Fantasy Fight: Joe Louis vs Sonny Liston

Such is the esteem the Ring editors had for Sonny Liston. It was the kayo of Liston that propelled Martin to #68. Had that punch not landed, Martin wouldn't have made the list at all!

 

True, the Liston KO itself would’ve pumped up Leotis’ ranking as a puncher.

His record otherwise appears to reflect a decent level of power.

Relative measures have to be accounted for to an extent.

Meaning, a fighter might look like a world beater against one particular fighter - even a marquee name such as Liston - but never look so good in any other fight.

Buster Douglas might be a good analogy, though Buster did have some very good performances leading into Tokyo, so he was being somewhat underrated at 42-1.

But the biggest point is that, whatever Buster did either side of the Tyson, I think we can still see that, in absolute terms, he fought a GREAT fight against Tyson, his BEST ever fight - without his career performances otherwise detracting from that perception.

I can see with my own eyes that Martin fought a very good and extremely courageous fight against Liston.

I haven’t seen all of Leotis’ fights of course but I suspect that the performance against Liston might’ve been his BEST performance. A scaled down version of Douglas’ upset win over Tyson - which I might call Tokyo Lite.

Leotis wore some heavy punishment and was of course knocked down hard in round 4, but he had guts, got up and continued to remain true to a consistent, hard and hurtful jab throughout the fight which no small key to his ultimate success against an old Liston who was already in disrepair.

The final three punches Leotis landed were unmistakable, power punches - particularly the first right hand that caught Liston coming on to it. A perfect shot.

I notice Martin’s height listed as 6’1/2”. He appeared to be at least a 1/2” taller than Liston. I think we’re actually talking at least 6’1” for Leotis.

 

Yeah, he punches even harder than Foreman, was faster than Ali and was also greater than Ezzard Charles...

 

Yes, he was small man, a natural 170/175lb but not a 199 or 200lbs.
I know that he could bulk up to 210 but it's not him anymore.

 

On the flipside the list came out over three decades after the bout so things had time to marinate. But i do agree.

 

Well that's about your level of intelligence isn't it. The red band can't come soon enough!