Does Morris' strength and power win the day here? Is Bethea too crafty? Who enforces their style on this one?
was not that impressed with bethea. he was on terible form and unrated when he met Liston. His one big win was against a jaded ezzard charles but blew every other fight he ever had with a contender including henry cooper, karl mildenburger,miteff, machen valdes and foley. He did win a split verdict over ernie terrel but was still losing more than winning when that came about in 1960. Carl morris was a big 230 pounder who beat fulton, pelkey, gunboat smith, jim flyn, battling levinsky and frank moran. He was 30 pound bigger, taller and had more wins at a better level than bethea.
Morris by all accounts was a lousy boxer but big, strong, tough and dirty. But Bethea wasn't even that, was he?
Bethea was an aggressive spoiler with a very solid chin. Morris was a big guy, but scored his best wins against Fulton on his back and never proved to be as good as Willard or Fulton. Neither were really consistent winners so it's anybody's fight. Bethea always made it close except with Liston.
I cant see this one being a very fun fight...I give Morris the edge...He'd go hard if he had too, think he might be able to do it clear.
I don't really know that much about either man, except that Bethea was a very durable fighter, and that might have been a factor.
