How would a third Liston-Patterson fight have played out ?

Liston too big and has the "psych" on Patterson.

Patterson, might sting Liston, even flash knockdown early.....then Liston gets up and beats the sh!t out of Patterson just for Patterson pulling such a stunt (see Liston vs Williams #2)

 

Normaly, a person who predicts a first round knockout in a fantasy fight is a fool.

Here it might well be justified.

 

Liston ko 1.

can't wait to here choklab's views on the matter.

 

When Floyd Patterson heard the news that Sonny Liston had died, his reaction was "No! No! We were supposed to fight again." So had Liston lived, this fight may well have taken place.

It is easy to believe that Liston would have repeated his first round blitz any time that they fought, but since their second fight in 1963 a number of things changed which could have worked in Patterson's favor. First, the Ali fights shattered the image of Liston's invincibility. While those fights were (and still are) viewed with suspicion, Liston comes out as damaged goods nonetheless. Patterson fought his way back into contention with victories over Machen and Chuvalo. While he lost against Ali, he fought bravely and appealed to the referee to let the fight go on after it was stopped in the 12th. Patterson then won an impressive KO over Henry Cooper. He did not get the decisions against Quarry or Ellis but many felt that he deserved the wins. After his impressive win over Chuvalo in 1965 he said that he wanted to fight Ali and then once again fight Sonny Liston. So, Patterson would have been more focused and confident, having vindicated himself by his performances against top fighters. By defeating Henry Clark, Liston was back in the picture. He was KO'd by Leotis Martin in late 1969 but had been doing very well, scoring an early knockdown, until he gassed at the end, leaving himself open for Martin's KO punch. Of course in 1970 he stopped Chuck Wepner in ten.

As for the Patterson-Liston III fight itself, I believe Floyd would utilize his hand and foot speed to advantage, which he did not do in the first two fights. I believe he would survive the first round and the crowd would go wild, as when Joe Frazier got through the first and second rounds of the second Foreman fight. He would not be carrying the extra mental burden of having a title to defend or regain. He would have some good moments in the early rounds, and the longer he could survive, the more confident he would become. But ultimately, I believe that this diminished Liston is still a bad match for Patterson, and that eventually Liston would prevail, by late round stoppage or UD.

 

A fair prediction,

As some have already said, Floyd would most likely approach Liston differently after previously being stopped twice by him.. Couple that with the fact that Sonny had diminished further than Patterson had by the late 60's, this might not have been the early round blowout that many would predict.

 

Why did he do it in the second fight?

One possible answer might be, that he was beaten mentaly before hand, and he was looking for the honourable way out.

Where Liston chose to quit on his stool, Patterson quit by going straight at Liston.

 

Patterson did not go straight at Liston in their second fight, he was just walked down.

In a later rematch, Patterson would avoid being KO'd early by a very much slowed down Liston, but Liston would get in enough clubbing blows simply out of experience (he timed Patterson's movements perfectly with uppercuts for example) to get Floyd out of there at some point. I doubt it would be any kind of spectacular KO since Liston had largely lost his explosive power by that point. Still had the heavy hands but no speed to deliver a devastating KO punch.

 

Same result. If they fought 100 times liston would knock patterson out 100 times because floyd was just physically overmatched. Perhaps the only way he could beat liston is if liston fought with one arm tied behind his back and then i'm not so sure.

It's sort of like the same senario of foreman vs. frazier. Frazier could never beat foreman, prime or not. It's simply a bad match-up.

 

Sonny Liston KO 1 Floyd Patterson.

 

Sonny Liston KO 1 Floyd Patterson

 

worst thread ever

 

Liston KO 1 Patterson