Whos a nicer person, Sonny Liston or prime Mike Tyson?

They both hurt people in the ring AND in private life. If I were to guess, Mike Tyson seems a bit more reformed in old age

 

Both were very complex and flawed, like most people. I’ll leave it at that.

 

Tyson seems to have mellowed a bit as he's aged. Poor Sonny didn't live long enough to show that.

 

All I know is I met Mike at an autograph show in 1997...me my brother my sister and our Chinese-American friend and member of our gang back then, Lily.

HE seemed super cool and was nice to all of us. At the time I was friends with Wilfred Benitez and his family and Mike signed an autograph dedicated to Wilfred..when he heard it was for Wilfred, he told us anecdotes about them training together at Cus D Amato's gym.

Its funny but a few years later reading the paper, I was able to confirm that the autograph was on Wilfred's wall by reading the papers. The article read something like "on the wall behind his bed there is a trophy case plus a picture of Mike Tyson that Tyson signed and dedicated to him"...lol! how cool, ah?

I never met Liston of course, he died two years before i was born. But I can say that Tyson was very nice to me and my friends that day. He was accused of horrible things so it doesnt necessarily mean he is nice all the time just like being accused also doesnt mean he was guilty. But, thats all i can say.

 

When Tyson said this, he was a drug-addled freak addicted to sedatives which he sometimes had to stop taking. at the press conference in front of Lewis he thought that the fight was about to start. The guy was completely crazy. Sonny was scarier. Tyson maybe too, but he was in the 1980s. later it aroused embarrassment, not fear, and was relatively funny if someone likes this kind of humor

 

tyson ko1

 

I'd guess Tyson is cleverer at hiding his flaws ,several boxing writers said he is manipulative.
Sonny's illiteracy was a big factor in his life I think,but like most, I never met either so how to judge?

 

Im still addicted to (legal) sedatives....

They asked me at the hospital if I took opium a couple night ago and I showed them my bottle and the nurse, he said, "no no I mean illegal ones"..lol

 

but you know what I mean? The guy had mood swings like a rollercoaster at that time. I remember when he came to the press conference before the fight with Golota and complained that he didn't have an erection after Zoloft, but he had to take it because it would kill us all. Funny guy. on Monday he could be the nicest person in the world and on Tuesday you had to stay away from him. I recommend the interview in Playboy after the fight with Holy 2. I consider Tyson to be an absolutely outstanding athlete, but he had terrible periods in his life.

 

He totally did...

 

Liston more intimidating while Tyson way more erratic IMO

 

Zoloft -- and pretty much all antidepressants -- are horrible on most people if they want to have a sex life. Avoid that crap like the plague. Was prescribed it once, took about a week and it neutered me, then took almost two weeks for things to return to normal once I tossed the bottle in the trash.

 

Sonnys personality is enough of a mystery where I really don't know. The thing with Tyson being a bad person is he hit the public scene very young and was almost a kid when that that sutff in the 80s was happening. The amount of blame he gets for his behavior is heavily mitigated in my mind as a result.

Humans are very complicated and people have this idea someone treats everyone the same. The truth is your average person is wonderful to some people and horrible to others.

I'm inclined to say Tyson because hes nice to animals and in my experience that is perhaps the biggest indicator of being a decent person. Because animals are defenseless in human society and there are no consequences for hurting them the worst people tend to be mean to them because the worst humans are looking for situations where they can be cruel without being judged or punished.

 

Both were huge pieces of sh*t. But Liston at least wasn't a r*pist. Not that we know of, of course.