Sport can offer catharsis in times of crisis, but not this time. Liston was a mob fighter with a criminal past, & rumours were spreading that Clay was not just a noisy, bright-eyed boy blessed with more than his share of the craziness of youth, but a believer in a shadowy cult: the Nation of Islam. Instead of a hero & a villain, boxing had served up two bad guys.
Against this backdrop of political instability, of a country at war with itself, in a time when ordinary African American people were still being maimed & killed for the smallest acts of defiance, Liston & Clay sought out their own individual destinies.
Liston & Ali follows the contrasting paths these two men took, from their backgrounds in Arkansas & Kentucky through to that sixteen-month period in 1964 & 1965 when the story of the world heavyweight championship centred on them & all they stood for. Using original source material, it explores a riveting chapter in sporting history with fresh insight & in rare detail.