Could Liston beat Marciano in 1955

YOU CHANGED YOUR AVI WITHOUT CONSULTING ME! WE WERE SUPPOSED TO BE TWINS

 

And this was old, shopworn Charles.

 

Beating Summerlin hardly indicates he was at peak form. They were literally his sixth and seventh fights. No fighter is anywhere near their peak with such little fights.

 

Twins like Arnie and Danny? You can fight who’s who.

Good God. You’re not going to continue playing Single White Male (SWM) and change your avatar to Seamus’ new one, are you?

 

Well there was a bloke named Leon Spinks once…

 

Not surprised .....

 

Liston would beat a prime Marciano in his first fight ever, and he would beat Marciano as a 55 year old, end of story. Why? Simply because RM never was a big talent and didn't have the size, style and strength to beat a man on Liston's level and power. How anyone can give Marciano a chance is beyond me. Marciano is overrated to an absurd level.

 

As the saying goes, styles make fights. Rocky was there to be hit and Liston could always hit. I really don't know how good Liston was at that point in time but he always had the size, strength and certainly the power to hang in there with Rocky and possibly bust him up. Liston would always stand a chance for this reason.

 

Yeah, it's a good take. A physical freak whose skill level was improving every time out, who was in his physical prime, against a physically limited, breaking down over-achiever who had only mastered beating smaller heavies on their last legs.

 

Why handicap Marciano? They’re on the same tier, I’d love to see them fight at there bests, honestly If I could’ve I’d have put Liston in the Marciano era (more interesting then his own) mixing it up with an older Charles, Archie and Walcott. It’d have been a cool round table where everyone could beat everyone and as the era subsided at the top of the heap we could’ve got a Liston - Marciano trilogy/set. Personally I don’t think Sonny has it in him to beat Rocky.
Edit: phrase

 

I don't see Rocky surviving for the first rematch.

 

When you say 'once' you're really not kidding, are you?

 

Hell no.

Marciano would have been heavily criticized for taking this fight, and rightly so.

I would still be criticizing him for it today, despite what Liston later became.

 

Marciano haters propagate three key myths.

1. He ducked some improvised contender
2. He retired because he saw some terrible contender on the horizon.
3. There is some man in a lower weight class today, who would beat him.

OK, perhaps 3 came up for negotiation recently, but you get the general idea.

 

Then you’d “die of shock at ringside” The only man as wilful and in the same tier as Rocky beat Liston with ease, hardly the king of the beasts he got rocked and by admission almost KO’d by a chinless left hooker with no defence. The height of his achievement was beating the most blown up and fragile HW since the man Johnson snatched the title off. Please.
Edit: Tommy Burns probably wasn’t as fragile.