Which light heavy has the best bet of beating a Liston or Foreman

Not too sure about Liston's record against southpaws. I could see Moorer giving him problems with that right jab. I know some will talk about MM's chin but one thing is for sure he had a ton of heart and would be a dangerous fight.

 

Movement. Great boxing. A static lt hwt would be slaughtered.

Loughran, Tunney.

 

Ezzard Charles - Gene Tunney- both had enough movement in their legs, good hand speed, endurance and enough power Billy Conn of Louis 1 may be in the running for an upset but smaller odds, still a chance style wise -

 

James Toney

 

Prime Foreman was a hell of a slugger and probably would catch MM with one of those wide looping shots. I would favor young George for sure but you have to admit, MM was fighting a very good fight against old George who was pretty damn good. Old George gave prime Holyfield a tuff fight as well as others.

Regarding MM vs Liston, we all know Liston's best weapon was his heavy left jab. MM threw an excellent double jab from his southpaw stance that neutralized a lot of good conventional stance jabs. He was effective against old George with it and old George had a very good jab. Arguably his best weapon.

I still would lean towards both Liston and Foreman for sure but I would make MM a live underdog for sure.

 

Good call. Old Toney did well against to big modern heavyweights Rahamn and Peter.

 

I did not know about the potential Liston- Johnson fight, Good Post.

 

Many say Marciano was a LHW.
Does he count?

But seriously, my top pick would probably be Charles.

And then:
Tunney
Langford
Moore
Spinks
Conn

 

George Foreman was probably too much of a roughhouse for most lightheavyweights in his prime. The ones to get past the first few rounds have a good chance though. Peralta was a lightheavyweight. So there is scope. Not much though.

Sonny Liston did lose to a lightheavyweight once and if he fought Archie Moore or Harold Johnson around the times he fought Burt whitehurst he would have stood more chance of losing again to both in real life. However, by the time Sonny was beating Machen and Harris he probably was a different kind of animal. Floyd was a masquerading lightheavyweight his whole life ...but he was terrible against Sonny both times and came undone mentally both times. Still, it would be difficult for a career lightheavyweight to stand any kind of chance with a great heavyweight. The most any can say about the best lightheavyweights that beat heavyweights is they have a chance against Liston. It’s difficult to imagine any starting as favourite.

 

Toney could still manage a decision against, that I'm sure of.

 

Ezzard Charles and Gene Tunney both tough enough and good hand speed and leg action

 

I don't agree with Charles being one of the best bets, I think Conn and Tunney have much better styles for this.

Truthfully I wouldn't pick any.