1958 Sonny Liston vs 1967 Muhammad Ali

Wining against floyd proved liston was without doubt the best in the world, but he had to beat him to do it. until then he was an outstanding contender who beat harris beter than the current champion but had not beat machen as easily as ingo the other ex champion had.


Liston wasnt avoided that long. He hit the ratings in 1958' for looking good winning 7 fights against unrated fighters who had all lost their previous fight. 59' was the year sonny started fighting rated fighters but ingo quite rightly went ahead of him for iceing an unbeaten machen, the #1. It wasnt until 1960 where Liston was facing fighters rated above him in the ratings anyway.

From Time Magazine:
"Whatever his connections, many boxing buffs see Liston as the U.S.'s most promising challenger for Sweden's Johansson, even though Liston has so far fought only second-raters."
-August 1959 (right after Liston had KO'd Nino Valdes)

To look at him at his best Liston is an awsome fighter but to put it into context we must measure this in his competative fights. machen, folley were competative and great wins but sonnys next competative fight is Ali.

I rate Tyson higher than Liston on resume.