How Good Was Sonny Liston circ 1960?

Given the title shot he merited earlier,when Floyd and Ingo were playing pass the parcel with the title,he may well have racked up an impressive list of defences before Ali hit his stride.

 

You'd pick Gerry Cooney to beat Charles Sonny Liston? I'll let that comment fester out in the open.

Liston by KO in 4 over Frazier, style wise Sonny's a nightmare
Liston by KO in 8 over Lyle
Liston and Foreman, 50/50 lean towards Sonny
Liston by KO in 5 over Tyson, if Tyson doesn't wet his pants first, Oh! and Sonny's a nightmare for Mikey too.
Liston vs Holmes, Larry has a good chance to outpoint Sonny but I wouldn't bet on it.
Liston KO's Lennox Lewis in the 11th round, after trailing. Sonny's a lot meaner than McCall or Rahman
Liston's jab sets up Wlad for a right hand and BAM! No need to elaborate
Liston vs Vitali, Vitali can't control the range due to Liston's superior jab and he's forced to exchange. Vitali' is TKO'ed in the 12th.

How about in your next skit tell us how Andy Ruiz beats Sonny

 

It’s hard to tell because he looks good or outside of the Ali fights but fought the types he should beat and did it with style. He skin on his face cut easy.

 

He was a destroyer. Not as fast as Iron Mike, but a heavier hitter. Not as powerful a puncher as George but a better overall boxer skill-wise.

 

Thats kind of how I see several of those matches. Liston could arguably be favored over or at least have even odds with the vast majority of champions.

60's Ali might be the only guy where it would be reasonable to heavily favor over Liston. Even then, anything could happen since Liston was anywhere from 33-36 when they fought and didn't take him seriously. The in shape motivated liston from 59-60 would be quite the handful.

 

I think that's why Ingo never fought him. He knew better. Ingo was a bit of a 1 trick pony. Didn't even want to rematch Machen despite taking him out fairly quickly and was completely battered by Patterson in the rematches. Liston would've left him on the canvas like road kill.

 

I think 1960 could be argued as Liston’s pinnacle. He was consistently about 212 lbs for each fight that year. He recorded five wins and about 3-4 of them were contenders. THAT version of liston would have been a problem for a lot of greats

 

Lol just because you type Liston would beat this person or that person doesn't mean it would happen.

Liston beat Patterson a guy much smaller than him and who was afraid of him. LIston beat Cleveland Williams are guy tons of loses on his record.

Ron Lyle was bigger than Liston and also wouldn't be afraid of him. Lyle by mid round knockout.
Foreman was a harder punches according to Ali, was physically stronger according to Ali, had better footwork according to Ali and was far more durable. Which is why Liston was knocked out by 190 pound Leotis Martin and Foreman was able to tank punches from 230 pound steroid using Tommy Morrison when he was past his prime.

George Foreman by mid to early round KO or Liston.
Larry Holmes wins every single round against Liston or stops his late.
Joe Frazier breaks down Liston and then stops him.
Wladimir and Vitali both stop Liston by the mid rounds if not earlier
Lennox Lewis stops Liston early.
Lol Tyson wasn't afraid of hard punches like Razor Ruddock but he would of been afraid of a much smaller weaker guy? Tyson knocks Liston stiff with in a few rounds.

But the fact you are the one of those guys who loves to think every heavyweight of the past would beat more modern ones gets you blocked.

 

Lol Liston would have died in the ring if he was hit by Ingos right.

 

Anyway, as to the suggestion of Floyd’s glass chin - ONLY ever put down for the 10 count by Liston - how much more could Sonny prove himself beyond dispatching Floyd in little over 2 mins in each fight
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Floyd was knocked down AT LEAST 20 TIMES in his career.

He was stopped more than once by fighters not named Sonny Liston.

Not exactly an iron man.

 

Angelo Dundee was incredibly biased but he said only Ali could beat him. Obviously other boxers did.

 

When Sonny was on the rise in the heavyweight division determined to prove he was the best there was it's a short list of who I would favor over him. When Liston was hunting best just to leave him alone. I would tell most other great heavyweights to leave Sonny alone. Pick somebody else to tangle with.
Boxing is a hard enough business why put yourself through that whjen you can fight (insert name)? Who does that man?

 

Jesus Christ!