Sonny Liston v Scrap Iron Johnson: Johnson sucks up crazy punishment

how

 

Well look at my favourite all time fighter Muhammad Ali.He was limited in his knockout power and punchingwise he was virtually non existant on the inside he merely grappled and held in there.However his other great attributes like tremendous speed of hand and foot,reflexes,and tremendous heart made up for his other deficincies.Look at his arch rival Joe Frazier where do you want me to start on his limitations? However he was still classed as a great heavyweight.

 

All greats had some limitations. Liston's seem fairly obvious to me. However, his opposition during his era allowed him to get away with these. Don't get me wrong, he was a great, great HW, in my top 12 to 15 alltime. However, he was rather ponderous and slow. I am sure he seemed a monster at the time, outweighing almost all of his opposition and certainly having great advantages of reach and power. Fast forward thirty or so years and I think these advantages would have been greatly diminished and his shortcomings more pronounced.

 

He would have advantages in reach but not great ones. Power? I am not so sure the heavy hitters of the 90's were not his match or better. Because of Liston's relative advantages in his time, he was able to be rather cavalier with his approach at times, simply overpowering lesser foes. However, the guys he was putting away during his prime wouldn't have sniffed the top 10 a few decades later.

 

For his height perhaps, but a 6'0 man does not have "great" reach for a heavyweight, wide shoulders (which is what reach among others is) or not.

 

None of these fighters impressed me as more than b-level. However, Frans Botha did hold a title, didn't he?

 

Williams is a 6'2 welterweight. He's a welterweight who has two inches on Liston. That's what's freakish on him (Hearns-dito), not any wingspan measurement.

 

I have watched a lot of Liston fights and I never noticed he was slow and ponderous. What I remember seeing was a powerful man who knew all the punches in the book and threw them with perfect form and leverage. He had awesome punching power. And he had consiserable defensive skills. He was in the ring with some real bangers and effectively slipped their punches. True, Ali made him look slow, but Ali made everybody look slow back then.

Liston would be a top contender in any period. He's a top 10 all-time heavyweight for sure.

 

Frazier struggled with Johnson because of styles, and the fact that Johnson can take truckloads of punishment.

 

not half the stuff as what Bigfoot Martin was...

 

Good post:good