He could have fought Patterson again and Johannson and perhaps Doug Jones, maybe Harold Johnson or Willie Pastrana.
Johannson wanted no part of Liston. They became friends after Ingo chose to stop fighting and Sonny went on a rampage through Sweden while (I assume) being promoted by him. Zech, Johnson, Bailey, Rush- He fought bouts exclusively in Sweden for the two years following his consecutive losses to Ali.
He kind of brought it on himself with his "subtle" agenda against other fighters. As to Sonny all you can do is beat the man in front of you and Sonny mostly did that until he met Muhammad Ali.
What version would've been his best? As of the late '50s, he was still somewhat raw. He showed visible improvement in his technique between the 1st & 2nd Williams fights.
Both Liston and Foreman might be impugned for the brevity of their title reigns. However, it would be gravely remiss not to factor in their ages and who they lost their titles to - of course both losing to the one and only Muhammad Ali in their second and third title defences respectively. In the much older Liston’s specific case, it’s interesting to ponder as to who (including past and future reigning HW Champs) might NOT have lost to Miami Muhammad - and that’s BEFORE factoring any potential underestimations on their parts - just as Liston himself underestimated Ali - who was KD’d hard by Henry Cooper in his last fight prior to. Besides general favouritism for Liston over Ali, it seemed that since Cooper could turn the KD trick in just Ali’s previous fight, Sonny could and would do much worse to Ali.
You don't pick and choose...his career was no big deal! He **** himself in the 2 biggest fights of his career...in front of the whole world...You judge a fighter on what he's done...not what you THINK!
Still spewing out the same old crap about the great Sonny Liston.Did Duran **** himself in his second fight against Sugar Ray Leonard ? Did Vitali Klitschko **** himself against Chris Byrd ? Are you calling these men cowards ?
