Rocky Marciano vs Sonny Liston

Sonny Liston had a steel chin, your right. even in a street fight, I see liston outslugging rocky competitivley although not outworking him. liston was special the complete boxer puncher. Rockys best chance is too slowly work his way in behind the crouch and make liston lunge with his punches and make liston get frustrated then capitalize with heavy blows. Rock DOES pocess the power to knockout sonny, vica versa. I do think both had such great chins, neither man will go down in this fight and it will go the distance.

 

If one thinks a fight between two punchers cant go the distance...then i suggest reading a fight report of Bob Satterfield W 10 Tommy Gomez.





or watch Ike Ibeubuchi vs david tua again..

 

I like Liston by tko in about 10rds,Marciano's facial tissue lets him down.

 

Liston in 8 rounds. I respect Marciano, but he is at a severe stylistic disadvantage. He needs to get close, and isn't cute enough to get past that ramrod jab without hurtin'.

 

It was never bad enough to cost him a fight in his career, so I dont think we should hold it against him in fantasy matchups.



Liston by Decision

 

I don't rate Sonny as high as some here do. I'm going with Marciano in this one, by late stoppage.

 

The best jab Rocky encountered was that of Louis,he was marked up in that fight.Liston's jab while not as fast as Louis ,[probably not even the old Louis, Marciano met ],was heavier and longer,I think it would break Marciano's eyebrows up.Marciano was in danger of a stoppage defeat against Simmons and Charles,but pulled his chestnuts out of the fire with a ko on both occasions,Liston had much better durability than either, Marciano could not count on doing the same against Sonny.
Add to this the fact that the best big man Marciano met was a 36 year old much diminished Louis,how does he cope with a 212lbs heavyweight in his prime who can match him for power and probably beat him for skills?
Factor in an 84in jab that could knock your teeth out.I have to go with Liston.

 

Liston tko-8

 

I'm picking Marciano by bruising 11th round TKO. Marciano takes one hell of a shot. So does Liston, but i think he does so in a Tyson-esque way, in that he can take a bomb, or two, but i'm not sure if he can go to war for several rounds and still keep going, like Rocky did.

 

Rocky never fought anyone with awesome power though. Louis was still an OK puncher but was 37 and his power had diminished. Marcianos chin against the upper echelon punchers is a bit of a ? and due to his size I think his chin would falter a little. His chin against anyone was still great, but maybe not AS great as it looked against smaller fighters like Jersey Joe, Moore etc. Liston proved he could take shots from huge punchers by his fights with Williams.

I think Liston would win via mid to late round KO. Either by cuts or just by Marciano absorbing jab after jab after jab and getting ground to nothing by Liston.

 

I honestly think Marciano would frustrate Liston and make him quit on his stool similar to what Ali did just with different attributes than the speed and movement Ali did. I think with Marciano's crouching style and hitting Liston all over on the arms shoulder chest etc. Liston would say screw this.

I am not calling Liston a quitter but he was clearly frustrated in the first Ali fight and he might have been injured but that in conjunction with him being frustrated caused him to say no more.

 

I think the fight would be highly competitive in the early rds and Liston may even put Marciano down for a spell. Marciano did a lot of slipping and ducking and came out with weird angled combo's. Thing is Liston would be facing a crazy fighter who came back hard after being hit....I think the battle of wills and the pace would get to Liston by the 9th -10th rd and he would slow down, Marciano had more in the heart department and his stamina would grow from 11 to 15...if Liston went down late, would he get up and if he did not he would take a beating in the last few rds. I like Rocky recup power, his ability to adapt and his stamina and heart but Liston still would be a harder fight style wise than Ali would be for Rocky...still I like Rocky's HEART to stop Liston late 14 -15 or a solid fought UD because of workrate, heart and stamina...a very tough match for both men

 

I can see Rocky KOing Liston; Rocky getting stopped on cuts seems a reasonable prediction, as well. I'd favor Liston 60/40 as well.

 

Liston wasn't invincible, either. Marshall (an unranked LHW) knocked him down. It was early in his career, but Rocky fought an 9-0 and 15-0 guy in this 3rd and 4th pro fight without going down. Whitehurst hurt him. Howard King sent Liston hurt and reeling into the ropes with a right, and traded toe to toe with him for 8 rounds. DeJohn staggered him as well, Earls had him down and Martin knocked him out cold with a single punch.

Now, of course every fighter gets hurt and i'm not saying Liston has a bad chin, but i'm saying that there's plenty to criticize on him in that department as well.



You say that he only took shots from smaller fighters like Moore and Walcott whereas Liston took them from bigger fighters like Williams.

Well, first of all, Moore stopped Whitehurst, something Liston couldn't do in two tries. Going into the Marciano fight, Moore's record against heavyweights is something like 23-0 (19). Walcott lacked aggression, but he sure packed a big punch. Just watch how he knocks Charles out cold with a perfect left hook (it's on Youtube) or how he downs Louis 3 times.

Second, Liston did not take them from bigger fighters, but just from one bigger fighter in Williams, who was knocked out early by 180lbs Satterfield. Other than him, most of Liston's victims were just as much cruiserweights as Marciano's were. Marciano fought a big heavyweight in Joe Louis. He was definitely past his best, but he was still a dangerous contender as he proved going in. He was ranked; Williams wasn't on either occasion.