Sonny Liston Vs Mike Tyson

Welcome to the forum Rooster4Life,

I've seen a lot of your videos up on youtube. Great work ! :good

If we matched them peak for peak, I reckon Liston would have beaten Tyson up. Pounded him with the jab and worked him over on the inside. I think Liston beats almost anyone who comes straight at him and engages in a fire fight. And when he needed to Liston could box on the retreat, use a bit of nimble movement and he covered up well before launching another offensive. He picked his punches really well, which offsets any defecit he might have in speed. But Tyson had great speed and power and the kind of looping right hand over the top that might topple Liston - and Sonny could be caught and rocked at times - so it's definitely a fight that could swing in Tyson's favour at any instant. But if I had to bet, I'd say liston.

 

Intruiging matchup, especially considering Tyson wouldn't be looking at his usual 3-5 inch height disadvantage, and Liston wouldn't be looking at his usual 20 lbs weight advantage.

I actually think Sonny's jab won't be that big of a factor, for two reasons:

-Both men come forward 90% of the time, and will collide here. Liston actually moved back for the first round of his first bout with Williams, and got pounded. When he pressed the action from round 2 on, he had a lot success overcoming the reach gap.

-Tyson is one of the fastest heavyweight champions of all time, while Liston is one of the slowest champs. I think the only scenario in which Liston's jab lands with regularity is when he's won most of the exchanges and has a beaten down Tyson, going into the late rounds.


Speed is a key factor in boxing. I think this is the main reason Tyson does well here. Land that right hand over the jab. Swift combinations. I also think Mike is more powerful. He has something like 5 one punch KO's. Liston scored one over that 5'7 German journeyman, but usually had to club his opponents down.

 

Excuse me, i meant "slowest champions". I edited the post.

 

I've seen shitloads of your vids on yt.

I would go with Liston by way of me thinking about this one recently. I always thought Tyson was as high as can be in terms of head to head at the weight, but in my revised opinion and from my standpoint now, i don't think quite. Liston can truly emulate the Buster Douglas performance to a tee, stylistically. Not using the jab as a point grabber but as a physical tool to do damage and impose himself. He is faster than Douglas for handspeed also. Not that the Douglas impression means a win regardless, but i don't see too much evidence to pick Tyson. Of course whenver one tries a chessmatch in mid ring with Tyson they are at risk of getting countered, and followed up on with some of the finest technical and powerful combos the division ever saw. But i'm leaning towards, and actually going on record with Liston winning.

 

That's one of my new favourite videos now, amazing.

 

Very good case for Tyson, i must say.

 

Welcome matey.

A fair case can be made for Mike, but I tend to favour Liston here slightly. He wouldn't have to looking for Tyson and had the right style to engage him up close, plus the robustness to withstand Tyson's assault. I think. Tyson was obviously deadly. But for all his speed and explosiveness, Tyson could be a bit ineffectual on the inside, and I think Liston would take advantage of that. There's also THE JAB. Tyson was great at slipping jabs, but Listons was excellently timed and frighteningly hard. Hmm.....

Actually, the fight could be won and lost in the staredown, daft though it may sound.

 

I respect your opinion quite a bit, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Liston is maybe my favorite fighter, but his handspeed is NOT that of Buster Douglas. And he is no where near as quick and light on his feet as Douglas.
While I'd favor Liston over any version of Douglas, I struggle to see how his quickness and mobility is that of Busters. It isn't.

Another thing to keep in mind here is that Tyson is the bigger man. The mental image of Liston is that of a superheavyweight giant, in reality he was 6'1 and around 205-210 at his best. He's not a Lennox Lewis or even a Buster Douglas in terms of stature.

 

I feel pretty comfortable in picking Tyson to win this.

Liston's reach would actually play a role in the loss if he tries to utilize it and keep the fight on the outside IMO- his jab wouldn't carry the speed to be able to neutralize Tyson, and the length of the jab would give Tyson more space and time to operate once he slipped it. Against Tyson, that reach is counterproductive if Liston can't keep the fight at range, and I don't think he has the speed (of hand or foot) or movement to keep it there.

Combine that with Tyson's short hooks, which were quick, accurate, and powerful, and I'd pick him to break down Liston before it got to the scorecards more often than not.

 

I don't think he was as mobile, and not a mobile fighter at all really. Just handspeed was what i meant in that department. I was under the impression Liston has decent-good handspeed for a heavy but if you're right on that one i accept that. I was really getting at Liston being able to impose himself due to a combination of his strength and style of fighting more than anything else, the comparison to Buster in terms of Buster-Douglas on a who's better level wasn't really my main concern.

Nice one for the response and opinion though. It's quite ironic that Tyson is my favourite heavy and Douglas is your fave fighter, but we lean opposite ways on this one!

 

Another big difference between Buster and Liston though is that Douglas is considerably larger. Like I touched on in my previous post, Douglas was a solid 6'3 230. Liston is 6'1 and at his best anywhere from 20 to 25 pounds smaller than Douglas. Even though the image of Liston is of an immensely powerful giant, he WOULDNT be the bigger man in there against Tyson, where Douglas was. Liston would have a harder time "imposing his will" on Tyson than what you may initially think.

I'm a big Tyson fan too though. The reason I said Liston is "maybe" my favorite fighter is that it's between him and Tyson.

 

Yeah it's more to do with the implementing the style of brawling/boxing more than anything eles that i picked him, rather than him being outright stronger than Tyson. He's strong regardless, and i reckon strong enough for the job. Personally