In terms of head to head ability Johnny Summerlin 2x Nino Valdes Cleveland Williams 2x Eddie Machen Mike DeJohn Zora Folley Wayne Bethea Floyd Patterson 2x Henry Clark Chuck Wepner
My take; Summerlin-underrated wins Valdez-past it Williams -good wins(over overrated opponent) Machen-good win over good fighter but showed limitations DeJohn-solid win Folley-impressive Bethea-a journeyman Patterson-great wins Clarke-good win Wepner-so so
It´s alright....... Btw...better than Bowe´s resume ? No. Thomas Cooper Tyrelly Biggs Tony Tubbs Bruce Seldon Pierre Coetzer Evander Holyfield twice Michael Dokes Larry Donald Herbie Hide Jorge Luis Gonzalez (whe Gonzalez was undefeated) Andrew Golota twice (he won! no matter what, he won)
He also never suffered any late or early career losses to lesser men. Evander was the only one with a legitimate claim to beating him, and Riddick took two out of three against an all time great.. We all know he got his ass handed to him by Golata, but as you pointed out, it can't be labled as an official loss.
The second fight being a fix is irrelevant. Liston was never going to regain the crown from Ali.. He was outmatched.
horrible resume h2h patterson 188 pounder and fragile against any big good hw. ali is the greatest but liston was crap against him williams, beatable average guy with a good left hook nino valdez a big bum past his best folley average small guy machen average small guy and lasted the distance with liston the other guys were crap
Liston dominated the contenders that were available to him, and were being ducked by the Champion Patterson. (Henry Cooper said if he was walking on the same side of the street that Liston was on and saw Liston coming....then he would cross over to the other side of the street) Then Liston crushed the Champion himself.
Cooper also said Liston was the most overrated heavyweight champion of the 1960s. Cooper wrote that the press built up Liston as "having two heads and four arms" Cooper also reckoned that the word amongst sparring partners of the day was that Sonny didn't like movers and so clay proved it.
Liston was a great fighter but I think he was somewhat a victim of his own KO record and possibly went a bit stale in his peak years through lack of rounds. Ultimately his record is 2-2 against elite fighters. Sonny had some good wins and spectacular filmed KOs but when you scrutinize the opposition they were outweighed and overmatched types everyone else was beating. His wins in 1960 were superb however.
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I think Liston's resume is somewhat similar to Tyson's, in the sense that the quality of opposition wasn't so great, but the manner of the wins was often noteworthy. For example, Wayne Bethea was basically just a journeyman, but he was known for having a great chin - yet Liston took him out in a single round. Having said that, Liston's resume is one of, if not the weakest resumes of any supposedly great HW champ IMO.
Agreed - the Holyfield wins put Bowe's resume clear and away above Liston's IMO. Otherwise, they're fairly comparable, with wins over several good or decent, but not great titleholders and contenders.
Cooper had the chance to get into the ring with Liston in a formal fight....so did Ingo. Then the ornithologists of the early 60's classified both of them as some new form of species of ducks.