Lewis early as liston had non of the right tools except the punchers chance to beat Lewis, Lewis was better on the inside, outside even upside down, Lewis had the jab and knew how to use it better than anyone
Lennox Lewis, with the punchers he beat, the boxers he beat, with an overall avarage weight of over 225lb, is light years away from Sonny Liston and his 190CW-opponents. Focused Lewis beat a good amount of good punchers, Liston beat nothing in the league of Lewis. Liston did not even beat fellows in the league of Lewis opponents. Absolute absurd to pick Liston on guess. He got that punchers chance of course and was a good boxer.
Have to give it to Lewis on his best day...think he would be just elusive enough to keep Liston away. I think if they fought five times Lewis takes 3 of them.
Lennox took all of Vitali's right hands without going down,his chin is underated.He fought a long collection of punchers. The two shots that stopped him would stop most.
I still have to favor a prime Sonny Liston, 1960 over a prime Lennox Lewis, 2003. Although Lewis has size over the Bear, he lacks the mean intimidating factor that Sonny has, as Sonny used to beat up his fellow inmates in the prison yard and collect monetary income for the mobsters, by breaking delinquent customers thumbs. Liston even assaulted a policemen, placing him upside down in a trash dumpster. Lennox, a good champion does not have a rep, compared to Sonny's. He was knocked out in his prime champion years by Hassim Rahman and Oliver McCall, nowhere near Liston's caliber. Sonny has defeated the likes of Zora Folley, Roy Harris,Eddie Machen, Floyd Patterson, and Cleveland Big Cat Williams. What is going to happen if Lennox tastes the Liston left hook with those 14 inch fist? Lewis corner is too inconsistent, Liston's corner is comprised of Milt Bailey and Willie Reddish, that have been with him for a long time. Sonny uses his pole like left jab to break through Lennox defense to crash home his lethal left hook to Lewis jaw and down goes Lewis, for the full 10 ten second count in round 6. His prime chin cannot take it, Sonny fought with a broken jaw in 1954 against Marty Marshall and lost on points. Sonny fought through a broken nose against Cleveland Big Cat Williams in 1959, but kayoed Williams. Lewis is good, but his heart is in question.
Hmmmmmm. Sonny Liston would give him issues and would be a tough fight but i really cant see past a Lewis KO in the mid to late rounds
Ray Mercer was the opponent most similar to Liston that I can think of who Lewis fought and it was a hell of a tough fight. Of course we have no idea how Liston would react to an opponent the size and strength of Lewis, closest would be Cleveland Williams but even he was was smaller than Lennox. If Liston's chin can hold up he can win this if not then Lewis by TKO8.
The prime version of Sonny Liston who knocked out Jack Johnson would probably take him out early- The one hundred and fifty year old mummy however who fought Williams most likely gets KO’d early based on the fact he just never beat anyone to suggest he would be competitive. Sonnys best win were relatively small HWs who just weren’t that much of a H2H force at all in Machen and Patterson maybe Zora ... I personally don’t rate Cleveland very highly and I don’t any of them within the confines of probably the top five Lennox wins maybe lower they simply aren’t that good H2H.
Liston fought Jack Johnson? Jack Johnson was dead like a decade before Liston even turned professional Lewis would have to literally keep away the entire fight in order to beat Liston ... Which I believe he can do ... Liston seemed kind of slow
Yeah, him an Jack Johnson were stable mates he used to go under an alias Sean Langfort or something like tat
Lewis beats him. Bigger, better boxing skill, probably hits just as hard, fought in a way tougher era and has a much better resume.
