Boxing promoter Harold Conrad said, "People talked about Tyson before he got beat, but Liston was more ferocious, more indestructible. ... When Sonny gave you the evil eye—I don't care who you were—you shrunk ["sic" to two feet tall." Tex Maule wrote in "Sports Illustrated": "Liston's arms are massively muscled, the left jab is more than a jab. It hits with true shock power. It never occurred to Liston that he might lose a fight." Johnny Tocco, a trainer who worked with George Foreman and Mike Tyson as well as Liston, said Liston was the hardest hitter of the three. Several boxing writers actually thought Liston could be damaging to the sport because he could not be beaten. Liston's ominous, glowering demeanor was so central to his image that "Esquire" magazine caused a controversy by posing him in a Santa Claus hat for its December 1963 cover.