sonny liston 64 vs peak gerry cooney 80

:think past prime liston 64 vs cooney circa 80-82, still i pick liston by ko in 4 rounds.

 

Cooney was actually rather weak physically for a heavyweight boxer of his size and punching power. Sonny would have him on the back foot from the outset. Gerry's hook would be more likely to wake Liston up as it did Foreman. Sonny didn't have the temperament or style to carry Cooney like I believe Holmes did after Larry dropped him in the second round. And Gerry never had the survival skills to weather the storm when hurt. I don't see him getting to the bell ending round three, and maybe not even the second.

 

M8,
I am quite the opposite.
He does have 1 knack for stopping old SHOT chinny greats , but look at the clay fight , u will c tht movement and speed bothered clay , not hvy punches .
at tht stage, Sonny cud still take good punches , but like tommy gun said , cooney did not have 1 lateral movement like clay and machen did , to negate listons power , and jab .
I think , cooney will struggle to take Listons stiff jab , consistently thru out the bout .
if cooney is to win , he does it early .
seriously , liston was still 1 good champ in 1 year 64' , but not good enough to beat 1 ATG like Clay .

 

ron lyle was a shot absolutely against cooney, prime lyle would ko cooney. plain and simple. prime young would beat cooney as well.

 

Yes, very well stated, and we should add that Leotis Martin also utilized movement and evasion to extend a front running Liston until Sonny tired late in the penultimate round eight.

And he'd better, because he never stopped anybody beyond round eight (Maldonado), round six after 1978 (Leroy Boone), or anyone past round four after 1980. At all times in his career, Sonny's stamina would have been superior. Gerry openly admitted that he was concerned about his own endurance after Holmes repelled him, a very bad concern to try competing with.

Of course Gerry was very far from an ATG. If he can't somehow halt Liston quickly, his only shot is to draw blood, like he did to Young and Denis. Cooney's body shots seemed to make no impression on Young, so I don't think they'd bother Sonny either.

 

look , m8 , lyle had been thru many wars , any guy can get in shape w/ enough gym work , simple like tht. and ron was always 1 excellent athlete .
Wat happened was , lyle did injure 1 rib in training , and got ko'd Lyn Ball in a couple rounds , went to hell with ledoux ,and struggled 2 defeat Al Neumann .
he was finished by then .
Liston still had years left , as a fighter . Lyle never did get a solid punch on Cooney , if he did it really would have been reversed

 

Yes , cooney never did have the strategy to protect his chin, or the defense really . his style wasn't made for that kind of fight .

 

I can understand protecting Gerry for his 20 million dollar payday with Holmes, but it's always baffled me why Rappaport and Jones didn't at least try to arrange a ten or 12 round rematch with Eddie Lopez, somebody Gerry already knew he could beat over the eight round limit. A return with a resurgent Young, focusing more on attacking Jimmy's body, could have also been highly beneficial.

 

i dont really understand myself , they were hyping him up so much , in the prefight shows tht HBO would put on , and the "next white hope" , tag.
wat people didn't realize is, lyle and norton were shot . They thought Cooney was just SO good , to be blowing them away in 2 rounds total.