2005 Wlad Klitchsko vs 1960 Sonny Liston

Wlad is an atg fighter he has a 5 inch height advantage and a 33lb weight advantage over Liston. 6'6 245 vs 6'1 212

Wlad has as many ko's as Liston had total fights and he ko'd significantly larger men than Liston ever did. He also on average defeated a higher caliber of opponent than Liston did as being champion for 10 years elevates the level of opposition you face.
Wlad has a better amateur pedigree and on film he looks faster and with better footwork.
I don't want to knock Liston it's a good fantasy matchup I guess so I respect the points both sides make but for me it's Wlad in this fight.

 

He also lost to fighters significantly worse than Liston lost to.

 

Fair enough Patterson in particular had remarkable skills but he also had a toilet paper chin which meant he was dead meat against a skilled hitter like Liston. Now, I'm not going to make the argument that Wlad is iron-chinned, but he's way better than Patterson and what's more he's gotten up off the canvas to turn fights around more than once. Wlad, whatever his other faults, has a lot of fight in him. He's beaten the pulp out of guys that people have pointed to as being particularly skilfull, such as Byrd, Povetkin and Ibragimov. Not saying that they're on the same level as Patterson, but slick skills have not seemed to bother Wlad much. He's a fighter that knows how to impose his size.

 

Ali ... sure.

But Marshall and Martin would get steamrolled by guys like Sanders, Brewster, Fury and Joshua.

 

Liston was very fast on his feet and relied upon a huge reach advantage in his day to compensate. Wlad is quick on his feet, and could zone him, getting Sonny uncomfortable with a moving target and beating him to the punch.

 

Liston was not cut in either Williams fight.
Which puncher tested Listons chin Mike DeJohn,Nino Valdes.

 

That article has been debunked on this forum at least 3 times to my knowledge. Machen lost to Liston, McCarter and Liston never fought professionally,Whitehurst was knocked clean out of the ring in their last fight was was saved from
a knockout by the final bell ringing,in 2 fights against Liston, he won NONE. Marshall had three fights with Liston winning a split decision when Liston sustained a broken jaw in their first fight.Liston beat the **** out of him in the rematch flooring him 4 times in the 6 rds the fight lasted,and won every round in the rubber match when Marshall ran away all night!How did any of those men baffle Liston!It's absolute BULL****!

 

Williams won round one, and busted his nose. I recall a cut too. I shall research.

DeJohn, a puncher with a 53% KO Ratio? Who did he every stop they was decent? DeJohn stepped up his competition in 1958. He either won via points or was stopped for the most part. Ko's vs. men with winning records were rare, and I'm not even talking about top ten completion.

I really would not call Valdes a puncher, and what did he really land hard vs Liston? It was Valdes 2nd to last fight when he meet Liston. He had seen better days. Yet he closed Liston's eye. Liston had lose skin, and cut and swelled easily when hit. Like I said before in short fights, this didn't matter much, in a longer fight it would.

"Sonny Liston, No. 3 ranked heavyweight, loosed a vicious barrage to score a 3rd round knockout of Nino Valdes in the Chicago Stadium Wednesday night. Liston, winning his 18th fight in a row, stunned Valdes with a left hook to the jaw. While Valdes was staggering, trying to gain his equilibrium, Liston pummeled him with a left-right combination, felling him with a sizzling smash. In the 2nd round, there was a lot of infighting and Liston's right eye seemed almost closed. Liston came peering, one-eyed, to start the 3rd round. But once he got in close, he lashed with the left hook which started Valdes to his downfall. The knockout came in 47 seconds of the 3rd round." -Associated Press

 

Floyd got up off the canvas to win plenty of times.

 

Do you actually watch the films?

Machen's countering lead to Liston throwing mean low blows, to the point where he docked two points. Machen bothered Liston for sure. Liston won it but flirted with a DQ. Machen was decent on defense, but lacked the fire power. Wlad is also decent on defense, but does not lack fire power.

Marshall defeated Liston, showing he had issues with good movers. Okay, so Liston won the re-match no surprise there.

Whitehurst went the distance of 10 rounds, hurt at the end for sure, but the distance of ten round, yes. Whitehurst was a journeyman who won just a few times more than he lost and was stopped 2x before meeting Liston, and 3X after. This one is on film too. You can watch it. Sonny had issues stopping the game journeyman, and power was not the problem.

 

Liston did not have "lose skin" and he did not cut or swell up easily,utter nonsense!You have already diluted your original statement from," cuts in short fights" from the plural to the singular and are now saying, " I recall".
You make it up as you go along don't you!
You think 53% ko indicates you aren't a puncher? Do you know what Ike Williams ko% is?lol

 

Wlad jabs him all day, liston had a better jab but wlad would use his reach and keep distance between him and Liston so sonny wouldn' be able to land it as much as he usually did resulting in liston coming in close to slug with wlad, their both heavy hitters but liston was tougher of the two while wlad has got better handspeed, honestly when you put two power punchers against each other it could go either way, I'd be rooting for liston but In a realistic view this fight is a toss up

 

Wlad wasn't able to keep the distance against plodding cave man Peter . He was running away all over the ring and deserved a DQ for holding on so excessively.
Harlod Ledderman was disgusted and told Jim he should be disqualified. No genuine ATG would ever go life n death with such a slow 5 round mediocrity as Sam Peters.
Out of all the guys he lost to which include Vitali , Helenius and Eddie Chambers - WK was the only one to go through such an Epic struggle. Even James Toney done better than Wlad in his first fight - a fight he should have got the decision.
Put Sonny in there and the touch of his jab alone would send Wladamear into fits.

Put Sonny Liston in front of Peters and he rips him in two halves within 4 rounds.