Sonny Liston vs Rocky Marciano

Been enjoying reading the debates in this thread my personal opinion though is Liston poleaxes the smaller shorter armed Marciano bad style match up IMO.

 

Liston used to HOUND Marciano everywhere he went. "Where you go, I go, champ!" he would say. One night, Marciano was eating spaghetti at something called a bistro. Liston sat down in front of him and took his brother Peter's plate of spaghetti and started to wolf it down, disgustingly while chewing and talking, staring at Marciano who had put his own spaghetti fork down "You eat spaghetti, I eat spaghetti, champ!" Liston spat. Marciano sat quietly, not wanting that smoke just then, being reactive, not active, as the far larger man put him in his place, in front of all the cameras, or, well, not cameras, because they hadn't been invented by that point, but the microphones that followed him were there. Every local reporter had been notified and carried with them something that was like a Victrola with a microphone attached that recorded sound, and they'd captured to this day the sound of Liston eating and chewing, swallowing and stomach gurgling (he didn't even like spaghetti, apparently, as it said in the Liston bio "One man, one champ, let's go: The Sonny Liston Story") and the sound of Marciano's silence. Later, Garfunkel and Simon would write a song about this called 'The Sound of Silence.'


"Let's go, champ!" Liston cackled as Marciano decided to leave the restaurant. Later, Marciano was followed to the water skiing tournament in the summer of nineteen and something. Liston was said to have capsized Marciano and the press hushed it up because they were protecting Marciano, who still wouldn't give him a fight. "You go too far!" Marciano had said, threateningly. "Then fight me, champ! Let's go, champ!" Liston replied, eyes wet with the morning dew and shining with ornery effervescence. One member of the press said in interview about it years after the fact "I couldn't eat spaghetti for days, because all I could think of was water skiing." That's how you know it was bad. Marciano actually retired right after that. But in an ironic way to deal with the psychological trauma, he started getting pretty hard into water sports. He told the press Liston was too old to be thinking about challenging for the title and he wasn't used to fighting men so old or rhetorically repetitive. Liston then did a stint at Shady Pines nursing home, but got out, by pretending to actually work there, and somehow restarted his career long enough to win the title from Greg Paterson, a young upstart who came up from lightweight to win the title in Marciano's absence. It was even said that Liston felt winning the title from Paterson made up for the chance he didn't get when he first earned the spot as the rightful contender against Johnson.

 

Neither man would ever be recorded fighting on film. But one of them was recorded playing tennis with Harpo Marx for a charity even, hosted by Donald Trump.

 

Yes Valdes has a good record. Was logical contender for 8 months because He did as you say beat more than a few ranked fighters. Ultimately, for all his size, nino, like a lot of big boys before the steroid age, Just couldn’t beat some of the great light heavyweights that were around at the time. Harold Johnson. Archie Moore and Bobby Satterfield.

 

In Ezzard Charles he beat the man who beat them!
In Moore's case 3 times!

 

This is correct. I would have liked to see Nino try his luck against Rocky.
However, in “beating the man who beat them” the order was messed up. He’d already lost to Harold and Moore before beating Ezzard, then without rematching Charles he later lost to Moore and satterfield.

 

Why should he rematch Charles ,he beat him by a unanimous decision?
ps Nine ranked contenders is better than Marciano managed!

 

You've got the monthly Ring rankings, if I recall correctly.

How many guys did Marciano and Liston each beat who were in the top 10 when they were beaten?

 

If you give me a list of these nine guys I shall check this with the relevant timeline. It’s all very well beating 9 guys who were at one time rated but as we all know after we factor in “rated at the time” the number becomes reduced. Add that to Nino beating name guys after Marciano retired and into Floyd’s reign it reduces further…then factor in the umpteen losses Nino suffered in the years between Marciano retiring and ingo becoming champion whilst still being rated and the issue becomes rather inconsequential in relation to the days of Marciano

 

This is one of your Most Priceless Offerings, Oh Prince of i wish it was non-fictional Pugilistic literature.

Almost Flawless in its unique, Magical Neo-documentary Genre. True Lies, a.k.a. "we cheat you fair".
Maybe I shall later add the tale of how he won the All-World/Caveman championship of 337, 626 B.C.E.-while still a teenager.
Uniting all the titles of every known continent & their divisions, even getting the archaic Hominid subspecies to merge leagues in a Groundbreaking "All-Hominids" tournament.

In retrospect the Homo Erectus contingent & Archaic Homo Sapiens specimens & as yet unidentified varients did not stand a shadow of a ghost of a shell of a chance against his Next Level evolution & skills.

Sure the heavier boned & muscled, thicker & deeper skulled & brow ridged contingent of Neanderthals seemed unbeatable.
But you remember how Liston somehow suddenly actually put down their Goliath, when none of them was ever dentable or even off his feet before. Unknown is that Chuvalo & McCall are united with sharing the "chin" Neanderthal genes, ironic because technically they barely had one...

Ah well a morality Tale (of the tape) for another time.
Great show & tell!

 

A lot of these things you won't hear about today. Maybe they're just too damn woke to recognise them. But as long as we know the truth and no one can shut us up...Good Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

 

Charles lost to HaroldJohnson 3 fights before he got his title shot against Marciano.

 

Rated at some point would make it over a dozen. Valdes was the number 1 challenger after beating Charles in August 1953 he did not lose a fight or his status until May 1955 when Moore beat him.
That is not 9 months as you stated ,it is 21 months.
Dishonesty once again!

 

You are trolling at this point. Don't think for a second we forgot all your shucking and jiving with all the contenders you claimed Ingo faced!!! Yeah, contenders when he didn't face them!!!! You certainly want to talk it now tho.

 

Liston KO's him in round 1.