Sonny Liston vs Rocky Marciano - Who wins?

you asked a question, who else knocked him down I answered.

As far as Big Cats power I say it was not proven in professional boxing matches as I had previously posted

 

I think Vlad is one of the hardest one punch guys of all-time, his right hand, his left hook and jab are among the hardest single punches in the division IMO

 

I might be stick my neck out here and chopping it off here but Tyson didn't really use any superlative speed to knock Williams down it was a fairly standard slip of the jab and counter with the left hook? And funnily enough most recent Liston fight I watched was against Besmanoff and sure Besmanoff ate some jabs but he wasn't exactly unable to get past Listons jab - he gave a pretty good account of himself really and gave Liston a pretty tough fight really? Funnily enough I haven't seen him on any of those knockout sound bite clips you see of Liston all the time blasting people out :huh

 

I would actually have assumed that williams hit harder, despite not rating him particularly highly.

I think that Williams was in the same general category as Foreman, Lyle, ****ey, Bruno, while Marciano was slightly lower than these guys, but closer than you might expect.

 

One of the best chins who knew all about eating shots from big punches, George Chuvalo, listed Mike DeJohn just behind George Foreman in his top five hardest punchers he faced and DeJohn weighed in the 190's at his best and was 6'2 1/2" go figure? Don't worry Vingo could hit a ton!?

 

Size and power are not always a perfect correlation. To look at another sport (one with factual numbers and not merely opinions) Daley Thompson and Bryan Clay were both decathletes. Clay is 5'11" 185 lbs, pretty much an exact match for Marciano, and Thompson is 6' 203 lbs, in line with a young Sonny Liston more or less. Yet Clay outthrew him in all three throwing events even the shot put which is about weight and explosiveness (and Thompson was faster than Clay and equal as a jumper). And i chose Thompson because he is also a world class decathlete. I could have chosen several bigger but less accomplished athletes to make the point.

For a sport more Americans will be familiar with. Look at baseball. Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain are teammates. Lincecum is 5'9" and 170 lbs (I've seen him listed at 5'11" and 5'10" but that was the first number we saw). Cain is 6'3" and 230 lbs. For most of their carrers Lincecum has thrown much harder than Cain despite an enormous size disadvantage. So size is not the be all end all of power.

Liston wins though.

 

Very solid post .. in addition the Big Cat was much faster than Rocky and had a mammoth reach, making him a dangerous puncher .. I put Williams right in there with Lyle as very dangerous punchers ..

 

I stipulated prior to Satterfield.


"Williams was knocked down twice by Sylvester Jones, prior to his fight with Satterfield who else dropped him"



Interview with Archie Moore.

Archie Moore, the former light heavyweight champion, was talking about heavy punchers recently. Moore, who fought 215 bouts in a career dating from 1936 to 1965, rated the hardest hitters he faced: Curtis (Hatchet Man) Sheppard; Lloyd Marshall; Yvon Durelle, and Rocky Marciano. In that order.
''Sheppard's was the best single punch I ever got hit with,'' Moore said. ''A right to the jaw. I fell on my face and just did beat the count. I don't know why, but the front of my thighs hurt for a week after that bout. Felt like I got hit with a baseball bat.'' Moore won both his bouts with Sheppard, in 1946 and 1947, by decision.
Moore called Marciano ''a very well-conditioned athlete.''
''His punches wore you down,'' said the former champion.
d

This content is protected

When I sais Marcinaowas nota great on epunch kayo artist on this forum I was dismissed as " a hater".

Given this testimony, what does that make Archie Moore?:think

 

Absolutely.

Earnie Shavers might have hit harder than either of them, and failed to make it out of the third round against both1

 

Oh I forgot good ole Henry. Thank you.

 

I did not go by what Simmons said but by the results of the results in the ring. Marciano KO'd Simmons and Big Cat could not but for me this is only a small indication that Marciano was the harder puncher

As far as sparring stories I seen guy KO guys in sparring and freeze up in the ring.

As far as writers saying Williams makes the top 50, they certainly can not be basing it off of Big Cats ring results because his pro record is really not that impressive and to be honest with you some of these so called experts have less knowledge then opinions and I doubt any of them actually got in the ring with Big Cat.

As far as stories of in the ring and sparring stories many have said Marciano had brutal power, some say he was strongly conditioned, I say he was both. I heard the sparring stories about Big Cat and he was an impressive physical specimen but his pro record does not indicate anything overly impressive and like you said Sonny brushed off his punches but as we know Sonny felt Ali's power

Many people on this board have strong opinions and I am one of them, its funny when you disagree with them they call you biased but they stick to their guns with their own opinions.

I have been around the game for years closely and one of the thing I have learned is that things are not always as they seem.

We all only have opinions especially when it comes to different era's its only opinion and speculation and the ingredient mix of 2 men in the squared circle that makes for results.

I think I have an open mind for someone with a strong opinion and I like everyone that post on here has their favorites but Big Cat is not one of mine and Big Cat is a big part of the Liston legend.