Top 10 Heavyweights of All-time, The Ring - March 1975

who knows eh?

maybe that far in the future they'll judge everyhting based on some computer based simulation fight that pits Louis against a 2087 7 foot 2 HW and concludes he gets roasted therefore ranks quite lowly.

 

Mcgrain has pulled me up on this before but the truth is Liston became chic again in the Tyson era. when I grew up reading boxing history books written in the 1970s-1980s Listons name was mud - and this list proves it. what did Liston do after march 1975 to improve his resume? I rate sonny #14 but compared to what was thought of liston during the 1970s that would be considered way too high.

 

I wonder why that is?

 

gawd knows, big intimidating devastating puncher with a mysterious ending. At that time Ali was still so big there possibly wasn’t room for fair perspective on Liston. The way he lost the title overshadowed how sonny won the title by a gigantic degree. The whole Liston thing was reviewed during the Tyson era but two books I can think of off the top of my head were dead against Liston, Gilbert odd’s “kings of the ring” rated Liston behind Leon Spinks in 1984 and Henry cooper listed sonny as overrated in 1978 in his book "the great heavyweights". Henry said something like “at the time people in the know knew Liston could not cope with a mover, that he was made to look like king kong with clever match making”.. He also wrote the “1960s produced the most over rated champion ever in Liston and the most underrated champion in Frazier”.
. This was the established view at that time. I think its harsh myself.

 

Well I suppose it took 25 years for opinion to settle on tyson so we shouldn't be surprised.