Sonny Liston vs Lennox Lewis

Outboxing Tua is nothing out of the ordinary *for* top 10 contenders or in this case a champion like Lennox Lewis. Tua can't box his way out of a brown paper bag. Furthermore, Lewis had his hands down frequently in that fight and that's because Tua was complacent and not providing enough adversity. I don't blame Lewis but my point is that this characteristic does not match well in a fight with Liston. Of course Lewis would be more cautious against the more skilled, longer reaching Liston. This just shows that any comparison of Lewis' display against Tua to how he'd box against Liston is fruitless.

Lewis on his boxing skills alone was average. He wasn't bad but he wasn't great either. Its when you take the whole package that he was supreme. That, of course, is how we usually judge fighters. However, Liston vs Lewis would really boil down to pure boxing skills. Liston has an edge there. Lewis had his hands full with Mercer. He had his hands full with Bruno & Vitali (this may not be fair as Lewis was past his best) UNTIL he destroyed those guys . This may sound silly but the point is that it wasn't Lewis' boxing skills that did it but his awesome power & killer instinct that saved the day and got him the clear cut, great victory. Among the many great talents & merits Lewis had, pure boxing skill was not the most prominent.

Lewis would destroy Frazier or Marciano because Lewis' awesome power would really surface. He would struggle against Liston because this fight would be more of a pure boxing match and less of a slugfest. You describe Liston as if he is Tua i.e. "plodding forward". Liston could fight effectively behind his jab and that's what he'd do with Lewis. His jab was far superior to Lewis' pawing jab. Lewis was even outjabbed by Mike Tyson in the opening round (don't know if 5 seconds is a fair sample). Lewis' jab only looked good when Tyson was a dead zombie or it was fat Tua.

 

Okay.

"is lewis a better boxer?"
No. They are about the same, in my opinion.

"does he have a better jab?"
No. Their jabs are about the same, in my opinion, when considering that Liston has to jab up in this case, with the height differential.

"a style suited to beat liston?"
No. Neither fighter has a big stylistic advantage in this matchup, in my opinion.

Liston's chin is probably slightly better, but I like the heart of Lewis slightly more. That's a wash, too, in my opinion.

Lewis is taller but the reaches are similar. Their punching powers are similar, in my opinion.

They are very close, and would be a pick'em fight except for one thing: intelligence. I give Lennox a big advantage there, an advantage that Sonny will not be able to overcome most times...in my opinion.

 

Bingo. Ring intelligence might make the difference in this fight.

 

Liston by Kayo

 

Liston wins by KO.

Lewis was very big, strong and powerful, but I'd only give him the obligatory "puncher's chance".
Liston was a better boxer in just about every area.

 

I have to go with Liston, he has the best jab I have ever seen (including holmes) and was more commited to the jab than Lewis, he was busier than Lewis, had a better defence than Lewis (Liston rearely seems to get credit for his punch slipping ability) and Liston did something that modern fighters just don't do, if you tried to grab him he put his head down and hit your body until you let him go, holding and leaning on would be a big part of Lewis' gameplan.

 

Not sure about these two...Lewis had one of the best uppercuts on the inside that I've seen. I think it is Duran's short uppercut when in the pocket that it reminds me of.

Lennox's chin is horrendously underrated, there is a great clip on youtube that shows just how many solid bombs he took throughout his career barely flinching.

 

Very hard one to pick. Lewis would have to be more consistent and solid with his jab than he often was. Just poking with it wouldn't cut ice with Liston.

There's been a lot of talk about ring intelligence. They were both smart fighters, but Lewis probably had the cooler head. He seemed unshakeable, something you can't say about Liston really. How would Liston handle someone actuallly being stronger than him in the clinches? Lewis liked to manhandle and lean on his opponents, and I don't know how well Liston would react to that.

Close one, many factors.

 

:huh

Lewis has to arguably be one of the smartest (In terms of ring IQ) HW fighters of all time.

 

I think that Liston is a bad matchup for Lennox. Lennox isn't going to go out there in slugging mode like against Golota/Ruddock/Grant etc. due to the fact that Liston isn't a superheavyweight with technical/durablity problems. Liston is the better technical fighter than Lewis (I really think that Liston is one of the most well schooled boxers ever) and could fight on the inside, outside, midrange, you name it. His chin is solid enough to avoid getting blasted out based on power alone, and his power is more than enough to keep Lewis honest.

I think that Lennox struggled more against quality jabbers than any other style. The thing that all of Lennox's most difficult opponents have in common is a good jab, look through his record, Bruno had a nice jab and was probably outjabbing Lennox going into the 7th, Mercer was landing his jabs, an aging Evander won rounds based on steady work with it, and Vitali gave him the toughest fight of his career. The two guys that beat him also had fair jabs that did their part in setting up the KO punch. Liston had one of the best jabs of all time. Not only was it powerful, but it was incredibly accurate. His timing and sense of knowing when to throw it was really second to none. I will also add that Liston had the superior stamina, against Machen he was very active throughout the fight and showed no signs of tiring. Lewis on the other hand did show signs of fatique even at his best, especially when he gained weight later on to add strength.

I see this being a chessmatch, Lewis respects Liston's power and it is fought at mid range and the outside, but Liston lands the cleaner shots and takes the decision.

 

I was never that impressed with Lennox's ring IQ. He could speak somewhat intelligently and was a "chessplayer" and I think this leads to people thinking that he was smarter in the ring than he really was.

The rematch with Holy shows that he was no ring general. He was dominating when he threw the jab but simply wasn't doing it enough! He wasn't dumb and he could adjust and did adjust for certain fights, but I'd hold Liston above him in this department.

 

Liston was too slow to outbox Lennox IMO, actually Liston is not at all dissimilar to Rahman, both have long reach for their height and are physically strong.
Sonnys probably a better boxer but Rahman on his day is not bad at all.

I dont see Liston being quick enough on the draw to beat Lennox.