After Bert Whitehurst, who he didn´t manage to stop after two bouts, Liston went on a knockout streak, starting 18/11/1958: Ernie Cab RTD 7/10 Mike DeJohn TKO 6/10 Cleveland Williams TKO 3/10 Nino Valdez 3/10 Willie Besmanoff RTD 7/10 Howard King RTD 7/10 Cleveland Williams TKO 2/10 Roy Harris TKO 1/10 Zora Folley KO 3/10 Eddie Machen UD 12/12 Howard King TKO 3/10 Albert Westphal KO 1/10 Floyd Patterson KO 1/15 Floyd Patterson KO 1/15 25/09/1963 How good do you rate that run? Do you see anybody replicating it?
He often gets criticised for winning just two title fights. Should he´ve gotten a shot to the title earlier, making it more defenses? Why did Brian London get a shot for Pattersons title, loosing to Cooper prior, as well as Pastrano three fights before that ?
I always thought in a way Liston, like Frazier, was off-paper champ for a couple of years before he actually won the title. I could be wrong, but SL beat more than a few quite legitimate contenders soundly; for instance Machen, who was actually a very good fighter got solidly beat, and was a very good win at the time. Sometimes I wonder if SL had gotten his chance a couple of years earlier it would have been a Prime Tyson-esque sweep in the division. And Ali the Buster Douglas (I'm joking here, folks, put away the noose). Off topic, but I do feel Frazier was world champ after he won the bogus "New York title". He was the immediate successor to Ali in every way come that fight.
They offered Cooper $75,000 plus expenses to come to Indy; he wanted $150,000 plus expenses. The bodies nixed it. London took the 75K.
Careful. Choklab will be more than happy to explain no one was ducking liston and that he hadn't earned his title shot despite all the guys he was beating.
