We’ll leave it at that lol. By the way you’re doing a job not a lot of guys could handle I respect that.
I agree it would have been a shutout. I'm not even saying he was scared of Tyson, just playing it way too safe and professional. Some guys just don't have the mentality of even attempting to bother finishing a guy, and I think Lewis had way too much respect for what was clearly a completely gassed fighter. I think there was some worry and hesitation because of what happened in the McCall and Rahman fights. Just listening to Steward go off does seem to suggest to me Lewis might carry that same overly cautious attitude in a chaotic environment with no ref unless it was a guy significantly smaller or weaker than him or an inexperienced idiot he knows he could handle.
No-one in here has seen Sonny Liston in a street fight. No-one in here has seen the quality of any of Sonny's street opponents. No-one in here knows how many street fights he did or didn't have. No-one has seen how they actually went down. You are banking an incredible amount on your own perceived psychological evaluations of Lewis, his effort against Tyson, and all the rest of it. If he was that soft he wouldn't have been the fighter he was. I wasn't going to go there but Sonny actually quit in a fight in the ring, with his crown at stake. I'm thinking Lewis' perceived timidness or fear or whatever the claim is against Tyson is looking a whole lot better than that, to say the least. Do i think that means Lewis towels him up? No. I've defended Liston many times when certain people automatically knee jerk back to this in virtually every fantasy fight he's in. I'm also not going to put anything into a little cluttered studio wrestle (with a guy notably bigger than Sonny and renowned for his immense strength) where Lewis only ended up on the ground because a table collapsed. Lewis went after him aggressively for quite a while after they were first split. He definitely wanted a piece of that action. My stance is that Lewis can't be written off because he hasn't had all these supposed street fights. He's a huge strong unit with the power to virtually kill. He also doesn't back down. It's a good match and i'm not going to pretend to know what would go down but it sure would be brutal.
I want to second @Dynamicpuncher in so far as keeping safe and thanks for the insight re your vocation. Without real life exposure, the way I view prison is as an entirely different sub culture. Sure, some rise above as leaders, controllers or intimidators but it will be still within the hierarchy, mechanisms and necessary values of prison life. Never a truly comfortable moment for anybody. Worse nightmare I ever had - being locked up and spending my first day in prison. It wasn’t borne out of guilty actions or thoughts - I think it’s because being in prison strikes me as one of the worst possible outcomes and later, projected consequences in life - likely it was my subconscious mind playing Devil’s Advocate with one of my worst fears. Confinement in any way, shape or form would be the ultimate life taker imo - even if you fall in and do as the Romans do and continue literally living…....
I wasn't writing Lewis off. I was simply saying Liston having been in multiple street brawls does give him an advantage, not that Liston easily destroys him 10/10.
Confinement is truly hell. There's a reason some people are trying to have solitary confinement banned in the courts and want to restructure the way we handle prison in general. Closest I came to experiencing that was when I was being treated for insomnia. At the hospital, I was very erratic and violent and completely out of it to the point I was fighting security, so they used a tranquilizer and locked me in a room with no windows and no clock to tell the time. It was a maddening experience. That would obviously be 100x worse if I knew my freedoms were completely gone and that I was surrounded by criminals. As a deterrent, the fear of prison is effective for most sane people. However, the current culture of the modern world often glorifies criminal behavior and pushed the idea on Young men that they're losers if they don't have riches and women. This inevitably leads to at least a handful every year chasing that life on the fringes lifestyle and the vast majority do get caught and go to prison. A huge number of those guys grow up with no positive male figure or father so they take on pseudo masculinity as a crutch.
I've been in prison six times, all fairly short bids for assaults and early on (during the short time I was homeless) burglaries. My intense hatred carried me through it, but to be honest it wasn't as horrifying as some make it. One of the main problems was living with and/or having to interact some with people who beat and/or raped and/or murdered women and children That was pretty tough, because it could be very hard to tell them apart from the guys in for theft, driving offenses, etc. I powerlifted and boxed. If I hadn't had my boxing background it would have been tougher for sure. But I noticed that in a crowded prison most guys are way more interested in being chill and getting out as soon as they can. It's the young guys with nothing on the outside who cause the most problems, but smack the crap out of one of them and they'll keep a wide berth from you. I had to do it a couple of times, but the time in between was long and the second kid was about as dumb/clueless as that dumbass Iron Mike slapped the **** out of recently. Most kids learn from your early reputation and know better. Again, this is the experience of a person who carried huge amount of hate and animosity...I was told several times I was known to get a dark look on my face that seemed to say "I'd rather kill you as soon as look at you". Others of course had it way harder I'm sure.
He does because I’m the Guru, a king amongst peasants. I’d advise you not to talk to me in such a disrespectful manner in future
Like I said many times before, Sonny Liston gave two thugs concussions as they tried to rob him of his earnings in a card game in my hometown in a rough ghetto called South Park Las Vegas in Sept 1969, right before his illfated fight against Leotis Martin. The Policeman who arrested him was a fellow worker. Pete B was my co worker's name. Pete said that the two goons tried to jump Liston, he destroyed both in a street fight. The two victims refused to press charges. It was then that Sonny started talking to Pete about both Muhammad Ali bouts, he started blabbing about the behind the scenes activity leading up to those bouts. Pete was very truthful, he was also a watch commander for our local P.D. Pete passed away in 2018, he had been a Police Officer since 1956 until he retired in 1985.
What is this, like some kind of 1950s street fight where two gangleaders square off at a predetermined time to settle their gangs' beef?
Yeah, Arthur Fonarelli, Sly Stallone with his gang from The Lords Of Flatbush, wearing D.A haircuts, leather jackets in the presence of Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo from the gang, We Love Boxing. Lol.
