Who got the better of the Liston Foreman sparring sessions

Foreman always talked with the upmost respect about Liston. I also read/heard somewhere that Liston was able back Foreman up in sparring. I imagine they did give each other a lot of good work.

 

Hmm the green teenager or the former heavyweight champion of the world… I’m not sure, hope someone smart chimes in.

 

I don't think Foreman was employed as Liston's sparring partner. This has to be a misunderstanding. Who would take the 1968 Olympic heavyweight gold medal winner and make him a sparring partner for Sonny Liston? Foreman and Liston were stablemates under the management of Dick Sadler, so it was natural for them to spar. I doubt they attacked each other hard.

 

At that point Liston wasn’t fighting anybody, Saddler had him picking up purses avoiding the big risks of the division, he wasn’t gonna make a run at the title ever again… his days were numbered and Foreman was destined to do great things in the division, it was likely hard sparring at some points to help a young George learn to work with the pros, I’d be interested to see it, I get the feeling Sonny would’ve worked well with GF and not tried to take his head off, unless Foreman pressed him and fair enough, Liston lost his nerve against Benton, Bugner and another guy I forget the name of when they made things too difficult but I don’t think at that stage Foreman was in a position to be good enough to press him.

 

https://boxrec.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=196686

 

Foreman was a baby back then.

 

I don't understand the part of your post beginning with "Liston lost his nerve ... " Can you explain what you are saying?

 

I don’t have a concrete answer but based on George Foreman’s comments, Liston often got the better of their sparring sessions. Of course George had been known to be humble and complementary when speaking of other fighters

 

They made him mad.

 

All due respect, not sure if you understand how sparring sessions work.

 

No one, it was a kid against grown man when Foreman skills were crudest with his skills not developed.

Foreman was just a humble man just like he said he was scared of Frazier or that Norton would beat him if he boxed.

 

Foreman himself said that he would hit Liston with some monster punch, and Liston would say, "No, son," and hit him back with a monster punch.

I think it was in the big Sports Illustrated article on George in the 90s.

 

Foreman makes it pretty clear Liston was the main one in control when sparring. However, neither of them were prime. Liston's reflexes and timing had faded since his championship days and he just didn't have his heart in it anymore. Liston was older; merely going through the motions for relatively easy paydays against low to mid level competition (by his own admission to Foreman). Foreman was very young: fresh out of the amateurs and iirc had less than 20 fights during most of the occasions when they were stable mates.

It was more of a mentor/student relationship, not a heated rivalry between peers. Liston was showing him the ropes like how to throw straighter jabs and set up punches. I recently asked my coach about that and he said the way they threw jabs was quite different from most traditional boxers and it could easily break a nose because of the sheer force. I tried it and the power was ridiculous.