Vitali Klitschko beats Sonny Liston

A chin and punching ability like Liston has never seen......

 

Vitali Klitschko may have indeed fought a number of men who were second rate, but calling his comp D level, is just as intentionally misleading as saying that he had the greatest win/KO ratio of all time.

As limited as they were, Ross Purity, Vaugn Bean, Larry Donald and Kirk Johnson were not easy men to KO. In fact, at least 3 of those men were only stopped once in their rather long careers, and those stoppages came against Vitali Klitschko. Ross Purity's record is about as attractive as a teenage girl with acne and braces, but this can also be misleading. In 54 fights, he was knocked out or stopped on only 3 occasions. two of them occured within his first 5 or 6 fights to undefeated prospects, while the other came against Klitschko at a more advanced stage in his career. The rest of his defeats or draws were mostly to undefeated prospects, or fringe types with good records. Purity also KO'd 27 of his 31 victoms, and scored a few impressive wins over men that he was not favored to beat.

Klitschko's wins over Herbie Hide and Corrie Sanders are commonly written off as being average performances against either old or chinny opposition. Hide was still very close to his prime, and possesed great starting speed, power and great conditioning. Vitali iced him in just two rounds. It's a fair criticism that Corrie Sanders was in his late 30's and coming off a layoff, but I would have liked to have asked some of the other top rated fighters in 2004 how they felt about facing him.

Vitali Klitschko was no all time great in my book, but at the same time, his career is all too often oversimplified by his critics and detractors as being comprised of C and D level fighters. Rarely is the whole story ever told....

How would he do against Liston? Obviously I started this thread for the purpose of stirring the pot, and never intentionally expected to be taken seriously. However, it would be rather nieve of anyone to think that Sonny would just walk all over Vitali Klitschko the way he did Floyd Patterson. Size isn't everything, but it can't be ignored either, and frankly I can't think of any truly good big men who Liston ever defeated nor even faced for that matter. Additionally, most of the men Liston ever defeated were either previously floored, Ko'd, Tko'd, or would later be at some point. Klitschko was never dropped in his career, and his stoppage losses to Byrd and Lewis were not conventional TKo's, nor did they result from being dominated in the purest sense of the term ( for those who saw those fights. ) As a matter of fact, No one ever left the ring with Vitali, ahead on the cards.

Liston may very well have eeked out a decision, or a late stoppage on cuts, but its not a given. This is one fight where size, strength, conditioning and intimidation would not be in Liston's favor. He would also have to be prepared for the fact that he may have to take some of the hardest shots of his career, and showing heart may be a necessary means of winning the fight.