Two of my favorite heavyweights Both men I credit to both being very skilled underrated boxers I'd say Liston has the heavier hands of the two While Witherspoon is arguably the more skilled of the two and slick boxers did give Liston trouble Both men have reliable chins So how do you see this one going? I'd say Liston costs the scorecards to a comfortable UD win :bbb
Prime Liston has the fundamentals, jab, and power to give Witherspoon serious problems. Just seems like a terrible matchup, stylistically, imo. That and I think that Prime Witherspoon gets overrated on here.
Spoon might have a better chance of stopping Liston than you think. Holmes was as gone as I've seen as a fighter, whilst standing on two feet. It's is likely Holmes underestimated his challenger, but for this reason alone it makes me believe Spoon gives Liston a rough ride down the stretch, provided he make it that far. Despite this I can't not pick Liston by way of decision
Bump I'll save myself the hassle of making another thread How do you think Liston does against Pinklon Thomas? I don't think Pink has the mobility of Ali to give Liston trouble, then again I've seen very little of him I'd also say Pink has a better jab than Ali
Cross armed defense of Witherspoon is wide open for left hooks. Wrong opening to be giving Sonny. Tim really needs to make this guy work for everything and I just don't see that.
This was evident in the Holmes fight where Witherspoon left the right side of his face unguarded because he wanted to parry Holmes's jab. Holmes hardly threw a hook, but I am pretty sure that Sonny would have.
I think that this is a more competitive match-up than most people here envision. Liston would be the favourite but Witherspoon is always a live underdog in my book and he'd likely be the best guy Liston ever beat.
That's the flaw in the cross arm defense and it is an automatic opening the opponent desn't even have to work to create. And Liston had an alltime great lefthook off the jab & Witherspoon would be standing right in front of Sonny anyway.
agree. spoon has nothing on him. i think liston would be great today, with modern training and peds he would have been very dangerous... he had great physical gifts and good boxing fundamentals, skills.
I think Liston would beat Spoon up a bit for reasons some have already mentioned. Spoon and a lot of the early 80's heavies could get quite lazy in there, not good against Liston as he would be keeping the pressure right on. Spoon was also right there, he ain't running. Liston's jab would control the tempo of the bout and his hook would land hard and often enough to give him a chance of a stoppage in the latter rounds.