In his prime, Liston was unstoppable

Yeah but that was sparring.

Ken Lakusta stood up to prime teenage Mike Tyson in sparring.

 

I go back and forth on this a lot.

I definitely see Ali always beating him and Louis always stopping him in a war.

Now I'm beginning to think Lewis and Holmes are favourites as well and maybe Holyfield.

I change this opinion often though.

 

In the first fight Ali peppered Liston and knocked the fight out of him. Sonny was afraid of Ali. He thought Ali was crazy and Sonny feared crazy people. The second fight was bungled by referee Jersey Joe Walcott. Ali did not move to a neutral corner after he knocked Sonny down and Walcott listened to someone at ringside who told him 10 seconds had passed. So he stopped the fight.

 

Magoo o and boxingfan said that holyfield did hit harder than ron lyle based on he stopped more rated contenders lol. So ali did hit harder than lyle too . liston definitely hits harder than evander and was naturally bigger,wider and stronger but like you know evander was a roids user... So you never know

 

Agreed. :good

 

:good:happy

 

That's how I see it. Liston from 58-62 is a nightmare for anyone. Only his lack of longevity and highly dubious losses to Ali put him lower in the top ten than other greats. He is a serious challenger to any champion I have ever seen.

 

I never said that Holyfield hit harder, let's see you find that post. All I said is that Holyfield is rated higher by the Ring magazine in terms of all time punchers than Lyle is. And as usual that's a FACT. (It's not a fact that Holyfield hits harder than Lyle, rather it's a fact that he's rated higher on the Ring Magazine list, as Lyle isn't even rated.)

 

I think for his time Liston was close to unbeatable, and I would say with the passage of time, 4-5 fighters would likely beat him and perhaps another 5-6 might be able to beat him. On that list would be:

Ali, Holmes, Tyson, Bowe, Lewis, Foreman, Ike/Tua, Wlad, Vitali, Holyfield, Louis.

All wouldn't beat him, but I think over 1/2 would.

 

Liston wasn't stopped by Marty Marshall. Why do you have it as 2-1(1)?

 

Don't know if he has quite the footspeed or ring intelligence to take Chris Byrd. That would be a good bout.

 

Interesting choice.

I wonder if one had to pick the fighter closest to Ali over the last 20 years if Byrd might not win that choice.

 

Because he's the biggest Liston hater, bar that idiot, "****dinthehood"

 

Forgot to add Ruddock to the list, thanks for bring that to my attention.

I agree that Ike/Tua are stretches but it's certainly possible that either could beat him. Ike had a short career but he seemed to have a chin of iron, all kinds of stamina, and power to spare. He wouldn't be an easy guy to beat if one were to start trading with him.