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

To casual fans, Tyson. But a few on here will say Sonny. I say it's close

 

Tyson is the one who regained titles, chief.

 

Tyson very easy not even debate

 

Who did he beat for those titles? Bruce "take-a-dive" Seldon and Frank "beaten before" Bruno.

 

Tyson started taking big fights in 86 and won a title too. In 96, he won his second and third heavyweight titles.

Liston started taking big fights in 59. In 69, he was losing to Leotis Martin and retired one fight later.

See how double standards create biases?

 

Ten years apart between 59 and 69 (nice).

10 years after 96 when Tyson won his second title, he had recently been stopped by Kevin McBride. At least Martin was an NABF champ and made it to a top 100 punchers.lidy on ring magazine. Liston best him so badly he had to retire despite winning. McBride can't make a top 100 list for boxers in his own country.

See how that work?

 

Liston would’ve been dead during that sort of comparison, so the answer is no.

 

Well the comparison I originally made was latter half vs latter half. Tyson had the worse end of his career, there is no comparison. You butted in and started comparing arbitrary time frames.

Tyson's overall resume is a notch above however. Both had similar explosive rises to the top, but Tyson's was a bit more impressive with a slightly better era.

 

Tyson never regained the title.

 

Those guys weren't champions and anyone being intellectually honest knows it.

 

Id go for Tyson. Beat 8 current, past and future beltholders/champions in shots and defenses in just over a 2year period. For me that gives him the nod. Forget Martin, Williams and McBride losses as both were at the end of their careers. Now H2H is maybe a different story

 

They were champions like it or not and who liston beat for title a scared floyd patterson 190 lbs if we go with beaten before logic also he take dive like b2itch vs Ali

 

Tyson.
But both are top 10 for me.

 

Tyson beat more ranked fighters and had more title defences, so that speaks in his favour. They were both equally good at crushing the guys they beat, so that's a tie. What speaks in Liston's favour is that he lost his title to the perhaps greatest HW ever, coming into his own at the time. Tyson lost it to Buster Douglas.

On the other hand Tyson went out on his shield when losing his championship, but disgraced himself later in the rematch against Holy instead.

So it's about what emphasis you put on what. But I have Tyson ahead.

 

Take yo pick.