Does Sonny Liston divide opinion more than any other heavyweight?

It's all good, agree to disagree.

Im pretty set in my opinion that the mafia simply wouldn't leave money on the table, and by taking a hands off approach to Liston for most of his career, that's exactly what they'd have been doing. Also, If they rig title fights, and they rigged (at least 1) title fight with Liston, why wouldn't they have done it before?

It takes much more mental gymnastics for me to say, "well, Sonny was tied in deep to the mafia, but only THIS much. All his wins are on the level"

 

Wow! Quite a blowout there! Since I became more in frequent visitor here it is surprising when I see certain posters snap. I like Resnick, it can’t be denied that he has Provided some excellent content. He is a passionate fan, while a positive sometimes gets in the way of a “scholarly” discussion. On the other hand he was not ever guilty of diminishing older fighters excessively. Seems that he went through a bit of a personality shift going from zealous to zealot.

 

Also, I should add while I don’t claim to know the details McGrain has been a voice of reason and I don’t condone limiting feedback to positivity as an alternative.