Was Sonny really that slow?????

At one point, I read that Sonny's trianer's had to pay his sparring partners to slow down for him so that he wouldn't lose confidence. Of course, this was right around the time he fought Clay, which was not the peak of his career in my opinion.

 

I've rarely seen a heavyweight explode and pounce with a punch out of the blue as quickly and as deadly as Liston did with that left against Roy Harris.

If that's slow, I've never seen fast.

 

I think he was very slow.


Put it this way: which champion over 200 pounds was slower than Liston?

Carnera perhaps, but he was 260lbs.

Who else? I can't think of a single one. Hell, even the heavier ones, like Bowe (240lbs), Foreman (220lbs), Ali (215lbs), Holmes (213lbs), Lewis (245lbs) were all easier faster.

Machen completely neutralised Sonny's jab because he was so slow. Dito with Clay. With the final punches that knock down Williams. Slow and telegraphed. Compared to other champions, of course.

 

Sonny was one of the slower handed champions. I think ever lineal champion post Liston had faster hands, with the exception of the 90's version of Foreman.



However, Sonny's technique, strength, range, and heavy-handed power more than made up for his average speed.

 

I think Goerge Foreman was one of them. I certainly hope that they didn't need to pay him to slow down.

 

I really don't think it matters how fast Liston was. The fact is, if he hit you, you were ****ed.....Period.........

 

At his peak ,I don't think you could call his hand speed better than average,and his feet were slow,though most of his weight was in his upper body ,he didnt have big legs,like say Tyson.

 

Maybe not as big as Tyson's (who had?), but his legs looked very strong and his thighs were immense.

Have a look:

This content is protected

This content is protected

But he wasn't light on his feet, no.

 

Liston slowed down when he got older. Around 1964.

People are under the impression that Liston quit on his stool against Clay. It's not true, he was just a bit slow getting off it.

In the rematch he suffered a flash knockdown. Where a young Liston would have been up in that flash in 1 or 2 seconds, the slow old Liston was up in a "flash" of 18 seconds ! Luckily the referee Walcott had slowed down even more than Liston and was just getting set to toll "One!" when Liston got up.

Cassius Clay was so fast he needed to suffer a hernia to adjust to Liston's pace.

The relative difference in speed between the two men was such that by the time Liston had left the ring in Miami and got to the press conference, Clay had undergone a full religious/political conversion, changed his name to Muhammad Ali, caused multiple minor contoversies, recited a volume of poetry and re-shaped boxing history forever. Liston, for his part, had got his arm put in a sling.