[GIF] This rediculous knockdown by Sonny Liston

Yes that brilliant little stutter step to make sure of the coup de grace. Note also the lightning fast movement coming forward when the first right hand knocks Bethea flying back. Instead of going gung ho he leads.........with a jab! Going hard but still with patience and calm. He gets inside Bethea's attempt to punch his way out of trouble with a big left and the end is nigh. He was certainly a finisher and the only guy to ever stop Bethea........and in less than 70 seconds.

 

Second to none at finishing opponents. I'm always impressed when I see Liston going for the finish. Most guys go balls to the wall looking for a KO. Liston remains calm, composed, and picks his shots wisely.

 

That was the heavyweight version of Roy Jones teeing off on Vinny Pazienza in the 6th round...

 

Cold, indifferent execution.

An interesting character is Liston, for sure. I have not really dived very deep into his life, times and career - but I do enjoy reading the bits and pieces I pick up about him on this Forum.

 

Bowe would have done similar to Bethea

 

Bowe could put his punches together quite well.

 

While the punishment he dishes out here is savage, the first thing that stands out to me is he looks very counterable.

Look where his right and his left go after he throws them, at least when he opens up to barrage his opponent. He throws a right and brings it back below his chin. He throws a hook and brings it back low.

Now maybe he had a sense of security that he has his man hurt and that Bethea isn’t in any shape/position to return fire, but if he did that with a Joe Frazier, say, then Joe is going to counter that right (even if it lands flush) with his left hook; likewise, a Larry Holmes or Holyfield or Lennox Lewis is going to drop a right hand over that hook in return.

I’m not saying any Tom, Dick or Harry beats Sonny, but I do see major openings. Whether they would win in a firefight or not would have to be seen, but I don’t see the perfect technician some seem to think Liston is here. I think any decent trainer scouting this would drill the opponent to fire back from the same side (right over left, left over right) whenever Sonny opened up.

 

It would certainly be pretty scary going in against him to say the least.

 

There’s a certain irony that in his prime Sonny was seen as some prime evil monster with a huge punch as though he was simply a slugger.
In fact what you see is a beautiful boxer with a great jab and every punch in the book.

 

Totally agree Swag.Liston really was a superb finisher.That's what Earnie Shavers should have
done when he virtually had Mr Holmes out on his feet.
Raw power is great but it really works well when combined with the composure of Sonny.

 

Excellent observation.

 

Well......perhaps not in the first round but of course an in-form Bowe was a killer.So it's not a
bad comparison.
However could Bowe,as good a puncher that he was,remove 7 of Bethea's teeth with 1 punch ?
Liston's punching power was nuclear.

 

If Bowe went out with a mind to destroy, I don't think him stopping Bethea in a round would be unreasonable

 

Agreed.

 

Tbh, I don’t see that Pat - I did rewatch it, the beauty of of it being such a short fight.

Initially I think Liston keeps it very tight - firing his shots, returning his hands to a reasonably held defensive position but also, notably backing away after landing.

His reach and that long left make counters to his jab very difficult - and he works that jab to set up his other punches.

His right hand comes back pretty well as far as I can see. Sonny can also be seen to be using head movement to avoid return fire.

On the few occasions Bethea launches his own salvos, Sonny covers up very well imo.

If there are any gaps, as you said, I think Liston’s defence only becomes less accented when it more or less isn’t required - with Bethea clearly hurt, unable to return anything of consequence.

If Frazier wasn’t so impaired and still throwing serious heat back, I think Liston would “read” that and not put the pedal quite so hard to the metal as he clearly did against Bethea.

Even given the short duration, I can see patience in Liston’s method but once he saw openings and hurt his man, he knew how and when to take full advantage without any high risk necessarily involved.