How about Liston/Tyson???

i think sonny wins with a late round TKO i think he is to strong and to strong willed for tyson he wouldnt have folded for tyson and tyson doesnt like that

 

He folded from a phantom punch from ali though :think,sorry i really fancy tyson here

 

yeah im sure that had to do with mob reasons i would have folded if i was going to get shot in the head if i won

 

This is a fight where one fighter is superior in every athletic aspect (Tyson) while the other has every stylistic and tactical advantage (Liston).

If this is going down tomorrow I pick Liston.

 

I agree with this.

Liston is a bad match-up for Mike, who will make Sonny struggle, but will be stopped himself somewhere around round 10.

 

Tyson - Reach, 72"
Liston - Reach, 84"

 

Oh please. The mob had Sonny as their man in those days, whereas Ali was completely outside of their ability to control or predict. They had Sonny practically under their thumb. What would they get by having him give up the title to Ali, who they weren't going to be able control or dictate terms too.

Sonny took a dive in that fight, no doubt, but as to why only Sonny knew. I highly doubt it had to do with the mob though.

As to Sonny vs Tyson... if we're talking prime vs prime I have to think it's a bit of a tossup. Tyson's got better hand and foot speed, Liston's got a much better reach, jab and pretty solid boxing fundamentals along with his strength. (Power I'll say they're about equal).

The longer it goes though, the more it would favor Sonny.

 

Hate to bring this up, but the Liston people got a piece of Clay's next few fights for promotion purposes if Clay won the first fight.

 

I have to go with Liston by k.o, I also think a prime Forman would do the same to Tyson.

 

Well put. Styles make fights, and in this one I'd choose Sonny to out-Bully Tyson. I really like Sonny's jab in this one too.

 

Not just the jab===Liston had one a dynamite lefthook off that jab. The only guys Tyson fought that could hook off a jab was Douglas and Holyfield. Lennox doesn't.

I see that lefthook closing the show for Liston > landing those jabs. And those aren't jabs guys just walk through & Tyson hesitates when he's hit anyway. Sonny had zero problems solving that D'amato defense w/ Paterson and he'd have Tyson figured out as well. ko4.

 

I see Tyson winning inside of 5 rounds. He has a tremendous, and i really mean tremendous edge in handspeed, footspeed and fluidity of combinations, whereas by comparison, Liston only slowly throws one bomb after another. Yes, also in 1960. It would be interesting to see Tyson fight someone who is almost as short as himself.

 

Sonny was a big banger but Tyson was too defensively sound and could take a much better shot than Patterson.

I seriously doubt that Tyson, at his best, would fall apart simply becuase Liston didn't go down after a hard stare at ring center. Tyson seemed to have no qualms going the distance when he had to...and he'd have to here, I believe.

Liston had Patterson's defense figured out partly because Patterson didn't have much answer for Liston's uppercuts. Tyson could avoid uppercuts much better than Patterson (or Frazier).

Still, if there is a favorite in this one...Liston is it. He sets his punches up well with his jab, commands a murderous array of punches, has better late round stamina and has a solid chin.

Tyson outshines Liston in handspeed, foot and head movement and combinaton punching. Tyson is no slouch when it comes to chin either.

Both fighters have exhibited a weird mental frailty in previous fights but I doubt that would be much of a factor in this one.

Tyson would look to crowd Liston to the ropes where he could unleash his blistering two-fisted combinations. Liston would stick out the jab to disrupt Tyson's timing in order to land his left hook.

To my mind, this fight would go the distance:

10 rounds---Liston by either controversial SD or less controversial MD based on Tyson's aggression giving him some of the early rounds.

12 rounds---I think those last two rounds would give Tyson a better chance to surge back possibly even retake his lead. Tougher to call...Tyson by MD or Liston by UD.

P.S.---If anyone scores a KO in this fight, it would most likely be Tyson, in my opinion and it would be between rounds 3 and 6. Any chance of a KO beyond that would go to Liston.