Philadelphia Gym Wars

A Philadelphia gym is a good place for a man bent on homicide. “I remember the day Sonny Liston tried to kill me,” Georgie Benton said. It was 1960, and the two men were preparing to spar at a gym in North Philadelphia. Liston was the top heavyweight contender, about three prone bodies away from the world title. He aimed to turn his sparring partner, poor Georgie Benton, into one of those prone bodies. Liston weighed 220 pounds, Benton 160. It looked like a colossal mismatch. Liston would pound hm from here to the state line, no question. “Sonny was a brute, a bad dude,” said Benton, then a middleweight contender. “We got into the ring, and he started swinging at me. I had to outbox him, sticking and moving, sticking and moving. I wasn't trying to show off, but I had to make him miss. Sonny didn't like it. He got mad.” After two rounds, Liston became frustrated. His hooks and uppercuts, coming in wider and wider arcs, severed the hot, stale air. He began breathing hea

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