So basically if neither Ali nor Frazier ever stepped into a ring, who rules from Liston onwards and surely at some point foreman makes his mark.? That's at the least 1964 to 73, depending on how long Liston reigns for and when big George comes along. And no Ali to defeat him?
Everyone would still be bums and average that came after them as long as Cossell was doing commentary...two other guys would take their place ( whoever) and the rest would still be compared to them in how great they were ...BUT not as much.
Liston would have lost the title to somebody who was not worthy to lace his gloves up, and then we would have seen the title switch hands a lot.
Boxing would have been far less exciting, but then they would focused on another division. There are always fights, it just matters what the focus is. Even when Hagler,Hearns,Duran and Leonard had all those fights between each other, there were good fighters fighting like McCallum and Curry and Nelson and Chavez.. The fighters are there. I wonder how much bigger GGG vs. Canelo would be without Floyd and Conor fighting weeks before.
If there was never a Muhammad Ali we likely would never have seen Hughie 'The Lancashire Lip' Fury, or at least not the version we have. Ali's influence is all too obvious in Hughie's game, a style so hard to emulate we had to wait almost half a century before a rightful heir to 'The Greatest' emerged.
And you see the result of that. Ali would not be liked today mark my words with todays fans of everyones a bum and no one engages...all smoke and mirrors my friend. Of course a true student of the game watches countless hours/years of any style to see why they were effective and why they werent or wouldnt be in other times. H.fury would be far more dangerous for ali than most in the 70's just LOOK at whats going on in both fighters fights,and how certain guys frustrated Ali.
Liston I feel would keep the title until he dies and be regarded as the goat. Foreman wouldn't be regarded as high. Neither would Norton.
That's the thing with Liston though, he could have beaten Floyd, ended up partying every night and lost the belt to a total unknown. Or he could have, as you say gone on to make ten defences and retired unbeaten. The mystery of the man.
liston implodes at some point or ages beyond help, he was already getting on. ellis-terrell-patterson axis is shattered and unified by foreman, who will have some version of the title till holmes arrives, the first man capable of beating him.
Quarry could have been the one to lift the title from a late 60's Liston and don't forget he actually did lose to Leotis Martin in 69. Hypothetically, if Liston was still champ he'd have lost it to Martin (who then was forced to retire from the eye injury Liston gave him). Patterson may have been able to cause an upset at this point. After Liston, the title gets passed like a hot potato.
