Sonny Liston vs Rocky Marciano

Because when they fought Rocky they were all better fighters than Patterson, Machen, Williams and Foley.

Liston didn’t beat men as good. So they deserve a fair chance of beating him. Nothing wrong with that.

 

slick movers though.

I am a fan of Rocky and I do give him a chance but he isn't a slick mover. He has to go towards Liston which means he will be walking in to hooks and uppercuts.

 

And yet Swag, I guarantee you, that it will run to 10 +pages!

 

Liston by 11th round kayo.

 

“Walking in taking punches” is certainly one way of looking at it. Another way to look at it is “crowding his way under”. Rocky was taught to force people to fight at his range by lowering himself and drawing leads to counter. He came up with a punch before the other guy pulled the trigger. It looked very crude. But it worked. Caught a lot of polished fighters out.

 

Moore and Walcott weren't better than Patterson. And neither was a '54 Charles.

And Liston destroyed most of them, and if he didn't he won easily on points. If Liston didn't beat good men, neither did Marciano.

 

Liston struggled with worse fighters. Liston had a very hard time with Whitehurst and Machen, who weren’t half the fighter Moore was even in 1955 when he was declining as a fighter.

 

Such as?

Does that mean we are going to discuss such non-entities as Lastarza and Lowry?

 

With Whitehurst, Marshall and Machen in mind, How do you think Sonny might have handled Lowrey and Lastarza?

me thinks they would have caused just as much problems for Sonny.

 

Do these people not watch the fighters? Do they have no concept of how size works? How on earth would Moore be favoured to beat Liston on his uncrowned reign of terror? It's quite literally inconceivable to me.

Liston's jab would not only tear Rocky's face up, but bash him back and keep him at range. All the talk of Liston being slow, and Marciano getting past his jab, the fastest, 2nd most explosive Heavyweight ever couldn't get past Liston's jab. He couldn't even last a round. In either try. Liston's hooks and uppercuts are gonna catch Marciano coming in time in, time out and he's gonna be forced back and he won't have a answer. He'll take massive punishment doing it and Liston will walk him down like he did Patterson and Williams and he takes Rocky out.

Liston. In 4.

 

Guys like Machen and Whitehurst weren’t really slick though, but they were durable. Liston was powerful and he had a good reach (81”, not his fake 84” listing), but he was also very predictable. A relatively smart fighter could trap Machen and knock him out, which is why Johansson was able to dispose of him as quick as he did.

The few times Whitehurst went to the solarplexus it backed Liston up and he didn’t like it, but Whitehurst never tried to capitalize and let Liston go back to work. Against Machen Liston was too predictable, so once Machen got used to Sonny’s reach
and patterns it was very easy for him to survive.

Also, Marciano was very good at making midfight adjustments unlike guys like Patterson, Tyson, and Frazier. Liston also liked a nice and slow pace so he could use his jab and he didn’t like it to the body, which Marciano wouldn’t give him, Marciano was also great at catching punches off his gloves and going to the solar plexus, which is why guys would start slowing down and going backwards when they fought him. Liston would have a very hard time landing clean on Marciano.

I remember in an old article Al Weill badly criticizing Marciano for letting Charles go the distance and saying that if Rocky would’ve followed instruction: and went to the body early Charles would’ve been stopped. I’ll post it later today if I go in my garage.

 

Did we see the same fight? Liston lost points for fouling and Liston was missing a lot of punches in the early rounds. Liston won the fight, but it was hardly one sided. Machen won at least 4-5 rounds. After the second lowblow by Liston Machen should’ve fired one right back to Liston.

That said it showed how limited a fighter Machen was, since he let Liston get away with repeatedly fouling him without retaliating. When Walcott hit Rocky low Rocky immediately returned the favor. I believe in fair fighting, but only as fair as your opponent is being.

When Hatton got hit low he didn’t care about the ref’s warning and immediately returned the favor. I’ll never understand guys like Kovalev or Wilder repeatedly looking at the ref for help when the get fouled.

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Get real Marciano beat both of them by famous Ko!
Liston struggled with lesser fighters like Martin and Machen and did not won by KO!He was beaten twice and both of them were not in LaStarza and Walcott level!
Better say Liston who is quitter and beaten twice by LHW could not last long against man with better punch,stamina,heart and determination!