Also on the card are many local products such as Rockin' Ryan Belasco sporting his 14-4-3 record into the ring. Dan 'Bada Bing' Biddle will be back in action at 5-1, also Anthony 'Caputo' Smith of Kennett Square will be stepping in the ring with his 8-0 record still intact.
The two fighters I will be paying most attention to, other than Stewart, will be 'Mighty; Mike Tiberi, and Amir “Hardcore” Mansour. Tiberi is an extremely promising fighter, who has spent time at Middleweight and as high as Light Heavy, is coming in at 15-1 so far in his career and is starting to catch more attention on the East Coast. Mansour is an interesting story, he was starting off a great career before he was incarcerated years back, and is now on the comeback trail and supposedly picking up right where he left off. Known for having devastating KO power Monsour is a very fun fighter to watch.
I recently have been reading more about Sonny Liston, former heavyweight champion. Basically his entire life is a mystery, no one knows when he was born, and no one knows when he died. We knew every time he stepped into the ring that where he came from must not have been nice. Liston had numerous large scars on his back from what looked like to be a whip. In between those two moments of time (life and death) he was a human wrecking machine, one of the most feared punchers of all time. His supposed link to the mafia almost discredits the man, but in that time, how many boxers of relevance weren't owned by someone? He worked just as hard as anyone else, no one can say he did not. Liston was renowned for his jump roping ability(appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show to demonstrate), and would stand on his head 2 hours a day to strengthen his neck and back.
He ran with the wrong crowd some say, the hustlers and gangsters, but that is who he liked to be with, they were his friends. The public was never on Sonny's side, he came in at a bad time, just like Larry Holmes. He knocked out the lovable Floyd Patterson in the first round to win the title, and again in the rematch, and then the charismatic Cassius Clay came along yelling and rhyming. People feared the quiet spoken man, who's badness transcended race and put fear into blacks and whites alike.
But I believe the man was misunderstood, a product of where he came from, doing what he had to do to provide and survive. Not the villain most made him out to be.
Sonny Liston was a great champion who, unfortunately, for the most part is still under recognized for his abilities. From what I gathered and have watched and read about the man, Sonny can best be described like this...'A quiet man, with sadness in his eyes, and dynamite in his fists.'
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