More powerful and durable: Sonny Liston or Mike Tyson?

Power and chin is close enough not to get overly antsy. Both had good stamina. Tyson still had plenty left at the end of some 12 rounders after blazing early and Liston showed solid stamina on multiple occasions. I'd go Liston for strength because Tyson didn't really base any of his game on it nor utilise it much.

Be a great matchup at their best. If Tyson can't get Liston in the first two i think Sonny would win. Liston would need to get his respect early and the way he fought he likely would.

 

Eh, it's most likely a replay of Tyson-Thomas with both guys having success but Tyson prevailing in the end!!!

 

Yeah......nah!!!!!!

Thomas, who was declining had a long HARD jab somewhat akin to Liston's. As a matter of fact Dundee used to mention just that. Liston had a helluva lot more arsenal behind the jab than an aging Thomas. He'd put some serious hurt on Tyson. If push come to shove i'd favor him!!!

Merry Christmas!!

 

Trick question, Tyson is Sonny Liston and Jack Dempsey

 

They were both lacking in the "Heart" department.....if you don't have heart...then the other stuff doesn't really matter...does it?

 

Me too, Tyson melts in front of Sonny Liston

 

Mike Tyson fought and beat better fighters than Liston ever beat. Liston is known for beating 180/190 pound Floyd Patterson. Who isn't a heavyweight by modern standards. and Liston beat Cleveland Williams. Tyson beating guys like Tony Tucker, Frank Bruno, Razor Ruddock ,Pinklon Thomas was more impressive than Liston beating a small Patterson. Each of the guys Tyson knocked out were legit heavyweights. So Tyson was more powerful because he fought the bigger guys. Tyson also got hit by bigger guys consistently compared to Liston which is why Tyson was more durable.

 

How the hell are you already banned? You made this account three days ago and posted this a minute ago!

 

We have had a plethora of new folks show up recently whose only contribution has been old timers suck and newcomers rule. Makes me wonder how many actual people are involved LOL.

 

Could be a class (ic) action involved?

A call to all Classic regulars, lock down the perimeter and defend it with your lives!!

You’ll know the **** has gotten real if and when MoneyTheMan returns.

 

I’ll always wax lyrical about the Tyson right hand the scored the first KD against Holmes. What a punch?

Had that landed right on the chin, I truly believe it would’ve been good night Larry, right then and there.

We know Earnie could hit a ton but also study carefully the massive overhand right he landed on Larry - we know it had the power - but that punch also caught Larry coming in for compound interest and it was right on the button - and this was even better proven by the less often seen rear view, (behind Earnie) slow motion replay.

Earnie could not have landed a better shot in his whole career imo - and also less often highlighted is the fact that Larry wasn’t completely unfogged since being buzzed earlier in the same round.

The right hand Earnie landed on Ali in round 2 was the same in terms of accuracy - right on the chin.

I’ve sometimes wondered if Earnie’s reach of 79”-80” sometimes caught opponents out, their not realising that Shavers could still catch them at distance - at 6’ even as Earnie was, 79”-80” is a reasonably exceptional wingspan.

Per the eye test, when you carefully look at Earnie you can see he had some extra vital inches in reach relative to his height.

 

An interesting point. Earnie did have some decent ape index going on and no-one seems to ever take it into account. I think your line of thinking makes a lot of sense.

I always loved this blow too, Tillis did well to get up from it. What a punch. Replays are at the end of the round....wish it was high def! So much weight transfer and rotation even if Tillis was inching away.

This content is protected

 

Power carried late in the fight also - def. raw power since the execution wasn’t so great - and sure, the KD came in round 9 of only a 10 rounder, but for Earnie, the way he felt, it might as well have been the 15th + round, his exhaustion, a torture in itself, was palpable in several fights - he was so near gone vs Roy Williams - both hurt and heavily fatigued but still somehow whipped out the fight ending punches in one of the more dramatic and exciting KOs ever seen.

 

Again and again, I don't dare to answer, as, in most of these threads, we can't really tell about Liston, as he never faced huge men like Tyson did. 98% of the fighters Sonny fought were cruiserweights/very small heavyweights. Apart from somewhat large Chuck Wepner, (who would be a middlesize heavyweight today) which superheavyweight did Sonny confront?

 

For pure one shot impermeability, Tyson has one of the best chins of all HW champs. Nobody ever stopped a fresh Mike with one shot - it's his mentality when hit (and in prime and early post-prison years, he still feels trying to land his own monstrous shots) or dropped to the floor comparative to the other greats such as Holmes or Ali or even Louis. We know they can get back up and win/be competitive - with Tyson and Liston, we have enough samples to lower their ranking in this specific area.

Tyson hit much faster and threw power punches with accuracy and maximised effect at a higher consistent level than Sonny: that said, I do believe that Sonny's short left hook is one of the most frightening punches ever thrown. Sonny's handspeed and combination punching are often overlooked - he is proficient at all ranges when it comes to throwing punches. He has more snap than Foreman but in the same vein is a clubbing puncher for the most part - Tyson is lightning, Sonny is the thunder.