watched a sonny liston documentary and it showed a few seconds of liston and foreman sparring, which i hadnt seen before, only photographs of it not that i am one of the ones on here who reads too much into who won sparring sessions....but out of curiosity is there longer video footage available of them sparring ?
I gather Sometimes the tale gets mis-credited to Prospect Foreman, but i understand it was actually Prospect Big Mac Foster who Ko'd Liston in sparring, the younger Liston used to spar with with Amos "Big Train' Lincoln, i think it was cornerman Milt Bailey who described a sparring session where Liston landed a big upper-cut on Amos, which knocked his Headguard flying...and for a split second or two the watchers thought that he had actually knocked Amos's Head off ! A young upcoming Cassius Clay once led Ingemar Johannsen a merry dance in sparring, but was also given something of a lesson himself in Left Jabbing when sparring with Ernie Terrell I am sure there is many a fascinating stories and recollections to be told when these young Pups met the Top Dogs.
i heard today on a podcast that clay in 61 used to run circles around willie pastrano in sparring......but again, sparring stories dont hold much weight with me
I'm sure there is. I bet if someone managed to contact the director or editor of that documentary then it wouldn't be too hard to find the rest. There has to be more to that brief few seconds shown in the doc.
according to foreman , he said liston was the only guy who ever made him step back and become pressured.
An older Liston was floored by Ray Patterson in Sweden.Here is the link. As you say, its sparring not fighting. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=T7oDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50&dq=&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
I have a ring magazine in the attic that's quotes archie moore saying sonny liston gave a foster a beating in their sparring session.
Thanks for that McVey,seriously.But I find that really hard to believe,even later in Listons career.The last man to beat him,Leotis Martin,wouldn't have stood a chance at his peak,but in his later days Liston beat Chuck Wepner,who I think would have beat Patterson.I remember Patterson in GB.Won some,lost some ,against some good lads.None anywhere near Sonnys class.Maybe he slipped?
