Foreman vs Liston

Foreman is taylor made for Liston (providing Sonny sticks to his boxing), the jab will cause Foreman no end of trouble. Foreman's inferior defence will be his downfall, Ali managed to hurt Foreman on various occasions. Liston is perhaps the hardest, best all round puncher in the divisions history, certainly one of them.

 

Liston by stoppage all the way.

 

It'd be vicious, I think.

The fight to me hinges on who can impose himself physically on the other. If Liston gives ground to George too easily, I think Foreman builds up momentum and ends up stopping Liston.

If Sonny plants his tent in centre ring and doesn't get pushed back too much, I'd favour his superior technique to earn him a points decision.

 

Foreman has a 'live' shout for sure (you can't not be with the power he has), but Sonny has a great chin, better technique and of course THAT jab. So long as he doesn't slug it out on the front foot the fight is his all the way, he will be choosing when to let his punches go. I think Liston's superior economy and more accurate shots will wear Foreman down, he will tire late on and Liston will up the ante and stop him.

 

i rate liston as high as anyone, but there's only one i would pick as a certainty to beat him at his best without 2nd thought and that's ali. even kid dynamite i only give 50-50, holmes also. liston would tame george for the first three rounds but george would have a better 4th. he then smashes liston to bits. i have to say i think foreman is in danger of being underrated in a h2h sense, he had the power to crack even iron jaws. liston foy money the third baddest hw, behind george. no 1? prime tyson

 

Very surprised at this poll.

 

How does he 'smash Liston to bits'? This thread has a danger of turning into general forum type debate.

 

look i can as easily envision a scenario wher liston outboxes foreman and stops him (i feel that george was better equipped to take punishment when he came back middle aged) but my opinion is that foreman gets to liston by using own jab and strong armed pushes to force liston back long enough to wing in his big hooks. logic would suggest that when big george lands with some heavy leather he's going to do some serious damage. hence 'smash him to bits'. i probably would've used the same turn of phrase if i'd been descring liston stopping george, no need to lump me in with the trolls :good

 

Sometimes I think that people envisage Foreman as being clearly physically bigger and stronger than Sonny. That's incorrect. He's taller, but that's about it, Liston has the bigger reach and the tale of the tape elsewhere is fairly even.