illustrated, went back over the last days of a fighter who spread fear throughout the heavyweight division and was once thought to be unbeatable. He too arrived at the conclusion that Liston’s character was shaped by the realisation that nobody had ever given him a square deal. “But I couldn’t get to the truth about Sonny’s death,” he said, “and I don’t think anybody ever will.”Far from the hero’s welcome Liston imagined when flying into Philadelphia after taking the title from Floyd Patterson on 25 September 1962, he was met by only by a handful of reporters and photographers. Already selling on the streets was an editorial composed by Larry Merchant of the Philadelphia Daily News. “A celebration for Philadelphia’s first heavyweight champ is now in order….

for confetti we can use shredded warrants of arrest.” Another News writer, Jack McKinney, who had sat with Liston on the flight, told Nack: “When Sonny took in the scene, he understood immediately what it meant You could feel the deflation, see the hurt in his eyes He’d been deliberately snubbed. From that point I knew that the world would never get to know the Sonny I knew.” Two weeks later, Liston was stopped by police for driving “suspiciously slow” through a section of the city Soon afterwards, he and his wife moved to Denver. “I’d rather be a lamppost in Denver than mayor of Philadelphia,” he snarled.Unquestionably, Liston had friends and associates linked with organised crime. “You couldn’t help being suspicious of him,” the veteran trainer Eddie Futch once said. Now in his 90th year, Futch recalls encountering Liston when in New York with the welterweight Don Jordan. “Seeing Sonny in the hotel put me on my guard because I’d been told that there might be an attempt to get at Jordan,” he said “So after we checked in I switched the rooms. Not long afterwards I answered a knock at the door to find Sonny standing there.

He looked surprised, then asked if I could let him have a towel. There was no doubt in my mind that he’d been sent to intimidate Jordan.”This raises the profound question of whether Liston was as bad as he has been painted or simply a guy who never got an even break. I wouldn’t know, but as the years pile it is surprising how one’s views lengthen into tolerance.. John Whitaker has not yet decided whether he will attempt to repeat last year’s victory in the Peugeot Derby here with Keeley Durham’s Virtual Village Welham, now a venerable 21 years of age. “I’ll see how he goes on the first two days of the show and then decide,” he said. John Whitaker has not yet decided whether he will attempt to repeat last year’s victory in the Peugeot Derby here with Keeley Durham’s Virtual Village Welham, now a venerable 21 years of age. “I’ll see how he goes on the first two days of the show and then decide,” he said.
Whitaker has a well-deserved reputation for getting a fine tune from old campaigners.

Last year’s victory was his third in this annual classic, which makes use of the dramatically steep descent from the 10ft 6in Derby Bank. His second was achieved in 1998 with Gammon, who was then 21.Whether Welham runs or not, Whitaker intends to ride Steps Helsinki in Sunday’s Derby, which is the climax of the four-day meeting that begins this morning. The black gelding has been in the money on the two previous occasions he jumped in the big contest, finishing 10th and sixth.Last year, Whitaker and Welham defeated Tim Stockdale and the chunky mare, Wiston Bridget, who also jumped a double clear round and was beaten only on time. Bridget, who had her first win in a puissance contest in Dublin this month, has been schooling well at home in Northamptonshire, where Stockdale has built his own replica of the Devil’s Dyke at Hickstead.