Say Liston of 1958 onward vs the following from Holyfield's resume Michael Dokes Alex Stewart Buster Douglas 1991 George Foreman Bert Cooper 1992 Larry Holmes Riddick Bowe and we'll add 1996 Mike Tyson Michael Moorer
Remember my "Liston-Tyson resume swap"? Same problem here: You just can´t rate Liston by what he did, because its razor thin. Title reign? What title reign? 190Cruiser Patterson 2x. Thats it. These boxers you want him to fight are like nothing he met when he was fighting, so its incredibly hard to tell how he would do. But I can tell you one thing: Probably nobody would call him anything near to a KO-artist after he fought that bunch of fighters. He KOs Cooper, old Dokes, Stewart and fat Douglas after some time in the fight. See him doing much better against 92 Holmes than vs Foreman. Bowe, Tyson and Moorer are the toughest.
Destroys Dokes, Stewart, and Douglas UD's Foreman KO's Cooper and fat Holmes Has a war with Bowe that ends in a TKO for Liston
Had to imagine how ridiculous his behaviour would be outside the ring in an era where he didn't have to hide his shenanigans the same way. Liston would be up to madness and would be on the receiving end of another surprise loss.
Dokes: liston comeback Ko round 10 after an early good start, then trails on the scorecards from round 3 onwards. Alex Stewart ko round 5 in a brutal slugfest similar to the cleveland williams fights. Fat douglas gets koed in round 2 1991 foreman: liston wins a SD in a fight thats only exciting for 30 seconds per round because both men are wary of each others power and theres lots of clinching/wrestling, and shoving. They cant get past each others powerful jabs due to a lack of speed or head movement/swarming ability and cant get their shots or combinations off except in spurts. Liston is the busier man with more body shots and uppercuts. Bert Cooper gets koed round 3 1992 Larry Holmes upsets and wins a UD over Liston Riddick Bowe stops Liston late around the 11th in a brutal war, both men covered in bruises, swollen eyes and blood. Bowe turns down a rematch so no trilogy. Liston KO's 1996 Mike in 8 rounds but he has to get off the floor in thr 5th to do it. Liston loses a close decision to michael moorer. After failing to get a rematch with Bowe or Foreman, Liston fights a few cans for the paydays, then opens a gym and a bar. In his spare time, he plays poker and spades, watches Jordans chicago bulls, and drinks his evenings away. He does a 60 minutes interview in his 50's after multiple drunk driving arrests and goes sober to be an example for the kids in his gym. He becomes a fight promoter and publicly slaps the teeth out of Don King after a twitter beef.
I think Holmes would be the toughest fight for Liston. Get Cleaned out in a few rounds Michael Dokes Alex Stewart Buster Douglas Bert Cooper Get Outpointed Riddick Bowe - I see Liston beating Bowe from the outside. 1991 George Foreman - Liston outpoints Foreman from the Outside. 1996 Mike Tyson - His mobility and timing was no good anymore, so Liston would outpoint him and maybe even stop him. Michael Moorer - Would get outpointed by Liston and possibly stopped. Could see him beating Liston Larry Holmes - Larry was very crafty, so I could see him outjabbing Liston and getting the decision.
But do you really think he'd be upset by the 92 version of Holmes and lose a decision to Moorer? The rest of your picks seem more plausible.
I don't know about Moorer. I rewatched his fight with George Foreman last night and saw how he stood directly in front of Foreman and was willing to trade. That wouldn't be good if he were dealing with a prime/close to prime Liston
Anything is possible with holmes, even an old holmes. The way he shut mercer dowb and kept up with a young enough to be his son holyfield was crazy. Liston always struggled with cagry fighters who had good jabs. But its definitely possible liston bombs him out. Getting dropped by shavers and tyson is understandable but who tf is renaldo snipes? Liston has both power and skill to get the job done. Moore is anyones guess, but i slightly favor him due to his southpaw stance and handspeed.
Oh right, KO's Moorer and Tyson, though Tyson cracks him early on. It'd be interesting to see how Tyson would react to someone more intimidating than him
