Which light heavy has the best bet of beating a Liston or Foreman

I would take Billy Conn because he was a great boxer. Billy wouldn't try to match strength with them. He would move side to side, quick 1-2s and be gone.
Conn had the guts to execute it. Whether he pulls it off is another question. To me that is better than a Light Heavyweight who is gonna bulk up and lose what made them effective.

 

Revisionist History?

Did I get it right?

 

I´ll repeat: R O C C O M A R C I A N O !

Did always beat Listons, Foremans, Ibeabuchis and Tuas @BF24!

 

Liston and Foreman would execute Rocky like he was sitting in an electric chair

 

I can't think of one Lt. Heavy could get a win against prime Liston or Foreman. Maybe Moore, Charles or Spinks could cause early issues. But in the end they all would ge KO'ed. Prime Foreman and Liston ain't J.Ruiz , who was defeated by R.Jones, ( Perfect matchmaking on Jones part) or H.Rahman or S.Peters who caught hell from a FAT J.Toney. Foreman and Liston were big men that could fight, and a 35-50 lbs weight advantage along with their skill level would eventually prove disastrous to any Natural light heavy fighting at that weight.

 

Maybe Archie Moore of 1955, he later became a young Cassius Clay's trainer, following the 1960 Olympic games in Rome. Clay did not care for the discipline of Moore, then proceeded to Angelo Dundee, the rest is history. Later Richard Sadler and Archie trained Big George all the way to the title in 1973, and after, until Foreman retired in 1977.

 

Michael Spinks against a very old Liston and old Foreman by decision. Against a prime Liston and prime Foreman no one.
I do like the Foreman vs Qawi fight. Dwight is one of my favorite boxers, and he was quite a pest against Foreman, I love when he really nailed George with some good shots.

 

None .possibly Spinks .tough gig for any L/H

 

The lightheavyweight Roy would stand the best chance, of course Roy would have to go for a points win and avoid taking any hits all night which would be a little far fetched in my mind, I really dont favor spinks like some said, if he was terrified of fighting Tyson and went down from 6 punches from him then foreman or especially liston would scare him more and put him down just about as fast. In truth I dont favor any lightheavies against liston or foreman I think they would both be too overwhelming for smaller men.

 

I also feel that way about Spinks, If Tyson had him beat WELL before he stepped in the ring the night they fought( Or Tyson came to fight, Spinks was looking for a clean spot to lay down. ) How terrified would he be looking up at George Foreman, or That STARE From Sonny Liston, both men were bigger and more intimidating than Tyson.

 

It's one thing for a great LHW to survive against Liston and Foreman (at their respective peak) and a totally different thing to be able to put the kind of offense together that can pull of the win.

I simply can't see any Light Heavyweight actually beating both prime Liston and prime Foreman. The only ones who could conceivably pull of the miracle IMHO are probably Michael Spinks, Roy Jones jr and maybe Gene Tunney. But even then I'd still be more comfortable with them facing older, past prime versions.

 

I am not sure Tyson fought the best version of Spinks.

Spinks let himself down against Tyson, probably because deep down he knew he had not fought world class opposition for so long, had bad knees and was lacking real ambition. He only wanted to beat Holmes but everyone has a price and it is hard to say no.

If you look at the record Spinks was doomed.

Since Spinks became a heavyweight Tyson had fought 26 times to Michaels 4 fights. Tyson had won 7 championship fights and beat 6 heavyweight champions. Spinks had only ever fought one championship level heavyweight opponent. Since Spinks was last in a ring Tyson had fought 4 times.

It is very difficult for any fighter to do himself justice against those kind of odds.

 

I think those two and MAYBE Mike had the capability to do that. Another name I don't see often ine context of Rocky: Ken Norton.

Brawl or blow out?

 

George Foreman was probably too much of a roughhouse for most lightheavyweights in his prime. The ones to get past the first few rounds have a good chance though. Peralta was a lightheavyweight. So there is scope. Not much though.

Sonny Liston did lose to a lightheavyweight once and if he fought Archie Moore or Harold Johnson around the times he fought Burt whitehurst he would have stood more chance of losing again to both in real life. However, by the time Sonny was beating Machen and Harris he probably was a different kind of animal.

Floyd was a masquerading lightheavyweight his whole life ...but he was terrible against Sonny both times and came undone mentally both times. Still, it would be difficult for a career lightheavyweight to stand any kind of chance with any great heavyweight.

The most anyone can say about the best lightheavyweights that beat heavyweights is they have a chance against Liston.

It’s difficult to imagine any starting as favourite.

 

Wow Liston against any lightheavy. I really just don't see anyone besides the Mongoose making it (and it's imo probable Archie gets KO'd).

Harold Johnson...have to check that guy out.