1958 Sonny Liston vs 1967 Muhammad Ali

In 1958 Liston hadn't faced a single ranked contender in his entire life. He would be written off as green.

In 1967, Ali was as confident as he ever was, faster than light, champion and a good share of experience. Ali wins a decision, Liston starts to doubt himself even in the fight and wonders if he'll ever beat as much as a contender.

 

Liston rating as high as number 2 is a stretch. Maybe Head to head but in terms of achievements; Ali, Louis and Marciano IMO edge him easily.

 

Ali would always give Liston fits. Ali takes it over 15 rounds, very comfortably.

 

Liston 's biggest win came right before the ali fight, whats with all these pis poor excuses. Im a liston fan, but come on enough with these excuses.

 

Mmm, Liston indeed looked magnificent against Bethea. But then Foreman also looked great in destroying Frazier and Norton (who were more than a step higher than Bethea).

Thing is, Ali is such a hard stylistic match up for Liston. Liston never showed he can cut off the ring. He did wisely go to the body in his fight with Clay, but Ali seems to be almost impervious to body punishment. Ali would ask Liston questions that he'd never been asked before. We know Ali takes one heck of a shot. We know he'd never quit. We know he has great stamina. Liston never went 15. The one skillful, defensive heavyweight he fought, Machen, took him the full 12 while Johansson disposed of him in one round.

Liston fights great when you come forward, but Ali would take him out of his comfort zone and give him a taste of his power. I'm not very impressed by Ali's power, but he's got a lot of sting on his punches; look at his face after the 6th. He is bruised badly and that's only after 6 rounds against a backpeddling and blind in one round Ali.

 

It is not unthinkable that Liston could have won on the night they actualy fought if he had trained properly.

 

I doubt that any heavyweight who ever laced on a pair of gloves including Liston can cope with the Ali of 1967. He was one awesome boxer who dominated during his prime. He would very seldom lose even a round in the scoring. Don't confuse this Ali with the one in the 1970's who had lost some of the lightning speed of his prime years.The Sonny Liston of 1958 might be able to beat that Ali but probably not the prime version of the 60's.

 

ali in 67 was even better than 1964 version

 

Who did Ali beat in 1967?

Don't you think Liston would have beaten Cleve Williams more convincingly than he previously did if Williams was carrying a 44 mag slug in his gut?

 

Ali 'toyed' with Terell that year as well as Foley. He also defended his title successfully five time the year before. No version of Liston would have done any better than the 1964 version.

BTW, it was a .357 Magnum that injured Williams.

 

With mafia controlling boxing or without?