Jimmy Young vs Sonny Liston

Young would lose a close unanimous decision to Liston, there is no way that Sonny is going to lose to Jimmy with his skillset, but his speed disadvantage puts him in the occasional tight spot.

 

An ALI wannabe is all it took to make ALI 76 look bad. That ALI rarely ever trained and didn't train at all for Young. Like Ken Norton before him, Jimmy Young was "good", not great. Also, like Norton, Young received a lot of his credit due to his fight with a rusty untrained ALI. Young wasn't as good as many thought he was.
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There is no way Young would keep enough distance between himself and Liston. He would also not be able to use his speed or movement and he wouldn't be able to defend against Liston's jab and eventual pile-driving right hands. It's just a matter of time.
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Sonny Liston by KO in 6

 

Jimmy Young in condition would be very hard to look good against. I dont think Sonny would gas as quick as Big George but Sonny would have trouble landing against Young. It may be a close decision and Young could get the short end of it, but I dont see anyone stopping Jimmy and I could see him spoiling Sonny for a SD

 

Liston by uninspiring UD, because Young brought that out in people.

Sonny's too immobile and slow with the jab to really hit home like he's used to against a purely defensive focused Jimmy, but Young's defensive prowess came at the expense of his own offense. I think he could neutralize Sonny's jab because he could take away a fighter's A option, but I just don't see him scoring enough to win under any scenario. Sonny would lilely be content to take the points he could get at range, knkwing Young wouldn't press the jssue. You may have some nonconformists arguing for the spoilerrific "make the other guy look just a little worse" angle, but that's as far as it goes.

It'd be a workmanlike UD for Liston.

 

Like surviving to the distance was something that Eddie Machen could do and the defensively savvier, better chinned Jimmy Young couldn't? Ridiculous!! Young would frustrate Liston all night...better even than Marty Marshall or Machen did. Young could counter effectively vs Ali, Norton and Foreman, and not Liston? Absurd!! Young would get the decision if there were honest officials or get screwed over if there were the usual crooked officials.

 

The only way that the decision goes against Young is if his offensive output was too low....however, remember that the worst type of opponent for Jimmy Young would be a non-stop high volume swarmer/slugger like Frazier or Marciano. Liston's output wouldn't have been enough to discourage Young.

 

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Young is very overrated here ... Jimmy was a spoiler who looked his best against a ponderous Lyle and a mentally weak Foreman .. the Norton fight was close but at least as many people thought Ken won as thought Jimmy if not more ... few discuss how a still young Young lost to Ocassio twice and then Dokes right after the Norton fight ... as far as the Ali fight, Muhammad was ridiculously fat and unprepared for the fight and it was still a very close, horribly boring fight .. I happen to like Jimmy but he was bot beating a prime Liston .. Sonny would pretty much beat him like he did Machen ..

 

I have to agree with this, after a rough start Young got better and better at being thrown in with the lions . Joe Louis said you could run but you cant hide, well Jimmy Young had such a good defense he could hide in the ring. Most feel he beat Shavers in the rematch Draw and a 13 fight Young went on to beat some of the best of the 70's even though he often got the short end of the decision

An in condition prime Young could very well beat Sonny SD UD

 

If you want to make excuses for Ali (FAT) and Foreman(mentally Weak) and yet not mention that ( Young actually had man-tits for the 2 Ocasio fights) and gave up TRAINING after what he felt was an unjust decision against Norton. He did get in some shape for Gerooney but it was too little too late by then.

Young is very underrated on this forum

 

the sonny liston post Ali 2 would have trouble unless sonny laid a bomb or semi-bomb on Jimmy. A brain-dead Foreman laid a semi-bomb on Jimmy and almost had him.
PvP? You're looking at a Liston-Machen Frisco early 60's re-deux.
Jimmy's not going to hurt Sonny and would slip and back peddle just to survive. Wide Sonny UD for these guys in prime or Sonny lands something and makes for a short evening.

 

I think a prime Young could outpoint and frustrate a prime Liston. Liston has that long heavy jab but would he be able to connect enough to set up his other punches? Young was very hard to hit in the head and could take a pounding to the body pretty well. I think he would be a little too quick and shifty for Sonny, who would eventually tire. Young by close decision.

 

Excellent post!:good

 

I do find it hard to buy that a heavy jab is going to be the style that has a lot of success against Young. Yes, it's coming from Liston, but Jimmy just won't be there for it.

A bigger concern with me is Young putting so much into negating Sonny's offense that he can't focus enough on scoring to win himself. It's the classic problem defensive spoilers face.

 

Only the best for you :good