Charles "Sonny" Liston vs. The Big HWs

loses 2 Foreman , Bowe , Lewis , VWK , WK .
Liston would have stood a puncher's chance against Wladimir but less than Wladimir's puncher's chance against him .
remains true 2 a lesser extent if d word Wladimir above is replaced with Lewis or Bowe .
hard 2 decide : Holmes (whom was big but not as much as d rest
mentioned here)
And Liston did not have a 84" reach just like Corrie Sanders didn't despite once being listed as such .
Supposing that Liston did posses that reach , he'd still b outreached by d likes of Vitali , Wladimir , Lewis , Bowe (if he felt like it) & Valuev because of simple geometrical considerations (let lufcrazy do d dirty populistic work of "popular science" , i m sure he benefits himself just from reading this , trying 2 understand and then putting it 4 u , as he never thought about it until now , our very own Joe Louis Lagrange that he is)

 

I think liston stands the best chance against bowe, foreman and lewis but would find the klit boys and holmes stylisticly harder for him.

Young foreman could be out boxed, although liston was a hunter and would always trade I still feel young foreman was easier to hit at elite level than almost anyone.

Bowe also could be hit as well and could switch off in fights. The opening that presented Holyfeild with an opertunity to put bowe down with a left hook would have been bread and butter for sonny.

Rahman was lewis's bogey man first time around so maybe Liston would be also?

The way ali used his distance to jab liston to a standstill in round 6 shows me what the klit boys could also do IMO.

Holmes had the faster jab and could fight with anyone. If he got up from shavers he gets up against Liston and wins also.

 

Yeah, I doubt Liston's reach was 84" as well, even so it certainly looked shorter than Ali's when they fought. I've seen Ali's reach listed at 80" but I've also seen it as 82". I've seen his height as 6'3" but I've also seen it as 6'3 1/2". Point? My point is that if something smells like bullshlt than it's probably bull****. An 84" reach on a slighly less than 6'1" Liston smells like bullshlt to me. I know it's not all about arm length, the width from shoulder to shoulder matters, but Liston wasn't that damn wide!

 

Well with his reach and speed advantage it's until to imagine him losing to any of those listed.

The most difficult for him would be bowe and foreman as I think they'd fight their way into the inside.

Once there they could prove to be more powerful and more strong than liston.

Bowe can fight hard for twelve rounds but i'm not sure his chin could take liston's shots, nor am I sure liston could take bowe's.

Foreman had a tendency to gas and i'm sure he heard him say liston used to keep him at range with his jab in sparring so it's hard to pick there.

The other's should be content with an outfight with liston stalking until the guard drops and that's when he scores the stoppage.

The saving grace for liston against foreman or bowe is he has a speed and reach advantage over both. However foreman punches harder in my opinion so liston would best suited fighting him on the outside. Bowe is much stronger so again i'm not sure i'd favour liston on the inside there. Sonny has the ability to beat both on the outside.

 

Think he'd have some mixed results against that list, but overall does pretty well... Can't say for sure what the outcomes of those fights would be, but he'd have to be given a fair chance against a lot of them.

 

h2h he beats them all. except holmes. i see holmes beating liston 7 out of 10 but i would favour sonny aginst the rest you mentioned. foreman and liston are almost equal in strenght and chin. but sonny was the better boxer and had better stamina. the klitschko's never met someone like sonny. bowe ( a prime motivated bowe) would be the toughest one for sonny. and lewis hasn't the speed of ali.

 

unbelievable , is it some sort of a temporary crash or did 1 of d rampaging mods here delete about 10 of our posts ?

 

i think he would beat them all except holmes maybe.

 

Sonny's arms were noticeably shorter than those of Cleveland Williams when they squared off, as well as Ali's.

At a height of 5' 7-1/2," the broad shouldered Griffith had a wingspan recorded at an even six feet. (Duran, at about the same height, had a reach six inches less than Griff.) Liston also had a long collarbone.

When Randy Gordon supplied commentary for ESPN, he tried to implement a system of measuring a boxer's jab from the end of his collarbone to the end of his hand. (I don't know if this was to the end of the fist, or extended fingertips.) Unfortunately, Gordon was trying to swim against over a century's worth of traditional overall reach measurement, and couldn't very well travel back in time to revise and make accurate the jab length of past competitors.

Even if Sonny wasn't all that wide in the shoulders, his hands and fists were huge, adding to his overall reach. A big boned man. (By contrast, Ali's hands are rather smallish for a HW of his size. On Johnny Carson one night, he held up his fist against that of the 5'4" Robert Blake, and his hand did not dwarf Blake's. Muhammad attributed his lack of fist size to some hand problems he had during his career.)

 

He might well beat all of them to be honest.

Holmes and Lewis would give him the most problems.

 

What am I missing ? Listons "speed", lol, since when ? He is slow of hand and foot.......

IMO he would be the underdog against all, I give him the best chance against Foreman if he can extend him.

He ain't beating the K brothers. Fact (non injury of course)

Holmes will outbox him and can take a shot, his chin is superior to Listons. Hello, Clay repeat, lol

Lewis will make it a stinker a la Tua.

Bowe will bring the heat, can take a great shot, is easily as skilled, hits hard, is conditioned and can fight long range or up close. Bowe from Holyfield 1 or the Gonzales fight stops Liston or makes him quit.

Liston was the "big" guy when he fought, he would be the small guy and with the exception of Ali he never fought anybody as skilled / tough/big as the mentioned above and we all know how the Clay thing went for him, if you pack it in twice against the green and relative light punching Clay I spell doomsday for Liston.

Menacing, bad ass, wrestling with some ****** cops, mob connections, lol, maybe 50 years ago , today nobody gives a sh*t about that and if Liston would walk into modern Compton running his mouth there is a good chance he will come out in a bag.

Conclusion: none of the above (possible Foreman) would be intimitaded by him IMO it would be the other way around.

And please I don't want to hear one more time how Liston dismantled journeyman Williams or glasschin lthwt Patterson........the list above would pulverize those two without even breaking a sweat.

 

I have the Leotis Martin vs Liston bout and in the tale of the tape Sonny's reach was listed at 80.5 inches.

 

In comparison with these listed liston would seem quick imo.

Vitali has next to no chance because he's such a terrible infighter.

I already spoke about bowe and foreman.

Wlad lewis and larry likely outbox him at range but eventually I think he'll land a big shot and score a come from behind knockout.