Sonny Liston v Lennox Lewis in a street fight?

Depends where the street fight is, you can't build functional strength anywhere but on a farm.

 

"B-but Rahman and McCall" C'mon lad.

 

Damn, you so beat me to it!

I did have one addendum though re Sonny moonlighting as a sanitation worker.

Upon discovering that a 6’5” Lennox doesn’t necessarily fit too well in a regular trash can, Sonny walks a still inverted Lewis to the nearest industrial sized bin, dumps Lennox in and promptly slams the lid shut and then walks away - though Lennox’s muffled and belated challenge. - “Bring it on Maahn!” can still be heard from inside the bin.

This only gives cause for Liston to shake his head and continue walking away.

 

Or the nearest Hoe maybe? Boom boom!

 

To me it's obvious either guy could win. I mean have a look at the weaponry both possess. It could come down to whoever gets the shots in first. Lewis' size puts him in good stead. Liston's street fights would have been against guys that wouldn't be a wart on Lewis' ass. Both of them would be fearsome letting loose on the street.

 

Just one other thought. Because I'm a killjoy:

We hesitate to pick Sullivan over modern fighters because he fought under different rules, and has no film.

Steeetfights don't have rules at all. And there's exactly zero footage of Liston or Lewis in streetfights.

The entire exercise has an air of unreality. And that's coming from a guy who makes threads about Tex Cobb clones.

EDIT: Unless you count whatever Lennox and Rahman were doing on ESPN as a "street fight." Which is being very generous.

 

But in a street fight, there are no Marquis Of Queensbury rules. You just pick up whatever you can, a Tire Iron, a Crow Bar, or a Trash Can Lid, a la Sonny Corleone. Street Fights give you the experience of survival. Imagine getting into a street fight, showing up with Boxing Gloves, and a referee. Your opponent will massacre you, kick you between the legs, kick you in the ribs and head. The guys that Sonny fought were plain tough street fighters, not pugilist. Sonny used to break bones collecting for Blinky Palermo and Frankie Carbo.

 

I must have a good fish brain. I don’t remember The Attack of the Tex Cobb Clones. Maybe before my time or I’m getting my Clone threads mixed up which get cloned in themselves - did someone say Inception?

 

Rich, I know you’ll know this scene - “Guns or Knives?”. This scene epitomises the “rules” of engagement for “street fights”. Classic.

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By his own admission and the words of his trainers, Lewis was a shy and very introverted guy before he slowly started to gain confidence and open up more as he got older and more professional. I really don't see Lewis being a "bad man" or "going savage" in a street fight with no rules lol. Did he even get into any? Even today, he is fairly soft spoken and enjoys playing chess. I get that you're biased and need to root for the more modern guy, but Lewis would be out of his element and would likely lose outside of a punchers chance.

Lewis would not last a week in an American prison without having a complete melt down. Liston would be the boss of any facility he entered in a day. Lewis was rattled by an old, washed up Tyson and needed Emmanuel Steward to yell at him to open up, let his hands go, and end the fight, what does that tell you?

 

It sure does, these other posters think that a street fight is on a farm, a boxing ring, etc. They happen anywhere, the street, your front yard, in school days of the past, on the football field and alley's. Great movie by the way.

 

True, because a reputation of just boxing will not help at all. The Cellmates would assail you because you have money. Those that have money have to pay rent to the other cellmates. It's a different world, some of the people I knew spent time in prison, I heard a lot of stories from them.

 

I work at a prison. Psychological warfare is everything. Guys will do stuff just to see if they can get under your skin or psyche you out. I was being escorted to the gate and one guy walked quickly behind me just to see if I would get scared. I glanced back and kept walking and he walked over to his friends saying I showed weakness by paying attention to him.

Once I got my contractor badge and didn't need an escort, I made it a point to completely ignore anyone who tried anything funny like that and look ahead to where I was walking in a casual but serious manner. Let guys know that A) I'm not worried about them and B) if they try anything, I'm still not worried.

It's a lot like how wild animals will invade each other's spaces and try to make themselves bigger for intimidation. If you can get someone to fear you, that's one less potential threat.

 

Great Post, it is true what you have posted.

 

I'm sure Lewis could pick up something if he needed to. I really don't think he would be showing up with gloves and a ref either.

A big guy once fronted Lewis outside the ring and Lewis told him do you realize i could kill you with one punch. Literally kill you.

Lewis not having stories of gangs, streetfights, assaults, jails, bashing cops, rubbish bins and the like doesn't automatically mean he can't compete with or necessarily beat Liston on the cobbles. Even back in Lennox's day you weren't getting away with much of anything being a famous athlete. He goes around street fighting he could kill someone, lose millions, lose his livelihood and the rest of it. Look at Tyson in his pomp. He was lucky that fight was with a fellow pro and there were other assaults he had to pay his victims substantial money to get out of.

Even the other day on the plane, look at the drama and noise that's going to follow that and Tyson is long retired. He got played for my money.