Liston vs Marciano

id put some money on marciano by late round ko or decision. too tough mentally and physically for liston and with great endurance. i think hed get past that jab and start to back up and outwork liston in close abit like the louis bout imo. but who knows

 

sort of proves nothing

 

It proves he could land his jab on a short guy as is evidenced in the first few seconds .It isn't intended to imply Bethea was in the same class as Marciano.
One thing Bethea was durable, Liston was the only man to stop him in 50 fights.
Which fighters walked into Liston and were successful?

 

It's a possibility, another is that Marciano would have shipped so much punishment by then the referee would have to step in and terminate things.

 

Rocky is shipping punishment with Liston. It would be a two way thing. The real possibility is that taking punches to land them would deplete the power and dominance Sonny was used to. The room to punch within an exchange suites Rocky not Liston.

 

Marciano is too awkward for Liston to land that type of jab effectively. The right hand is hard but once Rocky gets past the jab Sonnys leverage is neutralised. Inside Rocky out works Sonny, frustrates him. It is not so much a style advantage but an experience advantage, a seasoning advantage and a toughness advantage too.

Sonny could quit. This is a real possibility also.

 

yes Rocky gets hit but to hurt him Sonny must land cleanly. Do you think glancing blows at half impact could bother Rocky? The jab is easy to land on more upright, square on opponents. Lower, crouching, side on footed targets are much harder to nail with long jabs. Just ask Muhammad Ali. Liston would have difficulty keeping range with a slow "step in- jab" against a man asking for jabs to slide inside. He would smother his own work.

Short punching looks great against a stunned, frozen fighter but you understand Rocky is going to be slugging back for every moment the two are within reach of each other. Sonny was not hard to hit.

in 4 world title fights Liston quit 2 times. Now I like Sonny Liston but we have to accept That is a 50% quit rate at world level. No other great fighter can match that weakness.

 

I suppose Liston will always get labelled a quitter simply from his two fights against Ali.
The thing is these two fights apart there is simply no other evidence that he was that type of fighter.
When you look at the two Cleveland Williams fights he walked through some enormous shots from a big hitter and seemed to relish it,there was no hint of a dodgy ticker.
He fought on against Marty Marshall with a broken jaw and saw it out.
In a way I think he was similar to Duran put a physical confrontation in front of him and he relished it,but put the **** in the mix an Ali and Leonard served up and they found that stuff hard to handle and simply bailed out.
Against Marciano it would certainly be a straight forward macho slugfest so I certainly wouldn't expect any issues with Liston's heart.

 

This is a very good point, Liston did indeed soldier on against fierce firepower against big cat Williams but my answer to that is nothing was going to stop Liston when he knew he had a man's "number". Think about it. Cleveland big Cat Williams was a big tall guy nobody could miss. Tall, upright, had been exposed before, untested at world level, fought recklessly and was always going to provide openings in a firestorm. Made to order. Liston was more prepared to stick it out with a guy he always knew would crumble eventually. He was spectacularly proved corect in that case.

Where as I just don't think Sonny would ever feel he had Rockys "number". Marciano was a conundrum. There was just so much more about Marciano compared to Williams -a guy keene Simmons said did not hit anything like as hard as Marciano.

Mentally Rocky was so much stronger than anyone Sonny met, he had a more confident aura and nothing Liston could exploit at a psychological level. That in itself was a huge disadvantage for such an expert intimidator like Liston. Knowing he could not get inside Marcianos head would give Sonny cause for thought.

 

true to an extent. It's just that Rocky is punching back at these times. He won't be frozen or stunned.

 

Marciano will be hurt. He was hurt in about half his world title fights (dropped by Walcott and Moore, busted nose by Charles).