a prime baer with his head screwed on right and no playing against a prime liston.who wins. remember baer killed three in the ring and liston was a destroyer so who wins the match?
Two fighters who weren't terribly well accustomed to having other men stand up to them. This would make for an interesting pre-fight discussion, but that's about it. Sonny's jab and punching power along with Baer's poor defense and crude boxing skills would result in a rather short evening.
Liston was much better, like "turpinr" stated. By the way, I know Baer gets credit for 2 boxers that he killed, he actually killed only 1 ( Frankie Campbell, the other was Ernie Schaaf, who had another 4 bouts before he died after his bout with Carnera ), BUT who's the 3rd?
I understand that one f Baers sparring partners died after he knocked him out of the ring. The incident is discussed in the book "Cinderella man".
M Baer vs K Levinsky http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kpnTZ3PXEA Hah, look at Baer at 3:21 -- he punches both of Levinsky's ears at once ....
Don't know that I would use the term "credit", but broadly speaking you are correct.How badly Schaaf was permanently affected during the 3 minutes he was unconscious after taking Baer's overhand right ,we will never know.
Don't make me laugh! Baer didn't belong in the same ring with liston, who would have knocked him out inside of 5. Liston would have chopped him up and made minchmeat out of baer, the same as he would have done to marciano had he decided to stay around.
Marciano retired in 1955 at the age of 33. Liston didn't become a serious title threat until maybe around 1960-61. Was the rock supposed to wait around until he was nearly 40 years of age in anticipation of Liston's rise to contention?
Well, i must admit that it's a good point that you made. And even though this is a baer vs. liston post i just want to say that liston still would have destroyed marciano in his prime.
I really cant see Baer beating Liston and that is coming from sombody who would give him a fair chance against George Foreman. It comes down to styles and Liston is not just better technicaly he is Baers stylistic poison. I think this would resemble the Williams fights with Liston countering, anticipating, and breaking Baer down. Baer has the proverbial punchers chance but against a fighter with a good chin that is a bit like saying that the sky might fall on their oponent.