Dempsey, Liston, Holyfield, Frazier.

Good post. I think that the `71` Superfight 1 Frazier, would beat all of these guys here... He would be too much for Holy, and too much heart for Liston. And too much everything for Dempsey. Soo... Frazier,Liston, Holy and Dempsey. Holufield has a better resume than Liston, but I think prime liston could beat him.. Great reach with that sharp jab, and I think he`d dictate the fight with it. Dempsey comes up short against all these guys IMO...

 

embrell davidson and liston both met WWII vet marshel in the first year or so of their career. Davidson was a pro of 2 years and Liston over a year but he was no ordinary novice. sonny was a fully backed Chicago Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions winner and the intercity champion as an amateur.

 

Don't make Liston out to be some amateur phenom. He had something like only 11 career Amateur bouts, he was very inexperienced when he turned pro. The fact he beat Ed Sanders, olympic gold medalist, with that little of experience shows you what a natural talent liston was.

 

Simple math proves otherwise.

# of HOFers Liston beat - 1
# of HOFers Dempsey beat - 6

# of top 5 contenders Liston beat - 3 (includes Patterson in rematch)
# of top 5 contenders Dempsey beat - at least 6

And what fight of Liston's proved that?

Yes he did, he turned down or ignored other fighters exactly like you routinely criticize other fighters for doing.

No he didn't. He beat only TWO top 5 rated contenders outside of the champion, which is by far the sparsest record against top fighters out of any of the four listed here.

Which demonstrated that Liston will simply quit or fold every time he faces an ATG HW, and completely contradicts your first argument.

 

Which puts him on par with Turkey Thompson, George Godfrey, and Rex Layne.

 

"Not competing," maybe.

Quitting every time, no.

 

what went wrong against marshall then?

I think leon spinks an inexperienced natural talent beat muhammad ali with about as many pro fights as Liston had when sonny was beat by LH marty marshall.

 

indeed. Their 3rd fight was a clear win but still only on points for sonny. embrell Davidson was 2-0 against marshall and knocked him out both times as did bob baker.

 

I think it is a bit unfair to call Firpo a built up contender. Although he had a padded record, he did score some important wins. I think that Wills has more riding on him than Dempsey since he reclaimed his spot as the #1 contender by beating Firpo.

Also note that Rickard wanted Wills eliminated. He matched him with Firpo because he thought that he was the contender with the best chance of turning the trick.