He might get knocked out, like he did against Rahman, or he might take it, like the blows he took from Tua, Vitali and Bruno, all guys who punched harder than Rahman Im 100 percent certain Lewis would be the one landing first and he'd be doing it pretty easily based off of Listons fights with Gerhard Zech and Cleveland Williams.
Gerhard Zech faced a minimum 36 year old Liston who hadn't fought since the Ali debacles, and was systematically picked apart round by round. Williams had success in all of 1 round in 2 fights that lasted less than 5 rounds in total and ended with Williams on the wrong end of a brutal KO.
This is how i envision Lewis vs Liston playing out, Lewis has success at range. Liston tries to close the gap, Lewis clinches, Lewis moves away and outboxes Liston, Liston tries to close the gap again and Lewis bobs and weves his head like against Ray Mercer and pushes Liston away like Williams did. Lewis eventually catches Liston with a big right hand that makes Liston think twice about pressing the issue. Lewis wins a UD
You'd be holding it against a lot of people RMII because the massive majority scored it for Lewis. Punch stats are far from everything but they too support Lewis 100% across the board.
Liston had the same reach as Lewis and was a better boxer imo, and had the superior jab so I think he gets the better of a long range gam. He was also much better than Lewis on the inside and has the much better chin. Lewis could try to neautrulize Liston by clinching with Liston, but one thing Liston did in clinches, which is fairly looked over is, putting his head down, maneuvering his body in a manner that would make it harder to grab a hold of him, leave his opponent off balance, and hit his opponent until they released him. I suspect Liston to get a late TKO or UD in a close fight. However unlike you, I don't think it's a "100 percent certainty" either way (no fight between 2 ATGs is) and won't count out a Lewis victory.
Listons reach was very long for his size but it's overexagerated in the ring. His wingspan (reach) had to do with his huge shoulders and his absolutely gigantic hands. With the gloves on his reach shortened significantly. I think Cleveland Williams had the reach advantage if im not mistaken. His reach is around 81 inches if not 80, definitely not 84. It was listed as 80½ inches in the Leotis Martin fight. But even if they had the same reach Lewis imo was the better boxer at heavyweight and had quicker hands when comparing and contrasting both on film and taking into account that Lewis's opponents were a lot bigger. He's arguably better on the inside as shown in the Ray Mercer fight. The inside exchanges he had with Mercer were tremendous. I won't count out a Liston victory because if Rahman could pull of a win Liston could for sure do it but provided Lewis wasn't goofing around I'd favor Lewis
The most likely scenario to me would be Liston pounding out a decision. This is assuming that we’re talking about the 1959-1962 version of Sonny.
If McCall is in peak form, it just sets him up for an extended beating. He was a talented fighter, but he's out of his depth here.
Fair enough. I still think Liston wins this but respect your opinion that Lewis wins and the reasoning behind it. Still wrong though.