he reality about sonny liston vs the imaginary big bad monster

He weighed
212.25 for Williams x2
213 for Patterson
212.5 for Harris
212.5 for Folley
211 for Machen

That's near enough for me.

 

For me he does, he has always made my top ten.

 

His prime was probably from about 1959-1962, during which time he weighed 212 on six occasions plus a handful of others where he was just a pound over or under. So basically his best weight range was from about 210-213 and appeared within such a range a fair amount of times.

 

Liston compensated for his "mere" 6'-1" height with that freakish 84" wing span of his. Falling down in that bad acting performance in 1965 and getting ko'ed at the end of his career doesn't detract from those android-like performances against the 1959-'60 peak versions of Cleveland Williams....not the diminished version with a bullet in his gut of 1966....when he shrugged off numerous bombs only to destroy his man both times. Liston was a very formidable man, but at his peak, he was a monster.

 

That's my take on it.:good

 

Well, there was no doubt about who won, but it was competitive at times and certainly not a mismatch. Machen later claimed to have entered the fight injured, but who knows? Maybe my reply gave the wrong impression about my view of Liston. I just wanted to emphasize that he is a hard guy to figure out. That being said, I would have picked him to wim the WBA Elimination Tournament. After all, Patterson seems to have been the best of that lot. A lot of question marks remain, though.

 

He was just about the same size as Evander Holyfield when prime, although Holy was perhaps an inch taller.

 

Wepner fought Liston and Foreman, and a couple other legends.

Here's how he describes his fight with Liston:
https://streamable.com/f2n3

 

This!! :good

 

This is how I see it. Liston's size today is exaggerated. While he was a bigger man for his time, taller and much heavier held the crown before him.

This is not to say he couldn't beat the bigger champions after him. It was just never proven on his resume.

The two biggest highly ranked men Liston fought were Williams and Ali. If you watch the fight, Clevland Williams ( who only beat one contender ) actually busts Liston up before he gets hit on his swarovski crystal chin.

Liston either took a dive or quit vs. Ali. Take your pick. Even before quitting Ali rocked Liston in the first fight. As an older fighter, Leotis Martin knocked him out cold for 60 seconds. I do not think Liston had a top level chin and question his intangibles. *Other fighters accused him of cheating as their eyes were burning. Source 12 greatest rounds as told by Ferdie Pacheco.

Liston was a puncher with skills, though. It should nor surprise he knocked the older or smaller mediocre talent of his time out.