Sonny Liston! The former heavyweight champ's name conjures up memories of invincibility, power, and awe, but more than anything else it suggests mystery. Who was this intimidating man and what really caused his precipitous fall from the pinnacle of the sports world?

Paul Gallender's revealing new biography, Sonny Liston - The Real Story Behind the Ali-Liston Fights, sheds new light on Liston's tragic life and extraordinary career. In meticulous detail the author shows why the outcomes of Sonny's two bouts with Muhammad Ali had far more to do with what took place outside of the ring than in it. The truth about their one-round fight in Lewiston, Maine, will shock and dismay you.

When Sonny was forced to lie down against Ali in that fight, his reputation, legacy and ultimately his future, went down with him. A largely white sporting press despised and feared Liston and was only too happy to demean and forget him after the Ali bouts. Because of the media's unrelenting negative attacks, most of what the world knows about Sonny has little basis in fact.

Sonny's immense talent has been largely forgotten but it has never been equaled. Half a century ago, he was to boxing what Babe Ruth was to baseball and what Tiger Woods became to golf. The legendary Joe Louis called Liston the greatest heavyweight champion in history.

Paul Gallender introduces you to a man who, while not a saint, had a sense of fairness and depth of character that was acknowledged for the most part only by family, friends and children of every race. Once you start reading this book you won't want to put it down.