Sonny Liston Vs Mike Tyson

Cleveland Williams could knockdown walls but Liston waved it off and knocked the spit out of him. Tyson lasts as long as the other D'Amato fighter. Patterson had guts and would fight Sonny. NO WAY Tyson would. If you ever read the story of Tyson telling King, "**** you, you fight him if you love him so much.", when king kept trying to get him to fight old Foreman, then you know what would happen.:rasta

 

Ive always felt than Tyson's speed woulda overwhelmed Sonny. Liston was powerful, and had that ram rod jab, but lets be honest.... he was slow as hell, and his chin wasnt granite. In fact Mike had the better chin between them, AND a better defense. Tyson KO 6.

 

If you're trying to suggest Sonny would stop Tyson in 1 round like he did Patterson... then I suggest you quit posting.

There was a WOORRRLLLDDD of differance between Floyd Patterson and Mike Tyson.

 

Buster Douglas was far quicker than Liston. Sonny was slloowww guys, he was SLOW! Plus he'd have no big size edge over Tyson. I swear... Tyson has become extremely underrated! Either that or Liston has become overrated.

 

Tyson. much too fast for Liston.

 

Liston K.O in 5. Liston is not backing up for Tyson. Mike has a chance of hurting Sonny and finishing him, but I'd make him a substantial underdog. 7-3 type deal.

 

2 of the most intimadating heavyweights ever with the mean tough guy persona, one was going to **** you and the other would eat your kids. This fight may have serious mind battle going in. 2 bullies...would George Foreman be the referee...I think I would have to go with Tyson as much as I hate to say...Sonny was the first Heavyweight Champ that made a strong impression on me but I have learned a lot more about man and perceptions since then. I see Tyson doing a Berbick style bang down early but can Sonny get up and fight on...this would work against Mikes plan and head...who would impose there will.....I go with Tyson....Gee Sonny quit against Ali in 2 fights...weird

 

I don't see Sonny have that much luck jabbing to the head, not early on at least. He should jab to the chest to be succesful and follow up with that overhand right. That would cause Tyson all kinds of trouble.

I think Liston wins the battle of wills before the fight. His kind of badass was more deeply rooted, probably too a large degree because he was older (if we are talking peak versions).

 

Liston was 6-1 215 against Patterson and he was not slow like some of u are saying,he wa a big 215 Lb very wide and might be around 225 easy today He also had a long reach for being only 6-1. All that being said id still pick Tyson by 6th round Tko,but i dont rule out a Liston win either im about 60/40 picking Tyson. Listons Jab might have worked good for him and I can see him setting Mike up with the Jab. But a Young Tyson had great defense and probably would have slipped and nailed Liston. Liston probably kos the late 90s version of Tyson though.

 

Liston had some decent hand speed, I think.
Look at some of the punches he throws here. .... check out that left hook at about 1:52

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYA4qt-LBmA[/ame]

 

You're basing too much on the Douglas fight imo. Douglas and Liston are very different fighters, especially in that Douglas is the clearly faster fighter and the bigger fighter. Liston's reach is tremendous but height is more important (See Vitali Klitschko)

Timing is generally as important as speed or even more important, but answer this, What fighter who had a ponderous jab was able to land it consistently on Tyson? Thomas, Tucker, Tubbs, Williams, Holmes all had quality jabs and Tyson dealt with them all with ease. Tyson's proven against jabbers.

Saying that Liston hit harder isn't necessarily true either, in my view at least. In terms of brute force, maybe but let's not forget that he was mostly knocking out guys sub 200 lbs or around there (Big Cat Williams is the biggest quality fighter he beat, and he'd be among the smallest of Tyson's victims.) Tyson knocked out guys that were 6'4 and weighed well over 220 pounds. Essentially I'll take Tyson's power over Liston's in that it is more proven against heavyweights of all shapes and sizes, where basically everyone Liston stopped was completely outmuscled/outsized (exception of Williams, but again, he would be among the smallest of Tyson's title victims)

I love Sonny and rate him around 5th all time, but people have an image of him like he's Lennox Lewis in there in terms of size. He's not a giant and the fact that Tyson weighs around 10 pounds more despite being several inches shorter says something.

 

Liston's hands were fairly quick, especially when compared to his foot speed.

The fact that the fights most seen of Liston are the ones in which he's in there with the most mobile HW of all time when Liston himself was on the slide is the reason people are so quick to call him slow.