I'm a big Bowe fan but if you watch Liston fights you'll notice that he is a very good inside fighter and Bowe never avoided a fight on the inside and never clinched when he was in trouble. Liston is at a size disadvantage but he was a puncher. He also had the jab to compete at range. Hard one to call because Riddick in his prime had some of the best inside skills and Liston has shown in some fights that his inside game is brutal and high volume. I can see either guy winning. Liston is the better inside fighter but the size discrepancy is why I just about go with Bowe and Bowe knows exactly how to utilize his size against smaller men. It's very close to a 50:50.
Liston by decision but what a battle! Bowes gonna be crazy and try to ko sonny and he may have moments where he rocks him back. But Liston counters and those huge fists have Bowes face swelling up.
I don’t know. Sonny’s long arm length coupled with his great jab and Bowe’s pour defense Would make for a significant advantage. Then again, Bowe was more durable, hit pretty hard, was tough on the inside and was significantly bigger. I can see it going a couple of different ways
As great as Bowe's jab was, Liston's was easily better. And Bowe gets hit too much. Bowe gets floored, makes it 12, but loses a clear UD.
No doubt in this pick for me. Riddick spanks Sonny Liston bad over 12 rounds. 8-4 type decision or a late stoppage.
Bowe NEVER quit even when shot to shid.............Liston did twice................Liston needed the smelling salt by one punch courtesy of a ham and egger when he was washed up.................a prime Golata could not keep a washed up[ Bowe down and quit twice against him because he could not get Bowe off him despite county less low blows. With Futch in his corner Bowe will do a real number on Sonny, fact not fiction.
Bowe had ONE good win over Holyfield. Even then it was a decision win. Liston annihilated the reigning heavyweight champion in one round, a feat which was never done before at the time, and subsequently repeated it in the rematch. Nobody has ever smashed the heavyweight champion back to back inside a round. It's unprecedented. So yes, not only was it much better than Bowe's wins over Holyfield, but I stand by my statement, it's the greatest pair of wins in the heavyweight division. Tbh this is up for debate.
Yeah I didn't get that one either. If Liston was dropped by a half-dead Holyfield, and the likes of Golotta, we'd never hear the end of it here.
Even though Liston was KO’d by Leotis Martin, whatever rubber stamp rating (and o wouldn’t say ham and egger anyway) one wants to apply generally to Martin for his ring performances otherwise, I am very comfortable in saying that Martin fought a literally GREAT fight on the night. Martin hung extremely tough, employing an excellent and consistent jab, sticking to the plan despite being hurt and ultimately catching an at least mid to late 30s Liston with a very heavy and perfectly timed right hand before dropping an already frozen Liston with the left IIRC. Ignoring THE ACTUAL fighter that Martin was on the night he engaged Liston would be like ignoring how Douglas brought his A game to the table in Tokyo and suggesting that Tyson got beaten by a fighter whose quality was only the average of Douglas’ performances otherwise. Simply by watching the actual fight in Tokyo we know Buster’s performance was so much more than that. Of course not quite on the same grand scale but Martin’s win was sort of like his own Buster moment quite some time before Buster actually had his moment.
I wonder how effective, Evander’s “additive’s,” would have helped in punch resistance, had they been available in the 60’s or earlier?
Demolishing a heavyweight champion that... lets be quite honest..... was never really that great. Evander was a far better proposition than Floyd Patterson ever was. Cus pulled a lot of strings during the route to the title and especially during Floyd's title reign..... some of the defences were atrocious. Liston had been mandatory for some time before Cus was binned off and he took the fight... where he duly got smashed to bits.
