Sonny Liston vs Ridddick Bowe

Bowe was 6'5" to Liston's 6'1.5". That is not 5 inches. Bowe was also 235 in fight 1 to Liston's 212.5 against The Big Cat, which is generally regarded as his peak. That' is not even CLOSE to 40+ pounds.

 

Looks like you all are all right about the weight. More of a 20lb + weight advantage, prime for prime. Still stand by my initial post though!

 

The post said the Bowe from the first Holyfield fight, and that night Bowe fought a great fight.He was sharp, motivated, his inside game was on point and he boxed and brawled. Now if he would have said the Bowe from the third fight I would say Sonny

 

This content is protected

 

Extremely dangerous fight but if Bowe fights disciplined he will time Listons head with a big right hand as he comes in.. Liston having bad head movement is a flaw Bowe would take full advantage of.

https://thumbs.gfycat.com/CelebratedCandidGalapagospenguin-max-1mb.gif

When Sonny takes fully loaded right hand like that its going to be bed time.

Sonny also liked to brawl in close. That gives the bigger and more skilled infighter another advantage. Liston never fought a big guy who could rip short hooks and uppercuts in close like Bowe did. Sonny would get worked over , badly.
I got Bowe by stoppage half way point.

 

Liston didn't have bad head movement.

Liston prefered to box from outside.

 

Liston kos Bowe in the later rounds

 

Manny Pac KO 2 Cleveland Williams

 

Stopped reading when you said Liston had bad head movement. Even a cursory of his fights against Williams, Machen, etc would show this simply isn't true.

 

There's your problem. . Watch the fights in full. Don't just take a "cursory look". . Liston kept his head still more often than he moved it. . Again , turn off the highlight reels and actually watch the fights.

 

This content is protected

I defy anyone to watch this and tell me Liston has "bad head movement". As you can see here if you actually watch the video (which I suspect might be the first time you actually watch Liston), he made the most accurate puncher and GOAT miss full blown combos, quite a few times despite being passed his prime, in his mid 30s at the earliest, rusty (having fought 6 minutes in 3 years), untrained, and going into the bout with a recorded injury.
Also if I were you I wouldn't bring up an opponent's defense in an argument FOR Bowe. If I was making an argument for Bowe in any H2H matchup, I'd avoid talking about defense like the plague. Golota of all people handed him his ass twice, and couldn't miss if he tried. Also, he was completely shot and slurring his words by 28. You say Liston's head movement is bad, Bowe couldn't even use head movement to shake his head which he would need to do after reminiscing what a failure his career was despite having all the potential in the world.

 

Liston didn't have a problem with either. He could fight on the inside, outside, and mid-range. One of the VERY few heavyweights who could make such a claim.

 

I told you to stop watching highlight reels and a highlight reel is exactly what you come back with.

The fact its only two mins long should tell you something. Everybody moves their heard at some stage , even Bowe.. You could easily take all the times Bowe slipped and ducked a punch and compile them into a video and call it- " Riddick Bowe defensive highlights". It would probably be longer than two minuets as well.

Golota you say?? I say Leotis Martin

Watch him pepper Listion's bonce like its a speed bag. Watch Liston as he can't dodge a jab to save his life.

This content is protected

Watch as he keep his chin in the air almost every time he throws a jab. Trunk rotation is not the same as head movement. His head never comes off the line when he jabs. He rarely dips his knees , he over extends right hands. He is there to be hit and a SHW like Bowe would certainly be able to hit him , cleanly.

This content is protected

Btw , learn how form paragraphs before you respond .. Take a youtube tutorial video if you have to.

 

... Or the creator of the video (@haNZAgod) made it that way for a reason and thought 2.5 minutes was a good cutoff point. Or are you seriously claiming that video displayed all the times Liston utilized head movement in his entire career? And that's not even factoring that a large majority of Liston's fights are unfilmed unless you wanna make the argument that Liston never dodged a blow outside of his filmed fights (in which case I wouldn't put past you).

Leotis Martin? Seriously? You want to use a 40 something old drug addict, 10 years passed his prime to support your agenda? Are you that intellectually dishonest? The fact that you had to use that just shows you have nothing of substance in your argument.

I also don't know why you bought up the Machen fight to support your argument, as you can see their as clear as day Liston using excellent head movement from start to finish to effectively evade Machen's punches, without being off balance or anything of the sort. Compare this to Bowe's head movement against Holyfield (because I'm not as desperate nor as dishonest as yourself, I won't use Bowe when he was a washed up shell when he made his comeback in the 2000s) which is commonly cited as Bowe's peak performance.

This content is protected

Now in your honest opinion (if that's even possible) do you think that Bowe used head movement in the above footage anywhere near as frequently or effectively as Liston showed against Machen?

 

How about we look at stats? Liston when compared to other great champions kept his opponents connect percentage to a paltry 27.3 percent. Compare that to Tyson Lewis and Ali who all fall in the 32-36 percent range. Or Holyfield at 41 percent. I’d say Liston was rather solid in the defense department