Sonny Liston vs Lennox Lewis

I don't think Lewis could control the fight and decision Liston with his inferior jab.

His best strategy would be to try to bomb him out.


People are saying that Lewis would decision Liston.I'm saying that's the least likely result in my mind.

 

a decision win for lewis is more likely than a decision win for sonny, lewis was a smarter fighter, more tactical fighter. more skilled ,lewis could use his reach much better than liston because he was much taller, lewis would have clear advantage here.

 

Is it true that Lewis would have "a clear advantage" ? They both had the same reach, 84"(incidentally, Frank Bruno had an 82" reach and Ray Mercer had a 77" reach).


Liston would have to jab up to reach Lewis' head and Lewis would have to jab down to reach Liston's head.But their heads are going to be the same distance apart,for them to be in range of each other's jabs.Lewis being the taller man,his jabs to the head on target would tend to land on top of Liston's head,while Sonny's would tend to land on Lewis' jaw or chin.



You have to remember Liston is a shorter guy, with the same reach. It's easier for him to reach Lennox's body with his jab. He could land on Lewis' torso ,a large target area, with his jab and keep him off balance .Lewis at the same time would find himself slightly out of range for jabs on Liston's torso and so would have to focus on Liston's head ,which would be a smaller target area.

This content is protected

 

Liston's face would be at Lennox's shoulder level, so no, Lennox wouldn't need to punch down.

 

OK,if Sonny fights him straight up, his head will be directly in line with Lewis jab.

But the point about jabbing to the torso still stands.Unlike any opponent Lewis faced,Sonny doesn't need to get inside Lewis to be able to land on him.

 

Will someone please give a coherent, detailed explanation of why Lewis has an "inferior" jab?

Give examples of both fighters and fights so I can step out of crazy land and get into your reality for a second...

 

Liston does fit into the mold of Rahman and McCall and could get a bomb off, but who has Liston fought that was close to Lewis

 

I thought Lewis was often afraid of committing with his jab.He pawed with it and often it seemed just as a rangefinder to set up his booming shots with both hands. You have to remember Bruno outjabbed him in their confrontation by committing to this shot.

I thought Lewis was probably the greatest fighter off the jab,with awesome two handed power and technique in his big punches.But I don't think his jab was truly deployed as an offensive weapon , able to win a fight all by itself, as with Holmes or Liston.

Maybe,it was a temperamental thing.Maybe he thought it was too sharp a double edged sword-that the risk of getting inevitably punched in the exchange was not worth the offensive opportunities. Maybe,he was psychologically inhibited and unsure of his ability to take a punch after the McCall loss .Maybe he felt that he should try and open up on an opponent only when fully confident of his superiority or when he was in dire straits and had no other options.


Liston was the opposite case.I think he was technically flawed -either that or overconfident.He would often overcommit and if he missed he would keep his arm stuck out,instead of bringing it back immediately to defend himself.This flaw in his technique was acutely brought in relief, when was slightly out of shape or lost some pace due to age when facing Ali. Ali would slip Liston's jab and exploit Liston's lack of defensive precautions to counter him hard.

 

They had different types of jab. It's silly to say one was "better" than the other. Better for what? Liston's bludgeoned opponents and forced them on the back foot. Lennox's acted as a blinder, rangefinder, set up for shots etc. They both worked well for them.

I will say, though, that the Mercer fight leads me to suspect that Liston might have the slight upper hand in a straight jab battle.

 

Who cares if Adamek is bigger than Bonavena. I'd say Bonavena's durability was more proven than Adamek's based on his fights with Joe Frazier. Bonavena was also CLEARLY more hurt against Ali than Adamek was against Vitali.

Vitali's opponents being 240-plus or whatever doesn't make them more durable than Ali's opponents.

 

Vitali has always been an accumulation puncher. Based on his stoppage of Bonavena, I'd say Ali was a better puncher than Vitali.

I gave Liston a pass, mostly, because he was visibly exhausted and already looked dizzy going into the 9th round.

Prove Vitali experienced a significant loss in power by the Briggs fight. Tyson slowed down more than Vitali but was still considered a big puncher.

 

People always talk about Holmes-Ali as if it were a public execution, but to me, Shannon Briggs soaked up a lot more punishment against Vitali than Ali did against Holmes. Briggs took a horrible beating; Ali got whipped.

 

Like I said, you're judging both men by different standards.

Lennox was visibly exhausted and badly wobbled against Vitali. Why doesn't he get a pass? The man didn't lose, he didn't even go down, yet you're criticising him for getting hurt by a flush right hand from a man with a 98% finishing rate. I don't care if Vitali was an accumulation puncher, you don't get a stoppage ratio than high without doing something right.

Just watch his fights from the early 2000s (Kirk Johnson and Danny Williams would be my picks) then compare them with his fights now (Chisora and Charr). There's a clear drop off of power, and much less commitment to his shots.

But the Briggs fight should have been stopped in the ninth anyway.

 

Like he beat the crap out of Mercer?