http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DN4sp2ICAh8&feature=related Brutal *******! You can see both why he was a success despite being matched tough and why he struggled. A diamond in the rough it's fair to say.
Ive seen this before. Clearly Willie Reddish did a great job polishing Liston up later on. Liston was quite crude here, nothing but a physical speciman with amazing tools. He beat Olympic Champion 6'4 220lb Ed Sanders with his Jab alone. Amazing! It's great. I am a huge liston fan, but he hardly has his critics anymore. Usually I spend my whole time trying to defend Marciano from unwarranted criticism, while Liston barely gets any flack anymore. its Great. Never have to worry about defending Sonny.
Yeah, we've cleaned this town up SuzieQ. Anyway. I agree. Reddish was given a task and he did beautifully, turned Liston into a two-handed tactician. But you can see here that the balance, strength and the purposefuleness in every move were already there. Liston was more natural than your other HW hero perhaps.
Liston looked good even in that clip. He didn't look particularly raw in there for an amateur. He's thinking defense with ducking and weaving and he's already got that trademark jab. I'm a huge fan of Sonny Liston too but really his all-time ranking took a massive hit when he threw away the world title in the manner he did. I dont care how great people say Cassius Clay was, that's partially revisionism and an irrelevance really, Liston's antics certainly put his greatness in doubt.
In what manner? He was a old rusty fighter who got his ass handed to him by possibly the greatest heavyweight who ever lived...Listons eyes were shut he was getting pummeled. he had nothing left. There were 8 rounds to go, His shoulder was badly hurt. Why take anymore uneccesary punishment? Because he quit at the age of 32-34 while getting his ass handed to him? why take anymore unecessary punishment?
I dont think he was getting whipped that badly like you make out, and there was quite a degree of astonishment that he quit at the time. If the beating was so bad why the outrage or bemusement about him quitting ? Sure, he was marked up a bit, but he wasn't getting totally thrashed - even in the sixth (his worst round). And anyway, even if he was, the point is he showed up like he hadn't trained properly at all, and he didn't show the heart expected of a champion. You cant pretend he did. His eye wasn't shut like you claim, he had a mouse of the cheek underneath his eye but he wasn't fighting blind. He'd had his moments during the fight and was about even on the cards. Ok, he had an injured shoulder, but I think his worst "handicap" was the fact that he'd taken Clay way too lightly and hadn't trained. And the fact that Muhammad Ali became "perhaps the greatest heavyweight of all-time" is the usual convenient excuse. Clay wasn't considered that good going in, and despite the reams and reams of revisionist history published about that fight now, his performance - while surprisingly good - wasn't convincing evidence of his self-proclaimed "Greatness". Few reports kissed his ass on that performance, most thought the fight something of a farce. And I can understand the point of view. I dont go along with the Ali myth letter for letter, I'm more interested in historical facts. Liston trained like a bum for that fight, and didn't have the heart to pull through when he realized his mistake. He ran out of gas and quit.
So, is that Ed Sanders, olympic champion ? Looks like him. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A21M...64C75DC9&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=32
Not so fast. :twisted: He does look good for a relatively inexperienced amateur. The power was clearly there, and the range finding. I don't understand why he doesn't pull he jab back, though. In the amateurs, Foreman was getting by on pure power and strength (to a large degree, in the pros as well), but Liston showed a good bit of body movement and defence.
It worked for him. Kept that habit all through the pros too. Great follow-through but he seems to take it to the other extreme. But it worked.
If Jack Dempsey had made Harry Wills his second defense and quit on his stool with a sore shoulder and a cut under the eye, I think you'd all have him in the top 2 !
