Sonny Liston vs. Rocky Marciano, Who wins?

Head says Liston
Heart says Marciano

One thing for sure, somebody is going down and will be busted up.

 

What in prime all time greats did Lewis, Tyson, Holmes, Holyfield, Frazier, Liston ever beat?

Why this logic only ever applies to Marciano and Tyson is beyond me.

 

Big G Foreman beat PRIME ATGs Frazier And Norton in 1973. :deal

Holyfeild beat PRIME ATG Tyson in 1996 + BITE Fight AND Bowe in 1993. :deal

 

Marciano was floored for the first time...cut....blinded for appox.3 rounds...behind on all scorecards.....and then in the 13th...."BANG!!!"....he wins the title with the greatest right hand ever thrown....and Liston loses the title by"SITTING ON HIS STOOL"...against the light hitting Cassius Clay in Miami in Feb.1964...The Rock would have out gutted Liston on his best day...

 

Most serious boxing fans should know getting two ATG's in their prime age, stage of technical development, maturity and weight class, all being consensus issues, is is a rarity of the highest order. As well as ridiculous standards for anything about a fighter's career being rated.

 

Frazier was on the decline. His biggest wins were behind him.

Norton is hardly an ATG.

Tyson was at least 6 or 7 years past his prime in 96.

The Holyfield-Bowe is close but again Bowe is far from being an ATG. He was a guy who looked destined for greatness for a short time and then faded quickly, missing pretty much all of the match-ups (Moorer, Tyson, Foreman, Ruddock, Morrison...) and ducking his one greatest challenge (Lewis).

 

I see Sonny Liston winning by TKO in the Middle Rounds 5-8

 

Frazier was only 29 yrs old, UNDEFEATED 29-0 with win over prime Ali. his biggest wins were behind him, cos Foreman DESTROYED him. :deal

Norton should have 2 wins VS Ali - BUT 1 of them was Stolen from him.
+ he won VS Young, Clark And Quarry. That is Better resume then Tyson!! :deal

Tyson was PRIME 1986-1997,, every fight in them 11 yrs he was ripped-as-**** mini body-builder. Tyson was Only 29 yrs old in 1996. :deal

Bowe is ATG in H2H terms IMO. :deal

 

Frazier's prime was 67-71, a long run given his style. Foreman caught him on the tail end of this. It was certainly not a prime versus prime match.

Norton's beat Young and Quarry. Tyson beat Berbick, Smith, Thomas, Tucker, Holmes, Tubbs, Spinks and Bruno in his run of savagery. There is little comparison here. Norton never had anything resembling that kinda run, let alone so many dominant performances against champions. It isn't even close.

Tyson had an 11 year prime? Really? In the best of cases, a fighter's prime lasts a few years. With Tyson's style, it really is capped at a few years. It doesn't mean they can't go on to have good performances but they are not prime exhibitions of their talent. This contention is just ******ed.

Bowe has 2 good wins on his resume, both against an inconsistent Holyfield. (Wasn't two fights later that Holy had his "heart problem" against Moorer?) He gets credit for these wins but the next best name on his resume is who? Coetzer? Seldon? A close scrape against Tubbs? Not an all time great.

 

Against Foreman, Joe Frazier was 10 lbs removed from his best weight and almost 2 years removed from a live ranked opponent. He also did not take the untested Foreman very seriously. Not saying that is the reason Foreman won but other greats have been given a pass with much less credible excuses.

 

Marciano made 6 title defences ,he was the heavier man in three of them.
Rocky got his title shot by koing 179lbs Harry Mathews.


Of Marciano's challengers ,none were over 6 foot ,[2 were under] , and ,only 1 was over 200lbs ,[ Cockell] 205lbs , much of it around his waist. Cockell was also shorter.

So, in very few of Rocky's big fights was he at a significant size disadvantage.
Conversely he enjoyed an age advantage in several of them, eg Walcott, Charles, Louis,Moore.
Liston would be the only big , class , heavyweight ,who was not over the hill ,la 37 year old Louis, that Rocky faced.

 

:thumbsup

 

As usual, Marciano would hit his opponent and not be hit back. He was almost impossible to hit with a clean shot to the chin: he was so short and kept his head so low that his chin was nowhere to be found. He was more powerful than Liston: just check their KO percentages and you'll see there is really no comparison. Marciano would stop Liston early. Ali stopped him in 1, and had far less power.

Marciano was more successful against better opposition. Ezzard Charles was just as good as Muhammad Ali. A fading Joe Louis was better than the glass-jawed Floyd Patterson. Joe Walcott (in his prime at age 37), Roland LaStarza and a fading Archie Moore were better than Cleveland Williams, Eddie Machen and anyone else Liston fought.

 

Agree wholeheartedly with you on this - offense was never a better defence

difficult to say one way or the other about the power but you only need the power to KO someone with one shot and both men had that no doubt

I don't consider the Ali KO1 Liston result of a genuine fight so I can't use that as an argument either way

Hhmm very interesting thoughts I only rate 3 men better than Ali and Ezz ain't one of them. Certainly Patterson could've done with the old Louis' chin no doubt - that's all I'll say on that. And yeah, agree 100% Walcott, Moore and LaStarza were better than Cleveland Williams - so overall only really the Charles Ali comparison I don't level with :good

 

I think Marciano would risk getting stopped due to a cut. however if the fight was allowed to continue (like it was gainst ezzard charles) he has an extrememly good chance of making liston quit on his stool or getting a late ko.