I'm sorry do you have a crystal ball or something? How do you know for a 100% certainty that he would have been stopped? What do you mean? Untrue. Freak injuries have nothing to do with how easy (or not) you are to KO. But Liston wasn't down for the count nor even floored against Ali. He was stopped because of a freak shoulder injury as attested to by 8 doctors. He also had a shoulder injury going into the bout and asked for a postponement and was denied. All of this is recorded.
Did Louis have an extra 21 bouts that we are all unaware of? Could you please enlighten us? Bum of the month club anyone?
My apologies if I sounded unnecessarily hostile in post #25. That was not my intention. You are among my favorite posters and I really enjoy your posts!
I’m in the minority here but I went with Louis. He fought in more professional fights, faced more punchers and was stopped less
That's a good point and I agree with most of it particularly the examples. With one exception. Liston was up for the rematch and trained like a demon only for Ali to get the hernia. That was what deflated him but prior to that he was looking sharp in training.
"Williams hit Liston with a left hook that would have finished any other man" Gross remembered. "It would have torn some fighters hears off. Liston just blinked and came right back." Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/54152307/fort-lauderdale-news/
My bad, I meant 70. Louis schedule was tougher than any other HW champion other than Ali. Bum of the month was actually filled with good contenders, it's just that Louis made them look like bums.
Louis had 70 exhibitions between fighting Walcott and Charles. Many were literally “unlicensed, non title fights” with real knockout results. A few were set for 10 rounds. Some had “news paper decisions” and they featured much of the top ten contenders like Elmer ray, Arturo Godoy, Rex Layne, Johnny Shkor, Pat Valentino and upcoming prospects like Nino Valdes who was crushed in one round. I would say about 20 of these 70 exhibitions were good value fights.
Yep Louis fought a number of times during the war too in exhibitions. Truth is he probably had over a 100 legitimate fights by end of career. He knocked out some good fighters in exhibitions. Elmer Ray Nino Valdes Are probably the two best names Early in his career also Roscoe Toles leading up to the Carnera bout. Credited as a pro win at times until the 60s .
