Liston turned the tables on me. I had been talking that morning to Willie Reddish, one of Liston’s trainers. He told me Liston was down at the Thunderbird, gambling.
“Why don’t you go over and spend a little money, too?” he said.
The promoters had given me money to use on the gambling tables to help stimulate business. I had been looking for Sonny and I had a new poem that I wanted to read to him, “I’ll be there in about an hour,” I told Reddish. “But I’m not coming to spend money. I’m coming to run him outta the saloon.”
When I got to the Thunderbird, Liston was deep in a dice game. I started shouting at him, “Come on, you big ugly bear! Let’s get it on! Come on!” Liston kept rolling the dice, hardly looking up. “I’ll whip you right now!” I said. “Floyd Patterson was a nobody. You’ll knockout Floyd Patterson but I’m the real champ. I’m too fast for you and you know it! Put up all your money, Sonny! If you think you can whip me.”
He was still playing it cool, rolling the dice. All the gambling had stopped. People were leaving the slot machines, the blackjack tables, the keno areas, coming over to see what was going on.
I walked straight up to him. He was still trying to roll the dice.
Suddenly he reached in his pocket and pulled out a long black pistol, pointed it straight at my head, pulled the trigger: BANG! BANG!
I ducked. A chill went through my spine. BANG! BANG! He was still aiming at me. I leaped over the black jack table, then the dice table, scattering chips and cards all over the floor, ducking and dodging all the way out in the streets, and behind me the pistol: BANG! BANG!
When I got back to my hotel room, I threw myself on the bed, panting. My heart was beating fast, my hands were shaking. I was thinking maybe I should leave Liston alone. I knew I was only acting crazy, but he might be crazy for real. I was still shook up and hour later when a reporter came and told me that Willie Reddish was laughing. They said the joke was on me. Liston’s gun was loaded with blanks. Willie had set it up he told Liston I was coming and prepared him with a blank pistol.
