Bob Satterfield hit harder than Sonny Liston

It wouldn’t surprise me in terms of 1 punch. Many of the hardest punchers may even be guys we haven’t heard of.

It’s all about being able to land hard punches consistently and enough times.

People may be surprised because obviously they know Liston more, and he's also much bigger, but Liston’s skillset allowed him to win fights alongside having that power, he put the 2 together and he was physically strong. He could use the skill and jab to land destructive punches and ensure they were measured up.

Satterfield didn’t land as consistently and didn’t have a piston like jab to keep them away and win fights off of, or to set up hard punches. He had less tools overall, and therefore was able to land hard punches less often than Liston, but it doesn’t surprise me that when he did land, it may have been harder, since he was more explosive and delivered it like a sniper, and guys like that often have more 1 punch power, they’re just not able to land as much because they don’t have the volume, but they have the fast twitch muscle fibres to deliver that kind of power.

Liston also would’ve had fast twitch muscle fibres, but probably not as fast twitched biases as Satterfield based on how they delivered their punches, but Liston was able to measure up destructive punches better because he had that jab and technique.

I’m not underrating Satterfield’s skill. After the Layne fight or somewhere around there, he did become somewhat better at measuring and timing his attacks better, using the jab a lot better and baiting and countering, but his technique wasn’t as precise as Liston’s, that’s why he wasn’t able to land as consistently.

 

Wonder if he was ranting about our poster Journeyman towards the end.

 

Satterfield is up there with Langford for al time P4P puncher .. he was really a blown up light heavyweight but what a puncher .. Louis said he thought Satterfield hit harder than Marciano ...

 

Liston is a bum H2H confirmed, easy work for galento

 

Bull s@&#

 

Very good post.
From what I have seen of Satterfield he swung for the fences with every shot. It isn't surprising that when he landed he landed hard. But he missed hard, too, and missing that way is tiring and leaves you vulnerable. It is boxing 101 that you don't throw every punch with everything.

 

Bob Satterfield had 79 pro fights. He only scored 35 KOs. And only four people he stopped weighed more than 200 pounds.

Satterfield mostly stopped small guys.

I'm sure he was a hard puncher. But I doubt he hit harder than Liston. Liston even stopped a prime Williams faster.

 

No question ….

 

As for the discussion, anything is possible in boxing. Perhaps the boxers interviewed got caught more cleanly and Satterfield managed to get more torque and weight into that specific shot that did the trick. And then perhaps Liston didn't actually land his hardest possible shot on the same common opponents.

That actually happens all the time, you rarely get the golden opportunity to hit with your full 100% power on the jaw even after 12 rounds. The opponent (if they're smart) will be doing everything they can to reduce the damage: slipping, rolling, shifting their weight, parrying, throwing up a partial block last second, leaning away, biting down on their mouthpiece to brace for impact, etc. No remotely skilled boxer just allows the opponent to land a flush bomb, and in the event it happens they do what they can to try to not let it happen again. It's an old saying, but it's 100% factual: the punches you don't see coming often hurt the most and finish the fight. The opponent could survive a punch thrown with 90% power and bad intentions because they braced for it, but gets knocked out by a punch thrown with 60% power because they couldn't anticipate it.

In other words, it's certainly possible that if Liston and Satterfield were told to hit a big pad that recorded the force of their blows with full power, or they both hit identical cloned opponents with their full strength (with no possibility of jail time), Liston would hit harder. He is, after all, about 30-40 lbs heavier, taller, bigger, with massive fists and knew how to put his weight into a punch as well as almost any HW in history.

 

Yes, Satterfield was the Babe Ruth of boxing.

 

Seriously. What is Liston's KO percentage against over 200 lb. men? What is Satterfield's?

What is each man's percentage against under 200 lb. men.

Your hidden premise is that it is easier to KO a 200 lb. plus man.

I am going to do a bit of stat work to study this issue.

 

Sonny Liston

overall 50-4 with 39 KO's

Opponents 200 or more lbs.-----

21 KO's, 3 decision victories, 2 KO defeats (both to M. Ali)

Opponents under 200 lbs.-----

18 KO's, 8 decision victories, 1 KO defeat (Martin), 1 decision defeat (Marshall)

So overall 24-2 with 21 KO's of 200+ men

Overall 26-2 with 18 KO's of under 200 lb. men

(so the evidence points to Liston having more trouble with smaller, (more elusive?) men.

But Sonny had a two tiered career. Pre championship and championship. And Post championship.

How do these compare:

Through the Ali fights, Sonny was 35-3, with 25 KO's.

under 200 lb. men---22-1 with 15 KO's, 7 decision wins, and 1 decision loss

over 200 lb. men---13-2 with 10 KO's, 3 decision wins, and 2 KO losses

And Sonny's post championship career:

15-1 with 14 wins by KO, 1 win by decision, and 1 KO loss

under 200 lb. men, Sonny was 4-1 with 3 KO victories, 1 decision, and 1 KO loss

Over 200 lb. men, Sonny was 11-0 with 11 KO's.

(evidence still points to Sonny having more trouble with smaller men)

What about Satterfield

He had only 7 fights against over 200 lb. men.

Bob's record was 6-1 with 5 KO wins, 1 decision, and 1 KO defeat. (He defeated every 200 lb. plus men he fought, by KO Bob Baker, Cleveland Williams, John Holman twice, and Dale Hall. Nino Valdes by decision. Holman KO'd Satterfield in a third meeting after being KO'd by Bob twice.

For Satterfield, Hall was a trial horse, journeyman type. Baker and Valdes rose to #1 contender. Williams and Holman to top five status. Liston fought some top big men, but also quite a few trial horses. Satterfield did better in my judgment against over 200 lb. opponents.

Why?

My guess is because they were slower and easy to hit.