Who ranks higher as a heavyweight? Sonny Liston or Mike Tyson?

For me it's Liston but a case can be made either way.imo

 

Has to be Tyson. He had a much better run at the championship
level.

 

My thoughts exactly. Both have a case but I’d side with Liston.

 

Mike in terms of legacy despite giving Liston the nod in H2H. Liston's legacy was sadly held back and shortlived.

 

Sonny

 

Tyson and anyone saying otherwise is clinically insane.

 

I'd narrowly go with Liston but I'd also argue neither reached their true potential for various and somewhat similar reasons.

 

Tyson, without much reservation. It's not that close.

 

Co sign

The youngest undefeated undisputed Heavyweight champ who actually fought full size Heavyweights who was Ring's pound for pound Number 1 who literally cleaned out the division and even after a long prison stint and washed up picked up some belts........vs the two time quitter who had his jaw broken by a former Middle who's claim to fame is pushing over a glass chinned Light Heavy and waxing the cream puff of all cream puffs Tame "Housecat" Williams.......and folded like a house of cards , one more time quit x2 against a green unproven Clay.

Sonny Liston is the most hysterically over rated Heavy on this Forum.

 

Mike Tyson easy

 

Tyson, despite suffereing from a lot of similar problems and habits as his contemporaries in the 80s he was so good he went on a tear that has rarely been duplicated. He also while nowhere near his peak form of the 80s was a title holder and dangerous conteder through the 90s.

Liston's title run was a defense against Floyd (impressive) then the Ali debacles and that was that. Him beating the hell out of the rest of the top ten while being ducked a title shot was also extremely impressive. I think its unfortunate Floyd was able to avoid Liston for so long and maybe we could have seen a longer more impressive reign from Sonny if that had not been the case. On the other hand, maybe Liston loses motivation once he reaches the top of the mountain like he did when he actually won the title.

So, long way for me to say Tyson

 

I’m going to go with Tyson but probably not by much.

 

Liston looked great on film and didn’t fulfill his potential imo, but he also basically beat Williams and a bunch of smaller guys and failed against Ali. He probably won’t deserve to be in anyone’s top ten by the time the next era of heavyweights rolls in.

 

That's how I see it.

Listons career turned out better overall. Tyson had one of the most amazing early half's in sports history, but towards the end he had several embarrassing losses and became a side show. Other than the freak loss to Martin, Liston did alright post championship and by his own admission only cared about making money.

In terms of resume, Tyson gets a silver medal while Liston gets a bronze. Liston did clear out a relatively basic division, but only made one defense and lost it in a spectacular fashion. Tyson had a bad loss too, but he at least managed multiple defenses and had a somewhat more competitive era of athletic big men.