Charles "Sonny" Liston was a bad man. In every sense of the word. He was intimidating and evil. He was also the boxing heavy weight champion of the world. He came up about as poor as you can be in America in the 1920's (although it is hard to say exactly how old he was as he did not know the date of his birth and recorded at least four different dates on boxing licenses - each making him 3 to 5 years younger). His parents were sharecroppers and he left Arkansas to lead a life of crime in St. Louis. Arrested for petty stick ups and basic stupidity, he spent eight years in jail where he began to box. After he got out of jail he was managed by a series of mobsters who helped keep him out of jail as he loved to drink and drive and attack women (even ones married to his friends). Throughout his career he was often denied a boxing license due to his connection to mob figures. The most shocking of allegations made in the book is that he threw both his fights against Cassius Clay earning his gangster friends over $2 million 1959 dollars.

Nick Tosches has also written biographies of Jerry Lee Lewis, Hellfire and Dean Martin, Dino. My guess is that if you met him in a bar he would spend the entire time talking about how great a writer he is and how he connected with these dark figures. I found his writing fake and intrusive. There were to many points where his style took away from the story and said, look how cool I am or wow did I just write that. I would say, Nick get over yourself. Sonny Liston was a bad guy, you don't need to make him a hero.