Joe Frazier of 1971 awaits his mystery opponent in the ring, it is 1958 Sonny Liston.

I think he'd beat Joe, mate tbh.
Sonny also had a great uppercut, that's the main thing I see stopping Joe.
Much as I respect Joe, it's just one of those fighters that I see being a bad match up for him.

 

Haha - you would’ve been freaked out if that pair did actually appear either side of you while watching…kinda like Twilight Zone meets Inception or something like that…

Yeah, I’d never heard/read Archie’s take before on 68 Liston v Frazier until just recently on this forum…very interesting. And true, 71 Joe was a beast and I guess would deserve to be a solid favourite all things considered.

 

I'm really enjoying La Brea at the moment. Season one showing in UK.

 

I envisage a battered Frazier taking over during the last few rounds and stopping Sonny by the thriteenth. Providing the referee does n't pull Joe out early on when he's shipping copious amounts of punishment. So I guess it's 60/40 Frazier for me.

 

My two favorite fighters.

Style match up isn't good for Frazier here. Frazier would naturally do what Liston would usually have to trick his opponents to do.

 

Sonny Liston is a tough night for Joe Frazier on any night in any venue at any point in history. I’m not saying peak Joe, which he was in 1971, can’t win this fight, though. That’s fence sitting but it’s the best I can do for you. Other than the longer it goes, the better are Joe’s chances.

 

Archie was interviewed by Boxing Illustrated in '68 about the heavy scene at the time. He said that he regarded Ellis as the legit champ (as did the magazine itself, who called Frazier vs Mathis for the NYSAC title "a joke"). Still, he correctly felt that Frazier would "press Ellis into collapse in three or four rounds" but Joe should avoid Liston and that if he walked into Sonny "somebody would have to carry Joe away".

 

Maybe his manager Yank Durham.

 

Jesus, imagine a fighter who's style is to walk to and attempt to get inside and go to war trying to walk down Sonny Liston. Almost seems unfair to Frazier

 

That's it,styles. Coming forward getting hit with the hardest jab in heavyweight history trying to get inside and then if you do get there trading hooks with Charles Sonny Liston. Liston is one of 3 fighters I think are all wrong for Joe, the other 2 being Foreman of course and Mike Tyson.

 

Whoa...........Joe Frazier NEVER sh*ts himself under any circumstances.This is
Smokin'Joe Frazier we'er talking about !

 

Nice one Swag.

 

Everyone makes the assumption Liston would want Joe in front of him- why is it not brought up Frazier would LOVE to have a long armed, slow handed slugger whose greatest feat on the inside came against a natural LHW?

 

Liston hadn't have that many pro fights in '58 and had been out of the ring for several years, so this is not the best version of him. Better in late '58 than early on in that year, though.

 

I think the plan for Frazier’s team would be similar to the FOTC kinda- both guys (Ali, Liston) kept there left hand out too long and when he throw a right he had “nothing at home to stop him getting mugged” as Holmes would say. It’d just be a game of drawing the shot he needed and whipping the left hook around the right hand- Listons best shot IMO is hoping Frazier would come out without a plan and just bore in and let himself be overwhelmed like he did against Foreman.