Liston by TKO in 7 rounds or less. Liston would smash that jab and uppercut right at marciano, and marciano can't keep on taking the punishment. but he won't back down so thats why its a tko.
Liston jab alone would do in Rocky marciano. Liston had an amazing 84 reach and Marciano had a 68 inch reach. Also, got bused up in fights against fighters who more like crusierweights. Liston Ko in 8 rounds.
Liston had no great run as champ in years after losing title, and he was not the remarkable force in ring some writers romantiized him into being. Liston was good, Marciano great, and Marciano the much better in head to head match up.
Reach is just wingspan, is meaningless stat used by boxing people. Liston got broken jaw from Marty Marshall, a 175 pounder, and was knocked down in rematch before winning by ko. Mashall was just good club fighter. If Marshall breaks Liston's jaw in one fight, floors him in another, it's obvious Liston was not as sturdy as some made him out to be. In defense of lIston I have never bought into theory of him being just a bully, so I won't use that argument here. He was tough man, good fighter.
If Ali put Liston's ass down hard Marciano would have killed him. Liston's defense wasn't exactly stellar.
I'll respect when a guy wants to retire. Particularly when he's already 49-0 with the title and having done everything possible in the sport. I mean, what's the point of this thread? Of course, ANYONE who hangs around long enough will lose, eventually. Rocky didn't, though. He's undefeated and that's that.
Sonny Liston was an overrated cheater who had to use the oinment on the gloves to beat anyone any good: Williams, Machon, and Foley. The only guy he didn't have to cheat to beat was Patterson, who ducked all of these men himself. Real bad era of heavyweight boxing. There was a thread in the classic section where talking about the fact that Marciano challenged Liston to a fight because Sonny disrespected him, so apparently Rocky himself did not have any fear of the suppossedly great Sonny. By the way, Rocky retired at 32 because of back problems and a bad relationship with his manager. He considered coming back against Johanson, but couldn't get himself where he wanted to be.
Yep, and it's not like Sonny Liston was some looming threat to anticipate. He was completely unknown at that time anyway. If you want to discuss prime versus prime with Marciano vs Liston then that's another thing.