What would Sonny Liston think of Mike Tyson?

In the ring maybe. But on the street I still think he’d say “as long as he stay outta my way”. He wouldn’t bother Mike as long as Mike didn’t bother him. In the ring it’s mutual respect. Certainly from Sonny. He’d not underestimate Mike.

 

He might have made him into a protege.

But overall I think Liston would have done his best to intimidate the hell out of him...and probably succeeded. If Holyfield could do it, then the man who was perhaps the greatest intimidator in heavyweight history damn sure could.

 

Highly doubt that. Liston feared no man, and why would he with everything he’d gone through?

As a matter of fact, Tyson has gone one record saying he would be intimidated by Liston.

 

Can we not use Luis Ortiz's "slave name" ffs

Cassius Clay is Muhamad Ali

The man formally known as Sonny Liston is Luis Ortiz it isn't hard to have some respect.

 

Probably think he was a big mouth punk

 

Probably would've spoke to him early on and asked why he was hanging out with a bunch of old white gay dudes; embarrassed him into leaving D'Amato, Jacobs, Cayton, Lott and everyone else on Fire Island; got Tyson to move to Vegas; got Tyson hooked on heroin (like Sonny's mentor Joe Louis did for him), and Tyson would be in prison now. Or dead.

Something like that.

Liston wasn't the best of influences. One of those things when it's best you don't meet your heroes.

 

Liston would have probably not been intimidated by Tyson. However, Tyson would not have been intimidated even a bit by him as he wasn't intimidated by men nearly twice the former's size.

Both were genuinely bad men, who had their own personal problems and would have clipped anyone who tried to interfere with their matters. And no, Mike wasn't a wannabe thug or anything. This guy nearly left Mitch Green blind in a street confrontation, almost killed a man for throwing his dead pigeon into a garbage can, raped and hit Robin Givens and Denise Washington, bit and spat out Holyfield's ear, traumatized Spinks and by the age of 13 he had already been arrested 38 times.

Liston would've respected Tyson as a fighter and probably would've relate to Mike as a man, given Mike was one of his 'types'.

 

That estimation seems about right as Sonny Liston broke bones of debtors when collecting debts for the underworld. Sonny Liston probably owned his yard at the penitentiary, no doubt about it. Sonny would have made fun of Mike's lisp.

 

Sonny Liston was a young George Foreman's idol.

 

It may have been possible that Sonny Liston may have tried to recruit Mike Tyson into his underworld circle of friends, taught him the art of debt collecting, which would have drawn strong resistance by none other than Cus D Amato, who would have had Floyd Patterson try to separate Sonny from Tyson by speaking to him. Floyd would have spoken to Mike about the dangers of being associated with the underworld, Once You Get In, You Cannot Get Out.