You don't think it being Sonny's 8th fight and him fighting with a broken jaw had anything to do with that result? and you discount the 2 subsequent fights in which he owned Marshall?
Conn doesn't have anything close to Ali's combination of range and speed, height and weight so cannot box and turn Liston off of the jab like Ali did. In the first fight, Liston got to Ali's body and made him miss sporadically. I'd venture to think that despite a valiant effort, that Liston, who wouldn't be as frustrated as Ali made him, would eventually kill the body and send Billy to sleep.
Maybe, but who broke his jaw? Also, I think that Billy was much better than Marshall. He beat the great, prime Louis for 12 rounds.
Conn caught Louis at the right time and was still knocked out. Billy was Joe's seventh title defense in seven months. Louis was being stretched too thin. Louis had fought the giant Buddy Baer three weeks earlier. And Louis had a fight with the top contender Lou Nova lined up, which was supposed to be his big test. Conn was the final "tuneup" before Louis began preparing for Nova. Conn weighed in the low 170s. He had no power. Louis was supposed to knock him over like he stretched guys at the start of the seven-fight, seven-month run. And Conn suprised him. But still got wasted. Sonny Liston, coming off two first-round knockouts over Floyd Patterson, wasn't worn out. He tended to feast on smaller fighters. (Ali was bigger than Liston.) And he was in a groove where he was starting fast and not messing around (King, Westphal, Patterson, Patterson). Conn wasn't Ali. Conn wasn't even the light heavyweight Ali. Liston, in a one-sided fight, by KO (not TKO) inside five. Maybe even in one. It would be like Frazier fighting Foster, or Tyson fighting Spinks, but more violent.
Well ... The fact that Louis took THREE WHOLE WEEKS to heal from the fight with the giant, hard-punching Buddy Baer (who dropped Louis) and take on Conn shows what an easy night they expected. Louis was surprised against Conn. Louis had defended the title seven times in seven months. He was ready to take a break before starting camp for the Lou Nova fight (which was the only fight that year where Louis had an whole camp to prepare). Conn had a great fight with Louis. But he caught Louis at absolutely the right time - at the end of a seven-month, seven fight stretch and sandwiched between two fights with guys (Baer and Nova) who were viewed as threats at heavyweight. And Conn, with all the advantages he could ever hope to have against Louis, still ended up knocked out. Conn would have none of those advantages against Liston. Liston wouldn't be surprised by him. And Liston didn't have to fear Conn's power, like Frazier and Tyson knew Foster and Spinks possessed. It would've been a short, brutal night for Conn. (As would a Louis-Conn rematch had it been held in 1942, as planned, after the Baer and Simon rematches.)
I think Sonny’s freakishly long reach and exceptional jab would make it hard for conn to do anything from the outside. I can’t see this match boding well for him.
And ended up with his nose in the resin. ps Louis dried out for that fight and didn't take solids, wanting to come in light he wasnt in very good shape.
It would be like a leopard vs an elephant. The leopard is at least 4x faster but, does it matter? The elephant simply needs to turn every time the leopard approaches or darts left or right and stick it's long trunk out, preventing any sort of approach. And like the elephant, Liston has absolutely no fear even if conn manages to get a few licks in. Eventually conn would get caught and then its downhill from there.
I don't like the logic of picking a fighter who captured lightning in a bottle against one ATG, to beat another ATG. That is what I call the James Douglas Syndrome!
