Where do you rank Sonny Liston as a boxer?

Welcome.
I have Liston lower top ten.
TBH I think you posted in the wrong section. I am afraid here you mostly are going to find lots of casual fanboys who think supersize is the only factor that matters and Fury invented boxing.

If you want a more educated, sensible analysis on Liston, I suggest you to move to Classic Forum.

 

Damn, that does sound scummy. But I'd give him the benefit of the doubt. Big time boxers tend to attract the worst kind of parasites and sycophants around them. Sounds like something that was done without him even knowing.

 

H2H Head to Head.

 

Liston was not a slave. Slavery ended in 1865. So, in order for him to have been a slave he would have been born prior to that. Which would mean he was over 100 years old when he fought Ali. In that case, he was one baaaaad dude. Hate to see him in his prime.
LOL

 

Totally underrated nowadays. Looking at boxrec he fought about 6 times in 1960. 3 of them we,re Zara folley, eddie machen and cleveland williams. Fighting good operaters every two months. Need to probably bear that it mind when comparing him to todays fighters that fight once or twice a year at times.

Battered floyd patterson twice in the first round.

Just came up against a nightmare opponent in ali. A bit like george foreman....in that without ali they,d have both had much longer reigns. Could have possibly been around 5th if ali never showed up. Just didnt beat enough prime fighters or big names to 100 percent secure a top ten place. The loss in his 8th fight goes against him. Think he broke his jaw in that fight and the ali rematch where for me he took the easy way out when he realised he was out of his depth at that point against ali. Due to ageing and ali being a nightmare style for him.


Battered foley in 3 rounds. Cleveland williams in 2 rounds and 5 rounds and floyd patterson twice in a round each. Makes a good case for top 15.

 

Lower end of top 20 he was good but hit his peak in the Patterson fight and looked bad afterwards

 

I think Sonny could KO every guy you mentioned over a 24 hour period.

 

I like Sonny and think he was very misunderstood and treated poorly by people pretty much his whole life. I don’t have him in my top 20 Heavyweights of all time and also don’t think he would fare very well h2h vs the champions after him.

 

Top 20, as he was late to the party and had mafia involvement

But I did study the division for many years and judging what I have seen, heard and read? His talent was easily among the very best