How would you fight Sonny Liston

Gene Tunney him. Set a fast pace with the jab and quick footwork. Dissuade him over 4 or 5 rounds and then start dropping right hands. Sonny was not too quick of foot over the long haul and his KO's were not usually the one-punch sort, so a fighter with quick feet and a good jab could get out of trouble before it got too hot.

Still... He's Sonny ****ing Liston. Odds are long that many could beat him.

 

The problem with that strategy is that it's hard to set the pace against a guy like Liston who has an 84 inch reach of his own and is a master at timing his jab.

Eddie Machen showed some *****s in the armor, especially early on.

 

Granted. But Gene Tunney was so much faster and such a master of timing, and Mary Marshall had but a 73 inch reach but mastered the great Liston... it isnt in the measurables;

 

close my eyes and try for the "anchor punch" and after that didnt work: **** myself and go into the fetal position

 

Being in the middleweight range, I know I stand zero chance against Liston. He kill me with the first punch.

 

I could beat him. Hes no where near his prime.

 

Movement.Angles,Lateral switching.

 

But Eddie fought to survive and not to get KO'd tho his plan was along the lines of what you have to do.
Lots of lateral movement, to the left of course to avoid the left hook, and get inside of his attack on a regular basis (not an easy task if you're not strong) Floyd could have fought him better but, as the old black janitor I worked with years ago told me, "Floyd fought stupid, he fought the 'people's fight' and not his own." Even then the size and strength of Sonny would have probably been too much for Floyd on any day.
IMHO you would need to have a heavy with the skills of an Eddie Gregory, a boxer/puncher who could weather a glancing bomb or two from the Bear, land your own very stiff counters, work inside(often) and outside(laterally) with confidence. (this would not be easy)
I still am convinced that we never saw a prime Sonny like he should have been.
Granted, a big if (and you can say 'big if' for a lot of fighters) but if Sonny had been grabbed and brought along early and properly, a 55 Marciano would have been ripped to shreds by Liston.
My $0.02

 

I couldn't beat him, stylistically. A guy with arms as long as mine, that much power and know how, and that good a jab? I'd have to either be a terrific technician or quite spry and mobile with some zip in my fists, and even at my very best I wasn't that.

Bad, bad fight for me. I guess I'd just try to get my own jab working, keep my right hand high to help protect me from some of his lefts, and attempt to start a firefight and see which one of our chins held up better. I see no real other way to win given my peak equipment and skillset. A decisive points win isn't in my cards, I'd need a knockout, and probably early.

 

Liston-Machen offers some critical clues. Sonny was at his peak, and Eddie was impaired with an injured right hand. Yet Machen, the same size with a slightly shorter reach than Tunney, absolutely convinced me that Gene could have pulled off a decision win. Ditto Jack Johnson, Corbett and Loughran. Liston wasn't great at cutting off the ring, preferring to pound away with his long jab when at range. Superior speed and mobility, with a faster jab, could get the job done over the limit, especially the championship distance, with a mid rounds specialist like Sonny. (He wasn't really a first round knockout artist, despite the quick high profile eliminations of Patterson 2X, Bethea, Harris and Westphal.)

Ingo-Liston would have been interesting. Johansson liked to retreat, drawing his man in before lowering the boom. At his best, he also produced a pair of 13th round knockouts. Patterson knocked out an under prepared Ingo 2X, but he may have had the fastest hands of any heavyweight champion, Sonny among the slowest of any of them. (This is not to say he was "slow" in comparison to most heavyweights, but he certainly was relative to the speed most of his fellow division kings had. I think Marciano showed better hand speed in dissecting Layne, Max Baer better foot speed and mobility in dethroning Carnera.) We know how Liston responded when tagged by Cleveland Williams, but the sneaky Johansson's right frequently came as a surprise. The second two times, Floyd knew what to expect, and was ready for it. (That he failed to improve in his second match with Liston is one of the baffling things in heavyweight history for me, after having done it with the Swede.)

Patterson did have fleeting success getting under Liston's firepower. That suggests to me that Dempsey, Marciano and Frazier also could have gotten under it as well. But Jack's greater mobility and versatility give him an edge over the latter two.

Watch the rounds of Carnera-Baer where Primo keeps his feet. Max just skips back away from him. This is why I like him over Foreman and Liston. I think the Larruper would simply retreat until George and Sonny were in deep water, then lower the boom, conceding a decision in favor of an all or nothing gamble for a deep knockout. He was relaxed enough when confident, and had the chin, stamina and late round power necessary to make good on that wager, and could gain their respect for his concussive force from the outset. (They might intimidate him like Louis did, but that was also Joe's peak athletic performance, when he was at his fastest and most mobile.)

 

My admiration for Machen grows everytime I think of their fight. Eddie had balls and and a sort of negative skill to be able to go the distance with the Bear like he did...and he redeemed himself quite well of that horrible nuclear bombing he suffered at the hands of Ingo two years before. And to think that he taunted Liston throughout as well.

 

The Machen fight is one of the reasons that I am convinced that my man Jimmy Young would have beaten Liston.

 

Jimmy would have driven Sonny nuts, if Liston tried relying on his jab, or attempted a knockout. I'd have definitely advised him to go after Young's body, like Norton did. Still not a prescription for sure success, but Sonny's best chance.

 

Jimmy Young, boy was he a late bloomer... And what a spoiler he was !

 

He would have been like a ghost to liston..like a Marty Marshall on steroids almost.