Sonny Liston 84 inch reach myth

I'm 6'1 with an 80' reach. Liston has longer hands than me (I have a 13' fist, he had a 15' fist) and a bigger chest. They measure reach from finger tip to finger tip across the chest so it's nowhere near impossible for Liston to have an 84' reach.

 

Joe Bugner’s reach is mainly listed as 82” - though I saw one listing that stated 82 1/2”.

This photo provides for some sort of comparison in arm length with Liston.

Remember, if Bugner’s reach is correct at 82” and, for arguments sake, he has the same shoulder width as Liston, Sonny need only an inch extra per arm to hit 84”.

Imo, Liston’s arms do look clearly longer (he’d need an inch extra at least for that to be visually discernible). Liston’s hands, of course, are notably bigger than Bugner’s.

Bugner was a solid 6’4” in height, perhaps even 6’4 1/2” and he does look that much taller than Sonny. Otherwise, Liston himself was a compressed giant.

https://www.mediastorehouse.com.au/memory-lane-prints/mirror/1000to1099-01027/young-joe-bugner-left-heavyweight-champion-21768724.html

 

You are the second guy on here who describes an unsually long "ape factor".
+7" is uncommon!
The average person is Leonardo's Golden Ratio-a zero.

You make a good case that Liston could have had an 84" (wingspan technically).
That would be a highly unusual, really rare, +11.5"-but with his very wide set clavicles + monstrous hands for his size, it is not implauasible.
He probably has over 1" on you attached to each arm...Just from his hands!

 

How the measurement is done isn’t the question up for debate. That’s is how it is done - you’re trying to suggest that Liston didn’t measure 84” under that method.

Bugner’s arms don’t look longer at all. Liston’s arms look longer.

You can move the photo up or down on your phone to mark ref points for each man to compare arm length from shoulder to second knuckle.

Further, if both men straightened their fingers toward the floor, Liston would gain a bit of extra length again due to much longer fingers.

 

I think he does looking at pictures of him throwing the jab, and even footage of him throwing the jab his reach looks unusually long for his height.

The size of Liston's hands aswell have to be taken into account they were the size of dinner plates.

 

According to the Leotis Martin fight, it was 80.5 inches

This content is protected

 

Yah, but with a little extra length on each hand re: just fingers, he could well come at least close to 84"
and though 4" taller, so he could be wider than he looked, I do not think his chest was quite as wide as Liston.
Here he is almost like trying to sell his image to Playgirl lol!
https://www.alamy.com/boxers-smokin-joe-frazier-and-joe-bugner-shake-hands-image69367262.html

 

Now every day the topic of Sonny Liston reach is opened
https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...acts-about-liston.705995/page-6#post-22394809

 

That's how they measured me at the clinic. I didn't ask them to do it. First time I noticed just how long my arms were. The nurses were shocked.

 

Reach should be measured from the shoulder to the fingertip. A guy might have massively wide shoulders but arms like a T Rex and have an 84" "reach".