[1964 Boxing Illustrated] Marty Marshall: Liston doesn't hit harder than Bob Satterfield

Actually, one thing I'll remark on here.

Depending on how you look at things, you could make the argument that the Shavers testimony is a good example of how people might *overestimate* their own ability to tell things from film.

The temptation when we try to rate Shavers's power is to go for the video evidence. We can see it, and sometimes hear it, so why not make the judgment for ourselves? But with Shavers, what we have arguably better evidence for is the testimonial data. People who *felt* his punches. And this might actually be the better data, since it speaks more directly to the question. It's just not intuitive to rely on, given our visually biased way of approaching boxing questions.

 

One off's are very iffy. So much emotion involved for some fighters.

We can see Shavers power and we can see how it affected all those waxing lyrical tho. If we can't see it on occasion we can read about it i.e. fight records, fight accounts. We see that booming right hand drop Holmes as if he'd been shot. The booming right that staggered Ali. The huge right out of nowhere that face planted Tillis, the left hook that done bad things to Lyle and would have almost certainly led to a stoppage in not right at the end of a round, the obliteration of Norton and Ellis etc etc.

 

Shavers kills it both ways which, IMO, is why we can take it to the bank.

 

I wonder if there are other Satterfield / Liston common opponents who opined.

 

You'd first have to work out common opponents. Seems to be half a dozen or so but i haven't seen much documented. Valdes dad say being hit by Liston was like being kicked by a mule.

Incidentally Marshall just happened to have knocked out Satterfield in one bout and lost a split decision in another with him. A recurring theme seems to be a lot of guys give a LOT of credit to guys they just so happened to have beat.

 

A guy named Burt Whitehurst fought Satterfield and Liston

 

It could be that Bob Satterfield had the harder single punch. I mean he was a legendary puncher. Once he fought iron chinned Jake LaMotta. “Satterfield held LaMotta on even terms in the early rounds, having his best moment in the 4th round, when he "shook LaMotta to his heels" with a right hand.” [boxrec, original source: Chicago Tribune]. It would be great to watch this fight.

I think Marty Marshall isn't a bad source. He also said that Muhammad Ali (at that time Cassius Clay) has the best chance of defeating Liston.

Anyway, a successful puncher also needs other qualities like, technique, precision, speed, timing, balance, body strength, determination, overview, killer instinct...
The two-handed puncher Liston with his great jab was of course the much better fighter overall.

Cleveland Williams fought both of them too. His opinion would be interesting. Maybe there is an old interview.

 

good find and a good read but i, like many many others im sure, am not buying a lot of it

 

Um what?

 

Valdez on his death bed, the little life left in him slowly being drained by cancer, was asked by his family how bad it hurt, he replied "not as bad as getting hit by Sonny Liston!"

 

Whitehurst
Williams
Howard King
Frankie Daniels
Ben Wise
Johnny Summerlin
Valdez
Marshall

Liston's record against the above men is 14-1

Satterfield's is 8-2

 

Others did too but did they opine?

 

Yeah i pinned all them and scoured the web for comments but didn't get much.

 

As usual, above and beyond the call of duty. Shame they didn't say anything though.

 

Could’ve swore Williams had a comment but can’t remember for the life of me