[GIF] This rediculous knockdown by Sonny Liston

Liston at his peak against Wayne Bethea. Bethea had never been stopped before. Liston was so athletic for his size. We had never before seen a fighter with that long of a reach who was that athletic and powerful. A physical freak of his time. Liston is one of the most underrated heavyweights of all time. He is comfortably in my top 10 all time. He steamrolled through a crop of very talented fighters in just 3 years

 

Sonny was a very dangerous puncher. Incredible. The accuracy is especially good in this sequence. I like the fourth punch that lands here, the really short left hook before the really big one that rocks Wayne. There is really Nothing to fault here.

 

I love this Liston fight! A brutal and magnificent display of power!
IMO the best Liston performance, along with the two Cleveland Williams bouts.

 

Lison was indeeed a great underated (nowadays) fighter. But at top 10 level you have to be critical. Spectacular as it was, it was very short reign. He never beat the previous lineal Champ Johansson (who had already KOd Patterson) and he was knocked out by the next lineal champion Ali, twice (whether you dispute one of the KOs those are the facts).

Not as good as the Longserving dominant champs like Ali Johnston etc, Not really as good as the shorter but unblemished shorter reigns of guys like Marciano, Sullivan, Tunney & Co. He fits into a category of fighters who were absolutely dominant at their best but proved vulnerable and beatable yet also good enough to comeback past prime and compete at the top level. and you would have to consider him behind Foreman, at the very least, in this group. So, purely from a results based angle i dont see how he makes the top 10 comfortably. a Fringe top 10 at best (no shame in that).

Looking harder and using less objective measures such as film, perceived strength of era, excuses etc, then i can see why many people might see him comfortably in the top 10. In fact in a round robin time machine tournament it is hard to imagine him outside the top 10 and who knows he could even end up at he top. Certainly he has a live and decent chance against any fighter whoever has entered the ring. There isnt too many who can say that.

 

Just imagine if you owed him or his bosses money...

 

Excellent post by boilermaker....exactly my view....but head to head he is a little overrated IMO...thanks

 

This is a very good post.

First of all I would like to say this takes nothing away from how good Sonny looks in this clip.

Spectacular results, as good as they are, must be measured in the way boilermaker points them out here.

It's not how a fighter beats a victim but whom the victim is, who was around at the time and taking it into account in comparison with comparable reigns/eras of other champions.

Also, in regards to ATG top ten status pitting champions "on their best night ever" head to head, same performance over and over, is a bit of a nonsense because a "best night ever" is a one night deal for a lot of champions. Some champions had one night that was many times over and above what could normally be expected of them. Others were as good consistently for a number of years.

Not that Sonny was a hot and cold fighter, but some fighters were hot and cold performers. Should a hot and cold guy really go ahead of a more reliable but less spectacular champion?

All the best champions were the best fighter in the world at one point. It's how long that one point is, how dominant they are during it that counts.

Sonny was without doubt the best fighter in the world at one point. He was also an enigma. He was so talented that his career was halted a few times and was able to restart and recapture serious form quite quickly. But the being an "enigma" cannot interfere with his one point that all champions have, the point where all other champions are measured.

I rate Sonny about #13 best heavyweight of call time, which is still very good considering the many champions we have had.

 

Johansson was also blasted away by Patterson twice. Liston knocked Patterson out in 1 round. Johansson did not relish getting in the ring with Liston, a big reason why the fight never took place, along with Johansson being unable to defeat Patterson in s trilogy.

Liston didn't have a long title reign but that's because he ran into arguably the greatest heavyweight of all time. Furthermore, Liston already cleaned out the division prior to winning a world title defeating prime top ranked contenders zora Folley Eddie Machen Roy Harris and other dangerous punchers Cleveland Williams mike Dejohn and Nino Valdes.

 

Spot on.

 

Wayne was dropped by Nino Valdez though

 

An excellent post to be climbing back in the ring with Suze!

 

With a guy rocking and reeling all over the place Sonny wasn't missing much.Terrific performance!