Who beat better opposition Sonny Liston or Jack Dempsey

liston has the better top level resume. jacks is a bit thin, compounded by hardly ever defending his title in the years he had it.

 

A close fight that Cooper won
No way does it show it was a hometown decision which is what Suzie has said on this forum several times. If it's a close fight how is that a robbery? The referee Tommy Little was a
third man with a sterling reputation, he refereed the first Ali v Cooper fight.

 

If you throw out the erratic fringe guys that both Sonny and Jack fought a lot of your left with very few current guys for both of them.

Some people feel Sonny fought more of the relevant fighters but it is over a much shorter time. Where as Jack beat good fighters years apart. Between Miske and Sharkey is a longer period than say Harris and Patterson. Then you have the numbers on years.

Perhaps we should credit Sonny for doing so well over a shorter time. His career started all over again in 1958, within 16 months he was a real threat to the title. That is very impressive. But it took him 9 years to have 34 fights. It is difficult to compare resumes with other champions who fought more often with that kind of ratio.

Jack missed out on Greb, Wills proberbly Bill Tate and Paulino Uzcudun. Sonny missed out on Ingo, Archie Moore, Cooper, Chuvalo maybe Terrell.

 

Yes, a fighter is as good as their last fight and how they cope with decent level fighters. Climbing the ratings legitimately is tangible proof of improvement and making a case for a fighter really being an elite fighter rather than just an unproven prospect.

 

Perhaps. But Dempsey was great for longer.

Throw out all the erratic fringe guys and all you have is Patterson, Machen, Harris and Folley. It's not that much. It's a pity Sonny only had 34 fights in 9 years. It could be better.

 

Tate was never a credible contender during Dempsey's reign.
Uzcudun was still fighting second raters when Dempsey was champ.Paulino didn't even win the European title until May 1926.

Cooper would not fight Liston.
Terrell was never anxious to cross swords with Sonny either ,he gave a 60's interview to the Ring and talked about repsectfully his power when he sparred with him.

 

I agree with you. I was just including each possible contender that was missed out.

 

Important point.

For every dominant champion with longevity, like Louis or Holmes, there are three with mere dominance like Liston or Tyson.

The mentality for longevity, is rarer then the mentality for brief dominance.

Did Dempsey have the longevity mindset?

No, in a word.

His application seems to have got worse with every fight, though not as rapidly as Liston's.

The fact that he held it down as long as he did, gives some testament to his in ring mindset, and his skills.

 

Only for the last three years.

Lets overlook the fact, that some newspapers regarded the title as vacant.