Rocky Marciano Would Knock Out Sonny Liston

There is no doubting Liston has proved to have been a beter heavyweight than floyd and therefore ingo but that posibly wasnt realised until Liston- patterson I.

I keep hearing people call Liston an uncrowned champion who took out all the top contenders from 1957 until he landed floyd n 62' but Im not so sure this could have been established opinion until then.

Until Liston fought for the title it was tied up between a guy who beat machen quicker than he could and another guy tied to rematches he had not fought yet.

Ingo deserved to get his shot first in 59' which I have said earlier was the year sonny began fighting rated fighters. It wasnt until 1960 where Liston was facing fighters rated above him in the ratings anyway.

I think Listons "run" was more like 1959- 1960. During this spell wiliams, folly, harris and machen were at least winning fights when liston fought them, though all had been knocked out before. These were his most worthy wins but he recorded them during the ingo-patterson triangle and its only one year. 1961 Liston sayed busy facing two guys who were not even rated. I dont see how he would have been universaly regarded as the best in the world at that point.

 

Rocky would have to get inside of Liston's reach to bang him in the ribs and land his hooks and haymakers. But, this would be difficult given Sonny's long jab. I think Rocky would roll and weave his way inside for an occasional body punch, but not often enough to change the tide of the fight. Sonny's jab would bust Rocky up and the fight would be stopped because of cuts.

 

Liston was an outstanding contender but it was for one year only. Liston hit the ratings in 58' for winning 7 fights against unrated fighters who had all lost their previous fight. The folley, machen and harris wins in 1960 was the year that made him. Good fighters but not ATG's and not really cleaning out a division.

ben wise, daniels, ernie cabb, mederos, whitehurst, bethea, valdez, besmanoff, howard king and wesphal were losing fights at the time Liston squashed them, each lost their previous fight coming in against liston. Even dejohn had lost 2 of his last 4 fights.

valdes was coming off a loss and in his final year as a pro. Ninos record at that time was not that of a contender on the way up. machen had already ended his chances as a top fighter knocking him out 3 years earlier, at the time liston fought valdes hed lost 8 times since hed been marcianos #1 contender way back when.
valdes actualy was beaten up by a young alonzo johnson in his last bout before taking on LIston, losing on points and a fight but one before was up and down like a yoyo before geting KO'd by 19-3-2 charlie powel who I think was really a football player in the NFL that took up boxing to become a journeyman.

 

what about joe louis knocking out max baer and carnera so soon after both lost their titles? Louis was a milion dollar gate fighter without being a champion.

that is corect but I think Liston disapeared from boxing about the time johnny made the ratings when he went to prison anyway. 1958 was the year liston really got going. Thanks for posting that machen-summerlin fight by the way I liked summerlins style.:good

 

Liston fought wayne bethea in 1958 when bethea had just been beaten by a faded nino valdes in his last fight. In fact bethea had been decked twice in that fight and wayne had only won only 4 of his last 9 fights at the time he faced Liston. I dont see how bethea was rated in 58'. In 1956 bethea had a rating for beating ezzard charles but he soon lost that rating when he went on to lose twice to folley in the same year. I dont think he got a rating again after that.

 

I agree with this. Liston would always be ready for patterson but I think sonny was on about 8 comeback fights since his time in the slammer, if he could land machen at that point it would be a short cut to the title for sure.

The kind of form bethea was on at that point ingo would have had just as easy a time with him as liston had.

 

Shoot. I completely fogort about DeJohn..a good win for Liston. DeJohn was 6'3 205lb, was ranked top 10, and had a wicked left hook.

 

Liston craked the ratings beating the run of guys who all lost their previous fight. wise, whitehurst, mederos, bethea, whitehurst again, daniels and cabb. apart from bethea they were tough unrated fringe guys who gave contenders rounds. In 1959 Liston took on dejohn and valdes who were rated above him but in 58' he cracked the ratings on reputation.

 

It was a beter win for 3-2 johnny cousins who ko'd Dejohn a round quicker. dejohn gave valdes two good fights by all acounts even if he was 2-2 in his last 4 by the time he faced sonny..