Sonny Liston v. Larry Holmes

Holmes by stoppage. A prime Holmes is far and away better than the Clay who fought the legitimate fight with Liston. If Liston could not have handled the skittish, green Clay, he would be no match for the late-70's Holmes. This one would be as one-sided as they come with Liston quiting or his corner taking mercy upon him and stopping it.

 

I remember reading an article in Ring Magazine long away about how this fight would heve turned out. The article was about how Larry Holmes would have done against the past greats.

If I remember correctly, Muhammad Ali was the only past great clearly picked to beat a prime Larry Holmes. None of the others were favoured to beat a prime Holmes. Of course, it was opined that some of them would have ran Larry close and a victory for him was not at all certain.

Sonny Liston was amongst those thought to have a chance against Holmes, though, as already stated, Holmes was given the edge.

Personally, I think that Liston would have won. Possibly by late kayo.

The writer of the article mentioned that it would be a ferocious fight. I heartily agree.

 

You could say it's fashionable revisionism.

Probably executed by the same folks who wear Che Guevara t-shirts.

 

Actually, i think that's not the way to win for Liston. Liston is going to need the early rounds. Holmes had outstanding good stamina and kept up a high workrate in the later round; Liston never even went 15 and only went 12 rounds, once.

 

On paper this sounds like a good fight, and it sounds particularly well matched when people say things like " Liston would have outreached Holmes, and was the closest thing to a brother in terms of great left jabs", or " Holmes was way to suseptible to the right hand." The reality, however is that Liston simply did not know how to deal with men who could stick and move the way that fighters like Ali or Holmes could. While Holmes was not as a great of a boxer as Ali in his PRIME, he was probably as good or better than a 1964 version of Cassius Clay who was still a work in progress. Granted Liston was not as good in 1964 as he was in say 1960, but the difference was not so vast to where I'd pick him to beat a 1978-1981 Larry Holmes. Larry's chin, style, stamina, heart, size, strength and everything else would spell out bad news for Sonny.

Holmes by TKO between rounds 11-13.

 

So what would your plan be as Listons trainer?

 

In preparation of the fight, have him spar with a speedy, tall light heavyweight... someone like Richard Hall. Work on cornering his opponent because he was very poor at that.


During the fight, i'd instruct him to try to corner Holmes or have him on the ropes, and when he's there, throw whatever he can and try to invite Holmes to a slugfest. Focus a little bit more on the right hand than on the left hook but obviously keep a variety on offense as well as the uppercut. Remind him to use his head movement because he got a little lazy on that later in fights (for instance the Machen or Ali fights).

Try working the jab, although i'd expect him to lose the battle of the jabs because Holmes is faster, taller and has at least as good timing as well as better stamina. Of course, you can't know for sure. I didn't expect Kessler's jab to be so ineffective against Calzaghe before the fight.


But to put it short, i think Liston's best chance is to make Holmes fight (and he did so on quite a few occasions when hurt), instead of to oblige to a pure boxing match.




What about you?