Sonny Liston: “The Strongest Heavyweight I Ever Dealt With” - George Foreman

Regardless, I'm sure Liston was a physical freak to fight, even for Foreman.

Combined with Listons skills, oh man...

 

With about four inches of Reach on Ike as well ..

 

Foreman aside I wouldn't doubt if
Liston
Jeffries
Lyle
Chuvalo
Were the physically strongest HW fighters we've had. I'm sure I'm missing a few but these are the 4 that jump. Lyle used to do 1000 push ups in an hour every day in prison according to his bio. That's some legit strength coming from a 220 or so lb man. Chuvalo up until a few yrs ago said he was benching 400 lbs a massive feat let alone for someone that age

 

THANKS MAN WOW

 

Foreman said that Lyle is the strongest man he faced and the hardest puncher, he didn't mention Liston.

 

He stated that Gerry Cooney was at the top, then Ron Lyle, and then Cleveland Williams.

 

STRONGEST
Ron Lyle: He was the strongest man I ever faced in any fight. The likes of Shannon Briggs, and men like that, didn’t affect me because they were just ordinary fighters. They didn’t make an impression and I just chased them around. The men I faced in the seventies were more fearsome than the ones I faced in the eighties and the nineties, with the exception of Evander Holyfield. Evander could have competed in any era.

BEST PUNCHER
Lyle: This guy hit me so hard that it didn’t even hurt. Joe Frazier caught me with the left hook but he couldn’t hit like Lyle and although Muhammad knocked me down I was exhausted and still got to my feet. Lyle was the hardest hitter. The thing about Lyle was he was complete unafraid and challenged me at ring center. Nobody, other than Sonny Liston in sparring, stood and punched it out with me with any success. Joe Frazier only tried once and even the great Muhammad Ali couldn’t back up quick enough. Ron Lyle would not back up.

 

I thought you were referencing his interview on Letterman, I wasn't aware that he was interviewed for the "Best I Faced" series of articles.

 

“Other than Sonny Liston in sparring”

Seems like he still thought of older Liston’s strength highly, even when comparing it to Lyle.

 

But he still said that Lyle was the strongest man he faced in any fight, sparring or not and that includes Liston too.

 

An extremely old Liston.

 

37 years old is not extremly old, at that age Lewis and Klitchko were still champions.

 

And he was undeveloped kid not even a pro and mature.

 

That “undeveloped kid” was 6’3 (he peaked at 6’4) and 220( peaked at 260) hes pretty damn close to his limit

 

Check Foreman prime weight, he grew 1 inch and added 20 pounds of pure muscles.
He was more polished fighter with 20 pro fights when fighting Frazier.