Power - Sonny Speed - Lennox Chin - Sonny Endurance - Even Size - Lennox - - - Boxers who gave Sonny trouble: Conventional, outside, speedy boxers. Boxers who gave Lennox trouble: Hard hitters who got inside and messed with rhythem and turned it into a "fight" - - - Sonny would probably get a short, sharp shock early in the fight. He'd try to establish his jab but it wouldn't work against a bigger, more rhythmic Lennox Lewis who jab him and land some hard rights for the first few (1-3) rounds. Like he did against Cleveland Williams, Sonny would drastically change his gameplan and go for Lennox's biggest weakness - his chin. Very shaky, very suspect. If Rahman and McCall could knock Lennox OUT then Sonny could knock him DEAD. After a few rounds of getting beaten up on the outside Sonny starts using his underrated defense - moves inside and roughs Lennox up, shocking him and knocking him off his gameplan. Hard right-straight stuns Lennox and as he backs up a huge 84" left hook scores home on his open chin and as with most victims of a clean Liston left hook - he goes into a long sleep. KO6 Sonny Liston
I think an even bigger part of it will be because one of them is a significantly better fighter :good
Sonnys power was amazing for its time but Lewis fought in a division stacked with and unprecedented amount of herculean superheavyweight punchers and I wouldn't be surprised if he faced several men that could hit as hard as him. Sonny fought very few big punchers in comparison. Anyway, I think Liston could give Lewis a lot of trouble with his jab and if he managed to turn it into a firefight who knows.
While Liston was dominant against the mostly smallish heavies of his own era, he never had to go up against a 6'5", 240lb boxer puncher with Lewis' power, guile and experience. Sonny was an intimidating beast in his day but in the 90s and 00s he'd have been one of the smallest men in the division, the same size as Chris Byrd. That's not to say Liston couldn't pull this off. Lewis had his vulnerabilities. But I'd have to make Lewis the favourite here. Lewis TKO 8.
Liston was HUGE, just short. To compare him to Chris Byrd is pretty insulting. Tyson is a better comparison. 84 inch reach, biggest fists in boxing history. The guy was a tank.
Barely 6'1 and 210lbs, that's not a huge man. He'd be dwarfed by the super-heavies of the 90s and 00s. He'd look like Chris Byrd standing next to them.
And for a man who regularly enjoyed having the size advantage over most of his opponents I can see that as being a huge problem.
In some ways, I think this is Lewis' fight to lose. If he tries to attack Liston or lets his ego get in the way of better judgement, I think Liston knocks him out. If Lewis boxes cautiously, I think he'd tame Liston like he did to Mercer and possibly finishes Liston via TKO. Then again if Liston lands flush, he wins. Hard fight to call.
Liston would pose Lewis problems. Good jab, good chin and a big punch spells trouble for Lewis. Lewis could be out out jabbed and when he was as in the fights with Bruno, Vitali and Mercer he struggled. But I'd still favour Lewis. Yes Lewis lost to McCall and Rahman but this is a prime for prime scenario, we are not talking prime Liston against a pre Steward Lewis or a complacent Lewis. Lewis even when out jabbed against Bruno, Mercer and Vitali turned things around. He wasn't a one dimensional fighter, he could adapt and make a fight of it if he needed to. His size advantage on the outside and even on the inside would pose Liston problems. How often was Liston man handled? How does Liston cope against a boxer as skilled as Lewis who could also over power him? Lewis wins a decision or stops him late.
