1988 Tyson vs 1960 Liston

Liston by knockout, Mike can't come to Sonny. Not to mention he'll wet his pants when Sonny glares at him

 

This will always be debated because it’s vogue to call Tyson a gutless overrated bully. Mike was thrice the boxer Liston was and would utterly blitz Sonny- they just don’t compare as boxers.

 

Liston in a war. His reach and jab advantage, superior inside and outside game, and endurance will get him home imo.

 

Liston is a bad style matchup for Tyson.

 

Since they share the same style, see it as a drawn out version of the Patterson fights with Liston by mid to late stoppage. Out-intimidates Mike before the bell even rings, Mike gets dropped mutliple times coming to him and can't recover mentally.

 

Both very strong, difference is that Prime Tyson is twice as fast.....

 

It,s the other way round

 

Smokes him?

Only if Mike somehow imagines Sonny to be a giant doobie.

Intense, even action for 2-3 rounds, then Sonny starts knocking 88 Mike into 1990 without the interruption of a potentially fight saving, 11th hour uppercut.

Come in Tokyo!

 

I’m going to go out on a limb and say someone is getting knocked out. A bold prediction, I know, but I’m wild like that.

 

Liston has an 84 inch reach and an ATG jab to go along with that, an attribute that Tyson would struggle with. Liston was also physically one of the strongest Heavyweights, was very heavy handed and an underrated technical boxer.

Overall I think Liston is one of the few Heavyweights, I would make a slight favourite over a prime Tyson. I think Liston is bad style match up for him personally.

 

Tyson might struggle with Liston's jab from time to time but Tyson was a master at slipping jabs. It would look like the Pinklon Thomas fight for me with Tyson finishing Liston off with a flurry of punches.

Patterson couldn't crack an egg compared to Tyson. In fact, Tyson is a nice combination or fusion of Patterson and Liston. I don't think Liston has the speed to keep up with Tyson as was evidenced with his losses to Ali. He had trouble with speed but the firepower is there and the jab would be a huge problem for Tyson coming in but Liston will definitely get cracked and hit flush more often than Tyson would.

One of the better ATG heavyweight fantasy fights. Tyson TKO 10 Liston.

 

That's one argument, and perhaps Sonny's 'None Shall Pass' would prevail. Then again, when Reggie Jackson was ribbed by teammates, after he struck out to Nolan Ryan, 'Reggie, we thought you like fastballs?' , he replied 'I like icecream, too; but I don't eat it by the gallon.'

A great 'what-if' match-up.

 

"Vouge?"....Tyson is looked upon now as a fighter who folded when the going got tough! Great fighters don't bite off a portion of their opponents ear to get DQ'd!

 

Up for grabs for me