1959 Liston. 1949 Charles. Charles has a chance to take a decision due to his superb boxing skills. Oddly enough, his dulled killer instinct after the Baroudi fight would help him. Although, there was no trace of that against Marciano. Put it this way, if Ezzard fights like he "has something to prove" like he did against the Rock then he won't finish. He would get stopped mid-way through. If he stands off and plays matador, he would go the distance. I'd say the chances are about 65-70% that he would go down at least once and that would cost him the decision. If he didn't go down, it would be a close verdict and he may even win...
Yes Chris, even though he was close to forty five and on drugs. I guess these small facts should have no influence on your point. Liston had a terrific chin, period.
I don't think Charles was one to pull an "Eddie Machen", atleast I've never seen him do it. He didn't really try to avoid any punching exchanges.
Charles was no Floyd Patterson in the chin?head department(even though Floyd improved when he learned to relax in the ring) and he was not one to be intimindated. The fighters that gave Liston and Ali trouble throughout his career was the faster, smaller guys, Marshall,Machen and Leotis Martin and Ali...I like Charles to overcome any rough patches and hit Sonny harder than Ali could...I like Charles by UD but He could make Sonny quit...Sonny never fought someone of Charles quality and when h did he lost
Really good post. I'm not totally on board with your outcome but think Charles is being sold a little short. I'll say Charles troubles Sonny greatly for much of the fight but Sonny catches him at some point. We've seen Charles stopped before and ultimately I think Sonny catches him. No way an easy fight and unlikely that Sonny "Pattersons" Ezzard.
If Bert Whitehurst can go the distance twice with Liston, then Charles has a fair shot, and he is clearly skilled enough that he might do a Spinks and edge out a decision. I would favour Liston but I don't think it's a foregone conclusion.
Charles was beautiful..controlled and beautiful against Louis..and I don't care if it was an over the hill Louis..like an earlier poster said..he was still dangerous. The Charles of the Louis fight had a good chance against Liston.
a peak charles from 47-53 was a real force. he iced some big tough guys like joe baksi and coley walace that were as big as liston. liston had a mighty reach though but marty marsahal beat him and always gave him a tough fight and he was no bigger than charles. bert whithurst made liston do a funny dance in the first round and he was charles size also, in fact moore kod whithurst two times and liston could not in 20rounds, even if he had burt down in the final moments. zora foley was a poormans charles a great fighter but no charles. liston kod him but zora did get kod a few times before that and he claimed liston had the burning stuff on his gloves that night. i pick a peak charles over sonny to win on late stoppage.