Just curious if anyone knows or was it documented on what the Joe Louis thought about Sonny Liston? Did Louis ever say he would beat Liston?
Never read anything on Louis in depth evaluating Liston. I think Louis and Liston were friendly...from a "fighter's" respect point of view. I am sure that there is a Louis pre-fight prediction of "Clay vs Liston I fight" somewhere in the newspaper archives...maybe more Louis verbage on Liston there.
Thanks I'll look into that. I know Louis was very blunt on that he would beat Ali but never heard his thoughts on Liston
Louis said Liston could be champion as long as he likes. Something close to that. Post Marciano but Pre Ali, Liston was a beast among average heavies. The lone man who combined, power, size, skills, and durability. IMO Ali's best performance vs. a highly ranked man was his 1st performance vs Liston.
Joe Louis thought very highly of Sonny Liston . Marciano as well . He even admitted Liston would have given him trouble .
I also agree that Ali's best performance was this fight, it showed experience couldn't rule over greatness.
From a legacy standpoint, heavies are at their best when there is top talent and the talent meets each other in the ring. Head to head, I think the 1990's to early 2000's was the best overall. Lots of active hall of fame guys ( some still waiting to be enshrined ) and plenty of legacy type of fights. 1964-1975 was very good Liston, Ali, Fraizer, Norton, Foreman, Lyle, etc... 1897-1910 was good. Corbett, Fitzsimmons, Johnson, Langford, Jeffries, etc... Poor timelines where the talent level was low and would be: The 1930's to the end of WW 2. The 1920's 1956 to 1963 2012 to current Strictly my opinion, but Ring Magazine once rated the heavies by decade, and the 1930's came out the worst.
Didn't Louis once say that Harold Johnson had a chance to beat Liston? Could of sworn I read that on one of the threads here.
Not sure that Louis said that about Harold Johnson, but both Johnson and Pastrano were mentioned in passing as potential Liston "contenders" since both had fought as "small heavies' in "over the LHeavyweight bouts". The result would have been another Patterson grade crushing I would predict.
I'm not convinced Liston couldn't cut the ring off. Plenty got on their skates, not many lasted. Not cornering a young Ali isn't much to worry about.
Louis said that Liston had the strongest left he'd ever seen, but felt that he was clumsy with the right and didn't always time it properly. He also said that Liston put so much power into the jab that instead of setting an opponent up for the right it would knock him back out of its path.
