Sonny Liston vs. Vitali Klitschko

Oddly enough I think Liston is overrated on this forum and Vitali underrated... That said I think it's a competitive fight that goes the distance. I made to choose a winner it would be Vitali but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

Liston was indeed durable .

The man didn't even blink when Marshall broke his jaw and kept hunting him down and went the distance .

Vitali has a huge height advantage . which wont mean much .

Sonny was a freakishly powerful HW , He had enough punching power to back someone up even as big as Vitali .

Vitali wont overpower him and if he tries , hes very likely going to get roughed up and countered by Listons brutal jab .

Sonny has him beat by 4 inches in the arm reach .

Liston is going to take punishment in this fight , no doubt about it .

I don't see this fight being easy for either man .

Vitali has an excellent chin , so I don't see Liston stopping him unless its from a well placed body shot .

Liston on points .

 

Its definitely a tough matchup .

 

It goes both way .

Sonny would also be the toughest man Vitali has ever encountered .

Hopefully Vitali would not give in mentally during the staredown between these 2 .

Listons intimidation was no joke .

 

VK TKO, no doubt, that fight would be over at the pre fight conference or no later then the stare down....despite his macho image Liston would be looking for a way out similar when he packed it in twice against the green unknown light punching Clay.

BTW, VK, never been down....never been behind......iron chin.....granted Liston was stone old when he was put to sleep at the end of his career but nevertheless his whiskers were way below VK's.....that brutal upper cut VK took after a demanding give and take fight with Lemmie would have put 95% of Heavyweights to sleep on the spot.

IMO, Liston would be intimated from the get go.

 

The fact that he had his jaw broken by a light heavyweight, was stopped twice by a green Ali and completely KO"d by a fringe contender ( albeit when washed up ), implies limitations in durability.. Vitali had some limitations as well, but taking a solid punch to the face without catastrophe occuring wasn't among them.

On the contrary I think it means quite a bit. Ali was able to out land Liston regularly from the outside without much difficulty.. Granted Vitali is no Ali, particularly where speed is concerned, but the height factor will give him a similar edge.

Find me an example of such an opponent whom he did this to.. The largest man on record that I've found for Sonny was Gerard Zech who stood 6'5" and weighed 226. Vitali Klitscko is nearly 6'8", and anywhere between 245 to 250 at his best.. His chin was also far more proven than Zech's as were his overall abilities...

What's to say he has to over power him. He does just fine jabbing and crossing from mid to outside range. If you're implying that Sonny will control the clinches, you'd be wrong.

But a lot of that arm length is also negated by Vitali's height advantage which is about 7 inches.

We can agree on that much.

I'm thinking that a cut would probably be the more likely culprit, but I suppose anything can happen.

Fair call.

 

To further comment,

VK is cut from a much , much tougher cloth as Liston.....in the most brutal warfare known to mankind, Operation Barbarossa, Ukranians, either hard core Commies for the Reds or fighting for the Wehrmacht/Waffen SS were one of the toughest, meanest, cruel and un- emotional SOB's that participated in that four year slaughter and they had no problem whacking "undesirables" including women and children. There is simply no comparison because white or African Americans never ever were engaged in similar combat, not in Japan or Korea.....everything after that were not even wars.

Vk's father was a committed old school Red Army Commie to his core and that upbringing was translated especially to VK.

 

This might come as a shock to you, but Vitali Klitschko did not fight in world war II.He can in no way take "mental toughness" credit for the Ukrainians who did, nor for the brutality of the SS or Soviet Army in general.

 

I am not saying he is taking credit but his regimated stiff up bringing is leaps and bounds ahead of the fragile Liston's life story aka life time junkie and alkie who ultimately cashed in his chips chasing the dragon.

On a side note , 6 of my family members fought in WW2, only one came back, three persihed on the Eastern front.

 

Liston was born to a family of some 15 siblings in a dirt poor community.. He left home when he was around 13 years of age, lived on the streets, and ultimately ended up breaking legs for the mob... I wouldn't call that the life story of a "fragile" man.

 

^
Is VK a junkie or alkie ? By all accounts not.

Liston battled drugs and alcohol for his entire lfe, that is the tell tale sign of a troubled mentally fragile person.......

 

atsch For the sake of argument let's put Sonny's prime at 1960 and let's put Vitali's prime at 2000. Now, let's let Sonny be born 20 years later and let's let Vitali be born 20 years earlier.
pvp matchup would be 1980. With modern training Sonny would have been even more beefcake at that point and Vitali would have been a bit less beefcake at that point. Do you want to continue this asinine era comparison any further? atsch

 

But do you know for a fact that:

A. He was a junky his whole life

B. How severe his problem(s) were and how they affected him

C. Weather or not this diminished his harsh upbringing and hard experiences in youth.

I don't think he was a weak minded man.. Or at least not his entire life. If you're gonna start with that sh-t then you might wanna comment on how Vitali Quit in his corner in a fight he was winning.. Incidentally I favor Klit to beat Liston.. But I'm not sure I agree with this argument that Liston was Fragile or weak minded.

 

How durable. He was out cold for over a minute vs Martin, and floored and hurt vs Marshall. In two rounds Cleveland Williams broke his nose and produced cuts. Liston had some issues with cuts. Was Liston durable vs Ali? No. You could say he mentally folded.

Many fighters complained Liston used something on his gloves to blind them.

7.5 " means a lot for head shots.

Agreed.

Vitali could hurt Liston. Ali rocked him in the first fight before Liston quit. Liston's jab was slow. Vitali would out maneuver him and
had 30 pounds or so on Liston.

Liston has large hands and long fingers. Put gloves on them and their arm length would be closer to even. But as you punch upwards past your shoulder line, you lose striking distance. Vitlai's shoulder would line up to Liston's chin.

Agreed.

Agreed. VK was the most dominant fighter in the history of score cards. no man won more than 3 consensus rounds vs. him on the judges card...ever. VK was hard to catch cleanly, had good defensive reflexes, knew how to use his hight, and had the ability to intercept with his jab, or quickly counter.

IMO, Liston wasn't a good enough boxer to win on points vs VK. He would beed a TKO / KO