Is anyone better than the Ali from the Liston 1 bout?

Dempsey Willard is up there for best performance of all time. It's not irrational to say it was the best!

 

He probably came into the Liston fight with way more fire in His belly than the other two fights. And it shows

 

I agree. The Williams slaughter was insane. The only other time I'd seen something even remotely close to that was Roy Jones dismantling Vinny Pazienza in the great year of 1995.

Heavyweights:
Dempsey KO 3 Willard
Louis KO 1 Schmeling
Liston KO 1 Patterson
Foreman KO 2 Frazier
Foreman KO 2 Norton
Tyson KO 2 Berbick
Tyson KO 2 Tubbs
Tyson KO 1 Spinks
Douglas KO 10 Tyson
Holyfield KO 3 Douglas
Lewis KO 2 Ruddock
Lewis KO 1 Golota
Lewis KO 2 Grant
Bowe KO 6 Jorge Luis Gonzalez
Sanders KO 2 Wlad

I chose the above fights because the victims were rated highly at the time. Obviously some didn't pan out after these devastating defeats, which were impressive assaults on their prey.

 

Good list. If were looking at it in terms of skill level tho i find it hard to pick against ali v liston.

An argument could be made either way depending on what your were looking for. I actually think ali from liston beats everyone on that list on their best nights mentioned.

He beat liston and foremann. Although the liston fight was close liston threw pretty much his best that nite. The last five or so rounds would have became a long nite for him. Also if you watch the foremann fight it was actually wider than people remember.

The two on that list that would have gave ali the most problems would be holyfield and lewis imo. Just simply down to their styles.

But ali was a nitemare for guys like liston foremann tyson. Especially the ali of the liston fight.

 

I think that Ali did get better after this fight.

Before this fight he said that he was the greatest, and after this fight he knew that he was the greatest.

That makes a big difference.

 

The top heavy performances were in order
Dempsey....Willard
Louis .....Schelling
Ali....Williams.....if Liston did not quit in his corner allowing Ali to eevevtually knock him down and ko or tko him I think that would have been maybe third. Thanks

 

Joe Louis destroyed Max Schmeling in one round...Ali probably goes out in one round also under similar circumstances with Joe so motivated.

 

Ali vs Williams grossly overpraised.

Williams had a partially paralyzed leg....and had been gutshot by a .357 mag, losing 30 ft of his GI tract 15 months before.