Prime Liston vs Prime Ali

Liston’s biographer also said that next to Ali, Liston is the HW H2H GOAT, and that Ali was probably the only HW that could beat him, implying that Liston could win as well.

 

Liston COULD win but is it the most probable outcome? Not in my opinion.

 

I've got to say, this is GOLD. Interesting that Emanuel also made mention of his believing Liston to be already about 40 yo when he won the title.

I'm like Swag, I would like to think Liston could win but it's more likely that Ali would. How about the best out of 1000 tries? Kidding.

If we somehow knew that Liston's resilience wasn't necessarily impaired by the time of Miami, I would say that Ali still had the potential to hurt a prime Liston but then a prime Liston wouldn't be such a sitting duck and his more successful return fire (more than he enjoyed in Miami) would give Ali a lot more to think about before launching his shots.

Whomever one picks, I actually think a prime vs prime match would've made for a great fight.

 

Ali was stylistically awful for Liston, Sonny's backfoot-to-front-foot shuffle footwork left made a glaring hole in his ring-cutting ability. Liston could catch Ali of course but it most likely is a more durable version of the first fight.

 

If Liston was done why was he coming off two quick decapitations of a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame?

 

There were a lot of factors for Sonny Liston's loss to Muhammad Ali on Feb 25 1964. No boxing fan could be accurate on Liston's true age, pure speculation at best. Liston had only two rounds of actual competition in the ring by 1964, both first round knockouts of Floyd Patterson in 1962 and 1963. Liston began to skip the gym, he began to have relations with wayward women, he took to the bottle. Remember when Liston won the title from Patterson in Sept 1962, there was no hero's reception at the airport, so in some ways it was a psychological letdown for him. And don't forget what Ali laid on Liston, it was pure psychological warfare. Liston was an intimidating bully who feasted on his opponents fears, this time intimidation didn't work. And lastly, Sonny was used to beating his opponents quickly, he was facing a much faster opponent than he faced before, Sonny decisioned Eddie Machen on Sept 7 1960, but Ali was much more evasive than Machen but with better stamina, speed, footwork, reflexes, timing and speed.

 

There was a visibly noticeable difference between the Liston of 1959-1962 and the one who Ali fought in 1964. Therefore I would expect a tougher fight from Liston. How does it end ? Don’t know

 

The best of Ali always beats the best of Liston.

 

Nobody said he was "done", but he went into the Ali bout with a recorded shoulder injury and had seen 6 minutes of ring action in three years.

 

I agree. The difference between the Liston who faced Machen and the one who faced Ali is night and day. But I don't think any version of Liston beats a prime Ali.

 

From a historical eye, Ali would likely be the favorite in any mythical matchup with Liston.

 

Liston in eight to prove I am great.

 

He was wrong both times