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Liston is listed as 6'1 in multiple tale of the tape and on boxrec.

Foreman had pretty much reached his full height as an amateur hes one of those guys who hit their growth spurt early and are bigger than most kids the same age in high school.

 

No idea why you mentioned marciano as even in his era his stubby arms and low body weight were abnormal. Never said anything about him or johnson.

But while were mentioning johnson do you think its a coincidence his nickname was "galveston giant"? He usually enjoyed a significant reach, height, and weight advantage over the majority of his opponents. Ditto for liston, williams, ali, wepner, and that swedish guy were his biggest.opponents. the majority he had significant weight or height advantages. Lets not even get into jeffries fighting middleweights and men being 5'9.

There werent a "gang" and abundance of modern sized shws back then. Most were considered oddities or freak shows and flat out told they didnt have the coordination and footwork to box. How many guys over 6'4 became champ between willard and tony tucker? How many were ranked in the top ten or even top 20? Before the 80's it was rare for even heavyweight boxers to weigh over 220 lbs foreman was considered a godzilla. Most tall heavy athletes back then got into weight lifting, modeling, acting, basketball, etc. And even then many of them simply didnt make it as their joints were terrible and trainers rarely knew what to do with them.

No clue where youre getting this idea that there were tons and tons shws across all eras.

 

The Nevada State Athletic Commission measured Liston's reach at 80.5'' for his fight with Leotis Martin.

 

Liston was 1,84 cm and 6'1 is 1,85.he was not a full 6'1.

http://www.cyberboxingzone.com/boxing/sliston.htm
Foreman was bigger than liston overall,not only taller but bigger. Still i think that liston had lightly bigger hands and longer arms

 

Are we really arguing over half an inch? Is that what you do with your girlfriend?

Foreman was a big ass kid in the amateurs, you yourself often repeat that he weighed as much as 230 in some fights. If liston looks big next to a 6'3 230 pound stocky guy his frame is obviously bigger than people realize.

I actually have a friend like that whose only 5'10 but hes an endomorph and very WIDE with big calfs and shoulders and weighs more than me (hes at least 250 lbs). At a glance or from a distance he doesnt seem that big but when youre right next to him or try wrestling him you realize how big he actually is.

 

I clicked in and was going to try to disprove this topic until I realized it was a Boxed Ears topic.

 

Yes but liston was 210 pounds in his prime.. Hardly a 5'9 226 tank like tua for example, he had a rare type of body. Smaller legs,huge hands and long arms with a smaller head

 

Boxed ears uncanny X-Men like trolling abilities in action and heavyweight boxing discussion on classic. Today has truly been a high quality day in the fast lane that is the classic boxing forum.

 

Has anyone seen any measure of Liston's reach earlier than the build-up to the first Patterson fight?

 

Having a small head has nothing to do with height, girth, body mass, volume, etc. David Price has an awkwardly small head and hes like 6'8.

As for listons weight, heavyweights had to be prepared for 15 round fights and rarely weighed over 210-220 range until the 80's. Even Joe Louis who was a lean and powerful at 205 in his prime was in the 220's and still looked buff with little body fat when he was inactive during ww2 and mostly did sparring and exhibitions. If ali didnt have a fight he weighed as much as 230. Dempsey came in light and trim on purpose so hed have explosive speed and stamina even though he was facing big stocky men like willard and Firpo who were mucj bigger, taller, and outweighed him by 20-40 lbs. Even Max Baer who wasnt exactly small had big hands, long arms, and very big feet and broad shoulders trained to stay lean because otherwise hed put on muscle and become bulky very easily.

People underestimate how in shape fighters of the past were and how naturally big some of these guys were. 15 rounds is no joke. You would never see a 250 pound flabby lethargic lennox lewis getting away with throwing a lazy pawing jab and clinching his way to victory if he had to fight that long against an iron chinned, fast, explosive athlete.

Also, weight training was frowned upon until the last 2 decades or so. If Liston was already big, stocky, and powerful as an ox at 210 with just medicine ball training and basic calisthenics, hed be enormous if he did serious weight training.

 

That’s not what I said, and that’s not my position.

My point is stop using the era-elite HW as a standard for the big end of the division size wise. This was only the case for the guys I mentioned and maybe one or two more.

And please stop using “Galveston Giant” as a supporting point.

 

For a man about 6" 1/2 inches Sonny had a long reach and big hands, not the 80inches that everyone was told but still a long reach. When a fighter is tall they add inches & when a fighter is short they take away inches. Marciano did not have a long reach but not the 67 inches that was reported, Marciano was acually taller than Tyson who was about 5"10 Marcaino was 5"11 Tyson had a bout a 71inch reach but it worked well for him when he was dictating the distance of where the punches were coming from. The 6"2 Povetkin took down the 6"8 David Price this weekend which kind of shows not all big men have a Big chin. Sonny was a big man back in the 60's & he did prison time, people say 5 years but in reality back then you did a 3rd of your sentence in the state. (Now Fed time you have to do 85% ) anyway these things made Sonny even more fearful besides his dead pan face that was even more dead pan than the Brown Bomber. Legends are like snowballs the snow piles on top like stories as time rolls along.

 

Every report and tale of the tape of Marciano lists 67". Was there an anti-Marciano conspiracy which twisted the facts against his favor? Or are modern inches shorter than those gargantuan inches from the 50's?

And Tyson was able to work with his truncated (those substantially longer ) limbs because he had something called speed. And he had it spades. Or, is now Marciano quicker than he was in the 50's?

 

Your point was wrong because again, other than dempsey, patterson, marciano, etc the vast majority of lineal champions enjoyed some sort of size or weight advantage over the average contender until the 80's. There were not "tons" of giants in any era. Its a FACT Liston had a weight, height, and/or reach advantage over more than half his opponents. Thats what you had a problem with and all you have to do is look at boxrec lol. Im not gonna argue facts with you.

Yes there were exceptions like terrel, wepner, carnera, etc but they were rare. People have gotten bigger. My point in bringing up jack johnsons nick name and jim jeffries is because people back then thought 6 feet tall and 200 lbs was a giant. I think there was a study on another forums showing the average height for a man in america used to only be 5'9. Similarly, several guys in johnson, jeffries and even marcianos era were 5'9 and weighed as low as the 180's in many cases. The data is all there.