Sonny Liston vs Wlad Klitschko. Who would you ranked higher in the rankings?

Liston has a reasonable chance of KOing the version of Wlad who lost to Puritty but more than likely loses to a more mature version Wlad who would keep Liston on the end of his Jab and use his superior size to neutralise Liston's inside game by clinching/holding him.

Both men have high KO ratios with multiple KO losses and both have also experienced unusually long periods of dominance wherein they suffered no losses (Liston: 9 years, Wlad: 11 years.)

All things considered I feel like Liston ideally needed a win against Ali for me to feel comfortable rating him above Wlad who I perceive to have the more impressive record overall.

Interested to hear your own thoughts.

 

Liston KOs him in a fight, but I might rate Wlad higher. Liston had the better competition but Wlad had the longer title reign, but Liston was more of a force in his prime

Either way, neither break my top 10 greatness

 

I’d have to rank Wlad higher due to his longevity as the unified champ, but head to head Liston is all wrong for Wlad.

 

An interesting statement, considering Liston's proficiency on the outside, longer reach and thicker, stronger build with more punch power

 

I rate Liston a tad higher and would also take him H2H.

 

Liston’s official reach of 84” was always a gross exaggeration. If I remember correctly his real reach was 80”.

 

Wlad on both counts for me.

If someone takes Liston H2H, cool, there's been way bigger upsets out there. Think Wlad's too quick & sound defensively and has too good a right hand to allow Liston to set his tempo with the jab, personally.

I see no reasonable way to rank him over Wlad legacy wise. His work ethic went out the window once he became champ, and I think it's disrespectful to reward that attitude over one of the most consistently dominant champs in history. Floyd was a great win, but that only goes so far. It doesn't go ten year title reign far.

I also think Wlad's got the better resume.

 

Sonny both

 

I rate Liston higher than most here, and Wlad lower than most.
Liston all the way, for me.
Incidentally, in a one-off scrap, I see Sonny knocking him out. Even in a rematch, I see the same happening.

 

I fancy Liston for the Top-10 ATG Heavyweights. Wlad Top-20.
H2H - I'd put my money on Liston.

 

H2H I would put my money on Liston by KO.

As for who ranks higher?

Wladimir Klitschko

1. Chris Byrd 2x
2. Alexander Povetkin
3. Sam Peter 2X
4. Ruslan Chagaev
5. David Haye
6. Hasim Rahman
7. Sultan Ibragimov
8. Kubrat Pulev
9. Lamon Brewster
10. Jameel McCline
11. Tony Thompson 2X
12. Frans Botha
13. Eddie Chambers
14. Calvin Brock
15. Bryant Jennings

vs

Sonny Liston

1. Floyd Patterson 2X
2. Cleveland Williams 2X
3. Zora Folley
4. Roy Harris
5. Nino Valdez
6. Amos Johnson
7. Henry Clark
8. Chuck Wepner
9. George 'Scrap Iron' Johnson
10. Wayne Bethea
11. Mike Dejohn
12. Howard King
13. Willi Besamanoff
14. Bert Whitehurst
15. Albert Westphal

Not only did Wlad have a championship reign for almost a decade, he has far better depth than Sonny Liston, who had the misfortune of being the champion when a young man named Cassius Clay/Muhammad Ali was on the scene.

 

Liston

 

If Sonny was grinding 100 percent and simply lost to a better fighter, I'd cut him some more slack for Clay/Ali. But he rested on his laurels as soon as he won the belt and underestimated him. With that attitude, someone was bound to upset him. Just so happened that fighter eventually became the GOAT to many, so the performances get handwaived away from Liston perspective today.

He was built to become champ, but not to stay champ. The latter is far more difficult to achieve. Most fighters have their best run as a contender because it's easier- you're not the one everyone is targeting, and it's easier being motivated to chase s carrot you don't have.

That's Sonny.

His legacy is actually better for having not had his title shot earlier. Staying shut out and ticked off fed into his boogeyman image (for both him and his opponents) and led to him having a longer run of success than he'd have had with the title.

I think it's pretty wild that actual title reign performances seem to carry so little weight around here when defending your title against rated competition is the hardest thing in the sport to do.