Liston was a monster and IMO would put pressure on Vitali right from the start. Body punches and a jab like a telephone pole from an 84" reach would open cuts on Vitali very early. Liston could box, knew how to slip the jab and how to beat big guys like Nino Valdes and Cleveland Williams. Liston only lost 4 bouts in his long career, two to Ali. To say he was a bum, because the mob took him over, during a time when the mob ruled boxing and if chosen, you didn't eat, unless you went along. Vitali is a very Intelligent, well trained boxer who happens to be 6'7" or so tall, but watch where he keeps his hands dangling during his bouts. Liston would take full advantage of this and overwhelm Vitali.
I think Liston is an excellent fighter and I don't get any joy out of maligning him, but he is just too small for the likes of Vitali, and he's not really a swarmer in the mold of a Tyson, or a Frazier, he was more of a boxer/puncher type fighter. And as a general rule I'm not a fan of fighters keeping their hands low when they fight, but if you've got the size of Vitali, you can probably control distance well enough to get away with it. In terms of the fight itself, it's a hard fight to call, but I'd probably go with Vitali.
So Liston, a 6 foot fighter weighing a career max of 214 pounds stops the giant super heavyweight Vitali. How ludicious. Vitali gave the greatest head to head fighter in heavyweight history a very close fight, that was stopped by a cut. This matchup would be worse than Vitali vs Adamek. Poor Liston would be taking 1-2s to his head all night. When would try and land his jab, then Vitali would probably respond with his usual lean back counter. A lot of people on here are way too biased to their own fighters based on nationality. It always seems to be heart over head. There seems to be only a small handful of knowledgable posters when it comes to talking common sense in boxing terms.
So you don't agree that Lewis is the greatest head to head fighter at heavyweight? In my opinion he is, then you have Ali etc.
Lewis is a great fighter, but he's FAR from being the greatest H2H fighter of all time. If you ask me, it'll be Ali, Liston, or Louis.
That's your opinion, which is fair. In my opinion it's Lewis. There was a fantasy fight poll ran last year on the general forum with some of the greatest ever Heavyweights included. Based on the votes, the final ended up at Lewis vs Ali. The general concensus was that Lewis would win. But, as these are fantasy fights one can only speculate.... :good
This reminds me of a heavyweight tournament. It took all the ATGS and put them against each other in a tournament. Multiple experts and even boxers ****yzed the match and put their picks on who'd win. The boxer with the most picks would advance to the next round. Very interesting read!