having him around."

"I'm not alone in this theory by any stretch of the imagination," he continues. "After the second Ali fight, when his life was in a bit of turmoil, he was apparently less than respectful to a particular member of the mob from Cleveland. This guy was very angry that he had not been shown sufficient respect by Liston and that was the trigger. That made the powers that be decide that they didn't need him around anymore."

Michael Green, who is also a board member at the Las Vegas Mob Museum, believes the growing concern over what Liston knew may explain his death. "Hits on mobsters were generally in connection with the fear they were going to talk," he explains. "If you go back throughout [Liston's] career,has haunted boxing ever since - serving as a morbid reminder of the characters that used to inhabit its ringside seats and smoky backrooms. "His death did a great deal to damage the image of boxing," says Rob Steen. "In a sense, he is a symbol of the way the world once was. His death is a signpost as to how bad things were and how fortunate the sport was that Muhammad Ali came after him."

"You don't find other boxing champions dying in that way," he adds. "But, then again, boxers usually didn't have the depth of involvement with the mob that Liston had."