Thom Loverro

I was a 24-year-old kid working for a small weekly newspaper in the Poconos in 1978 when I made my first trip to “Fighter’s Heaven” — Muhammad Ali’s mountain training camp in Deer Lake, Pennsylvania, about an hour away. Ali was training for his rematch against Leon Spinks, having lost in February to the former Olympic gold medalist who had just seven professional fights — a bout Ali had no business losing. The camp was packed with people, which was always part of Ali’s traini

Sonny Liston is buried at Davis Memorial Park in Las Vegas. His gravestone reads: 1932 – 1970 A man. There also lies the mystery of Sonny Liston, at one time the baddest man on the planet — the feared heavyweight champion of the world — and what happened that historic night in Miami Beach on Feb. 25, 1964, when a young, loudmouthed, but seemingly overmatched Cassius Clay stopped Liston after seven rounds. Clay — his name before he announced the change to Muhammad Ali after th

DEER LAKE, Pa. - It was the place where Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Andy Warhol, Mike Douglas, the Jackson Five and many other celebrities came to watch Muhammad Ali work and hold court. No, it wasn't the desert town of Las Vegas, but a mountain hideaway in central Pennsylvania. In the small community in the coal country of Pennsylvania, outside Pottsville, just off Route 61 on Sculps Hill Road, Ali built his training camp. And there one of the greatest athletes of the