Sonny Liston vs. Jim Jeffries

Have you a source for the Wiillis Earls knockdown? He must have been off the mark quickly as he was kod in 2 rds

 

I wrote off my memory of the report on the fight in Boxing Illustrated. The two fought in a bull ring in Mexico, I believe.

I just looked up Willis Earls' profile on Boxrec (click the open book next to biography) and it includes this line:

"He reportedly had Liston on the canvas before being knocked out in two rounds."

So my memory in this case is accurate. If I remember the account of the fight, Earls knocked Liston down in the 2nd round. Liston got up and knocked Earls out when Earls tried to press his advantage.

 

I saw that, except just like you boxrec doesnt have a citation our source to confirm it so until they do, its just a rumor.

 

I find it funny how marshall floors a young immature liston, and martin knocks out cold a very old sonny liston but during his prime years he took flush punches off of big cat williams nino valdez and mike dejohn without even blinking. billy hunter eddie machen zora folley wayne bethea floyd patterson none of these contenders came close to flooring him. on film liston in his prime with his 19" neck seemed impossible to floor. williams hit him with bombs and liston took them without moving.

 

Old Fogey, you think jeffries would have been able to take shots off of big sluggers like nino valdez mike dejohn and big cat williams? how do you see fights between jeffries and these guys going?

how do you see jeffries doing vs modernized very talented boxers like machen, folley, and patterson?



do you see jeffries being capable of knocking out a rated granite chinned fighter out in 58 seconds like liston did to bethea?

 

I dread to think what Jeffs' face would look like after 15 rounds with Sonny.

Jeffries was tough, but Sonny has way better skills IMO and would win comprehensively on points. Jeffries would be eating jabs all night long.

 

1. I don't see Jeff blowing away someone like Bethea that quickly--no. I have doubts that Jeff was a first-tier puncher.
2. I think Jeff might well survive the best shots of Williams, Valdes, or DeJohn. I saw DeJohn a number of times. He hit hard and did blow away Powell in a fight I saw, but against Bob Cleroux he caught Cleroux coming in with a perfect left hook and followed it up with a whole series of rights and lefts. Cleroux kept his feet. Off his record in his own day, I think it quite possible Jeff was at least as tough as Cleroux, so yeah, I think he could survive these big sluggers.
3. Jeff's chances of outboxing Machen, Folley, and Patterson is very problematical in a ten round fight. He would be seeing combination punching such as he did not see in his own day. But what happens in a 20 or 25 round fight. Does Jeff outlast them? Also, at least in Patterson's case, Floyd was no world beater against bigger men. Jeff might just be too much for him with his thirty pound weight pull.

 

Rightly or wrongly Griffin was not thought to be in Choynskis league at the time.

You have made the argument (rightly in my opinion) that Marty Marshals size was less important than his experience relative to Liston when they fought.

I think the same logic applies to Jeffries Choynski and perhaps even Jeffries Fitzsimmons.

If you put an inexperienced heavyweight in against a seasoned veteran like that they are likley to take a beating however big they are.

 

Very interesting assessment. I think this is not an easy fight for either man. Both are big strong fighters with some skills.

 

Prety much how it looked after all his fights I would say.

Like he had been through a car windscreen.

 

Presumably someone who still possessed the Boxing Illustrated that Old Fogey was talking about and took it from there. A pretty reliable source, i'd say. Why would they make that stuff up in a fight report?

 

What's also intruiging is Earls weighed 189 for that fight to Liston's 223 ,and although Liston was 36 going on 46 ,his record was 47 figths up to that time ,whereas Earls was 4-7-1.I would need conclusive proof before I beleive this,no disrespect to any one,but even at his advanced age I find it surprising that Sonny would be dropped by someone with such a poor record.

 

Well, Liston was knocked out cold by 195lbs Martin only a year later. It does seem surprising, but perhaps he was one of those Satterfield-like fighters and caught him with a wild, hard shot when Sonny's reflexes weren't what they used to be.

 

A few questions:

1 ) Is this one on film for us to view?

2 ) If it is not, was it a flash knock down?

 

Jefferies.