Tunney vs. Liston : Dempsey vs. Liston

Tunney has two great, great wins over Dempsey and this is important here, because I've never seen a heavyweight championship fight more similar to Tunney-Dempsey than Clay-Liston. Clay danced, popped, moved, and stunned him at time with right hands; just like Tunney.

But there the analogy ends. Tunney's resume against rated heavyweights is not that long, although he did beat several lightheavies who were competing with heavies. And of course Greb. Liston was a bit bigger and had better fundamentals than all of Tunney's opponents that I've seen on film. He also hit harder than all of them except maybe Dempsey, who we know of has put Tunney down - although admittedly, he needed 20 rounds to do it.

And to bring up the old size argument, but Clay was actually 210lbs against Liston and did not have an easy time keeping Sonny off him. I wonder if Tunney at 190lbs would be able to keep him at bay instead of getting run over...

 

i think tunney had much better footwork fundementals then ali.

Ill have to watch liston vs ali again but if i remember correctly it seems like ali sometimes danced himself off balance for a second stepping with the wrong foot in the wrong direction allowing liston to get something with his jab and follow up, more so then ali had problems keeping liston off him.

some one like tunney wouldnt be mis stepping. this would let tunney stick and move much better then ali. not as quickly but in that tunney would allways be able to attack or move he wouldnt be as likely to get caught in listons reach and he wouldnt have as much difficulty keeping liston off him.

 

really i agree, too strong and too good for these old fighters

 

oh my god, please.... please...... ali had the best footwork in the history of boxing, simple, even a ww like leonard was a bad copy of cassius clay 64. even the master robinson did not have the footwork of a prime ali 64-66
plus ali was much bigger than tunney (who was not even a hw), stronger,he had better chin,he had faster hands and legs,and better than gene in every department. simple

 

well, holyfield was very fast he was a natural cruiser, prime tyson was very fast, prime patterson was fast like the hell(he was a cruiser really), and holmes was very fast, you are comparing the fastest men with liston in speed, i never said that he was the fastest, but he was fast no slow turtle like marciano. and liston was much bigger and stronger. lennox lewis was not faster than liston, no way. liston had the sufficient speed and the reach to catch tunney, and dempsey would exchange blows with listo and he would get ko,simple. AND NO ****ING WAY FRAZIER WAS FASTER THAN LISTON

 

WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HWs... pernell whitaker was faster too... liston had good speed for shis style and his body, he was a very powerful guy of natural way.

 

the footage i watch tells me different..but ok....

 

I would say that outside of Ali, Tunney and yes Dempsey were among the fastest moving heavyweights ever

 

As you might guess I'd take Liston because at his peak he had more weapons. Nobody could live with that jab, he had hand speed and he was a finisher. He could also take a punch. Plus he defined the term 'attitude'. Forget the Ali fights which may well have been fixed. These were dark waters with the Mob on one side and the Muslims on the other, Sonny was trapped.

 

The only thing that trapped him in their first fight was Ali's fists, so I'd say 'attitude' goes to Tunney easily.

 

I think both of them have equal chances. I see Tunney being a bad look for Liston, he has a mix of durability, skill and speed Liston only faced twice... Moreso than any other fighter Tunney reminds me of Ali quite a bit, i think he'd really frustrate Liston.

I believe that Dempsey could definitely hurt him, he wouldn't be intimidated by Liston and if he is given a chance to hit a fighter who comes forward he makes their life a living hell. Styles/physical advantages STRONGLY favor Liston here though so I won't say he knocks Sonny out. I think he could though, given the opportunity.

 

Threads like this are what is so great about the classic forum. Maybe next we could do Tommy Burns v. Mike Tyson?

BWAAAAAAhAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

 

It's the same thing right. :roll: