ties to organised crime. "Liston was about the last person the movement wanted to signify black achievement," Steen explains. "He was illiterate, he'd been in prison, and he'd supposedly beaten up striking workers for the mob where he was living. He'd sold his soul to the mob in order to get proper fights. His management was the mob."

A mugshot of Frank 'Blinky' Palermo - who managed Liston in his early days and was later jailed for conspiracy and extortion

There was John Vitale in St Louis, a mob boss for whom Liston worked ostensibly as a chauffeur but - more accurately - as an enforcer and leg-breaker. In the early days of his professional career, he was managed by Frank 'Blinky' Palermo, an associate of the notorious mafia hitmanFrankie Carbo. "The trouble with boxing today is that legitimate businessmen are horning in on our game," Palermo once famously said.

Ultimately, as David Remnick wrote in his book about Muhammad Ali's early years: "Liston was the last great champion to be delivered straight into the hands of the mob." Some would say these connections followed him to the grave.

It wasn't until Liston lost his title to Muhammad Ali - then known as Cassius Clay - in 1964 that his status as the most feared man on the planet began to wane. But it was the pair's controversial rematch the following year that did the most damage to his reputation.

Just 104 seconds into the fight, which took place in the tiny town of Lewiston, Maine, Liston went down after