I rate Liston considerably higher “Opposition” Every one who cracked the ring magazine top 10 at HEAVYWEIGHT I included (middleweight and light heavyweight do not count) Liston record against ring magazine top 10 heavyweights Wins over : Summerlin 2x, Bethea, Hunter, Besmanoff, dejohn, Valdes, Williams 2x, Harris, Machen, Folley, Patterson 2x, Clark, A Johnson, A Lincoln, Wepner Losses: Ali 2x, Martin Final Record: 18-4 Charles record against ring magazine top 10 heavyweight: Wins: Archie Moore 3x, Joey Maxim 3x, Jimmy Bivins 3x, Baksi, Ray, Walcott 2x, Valentino, Louis, Oma, Layne 2x, Brion, Harrison, Wallace, satterfield, Holman, norkus, barone Losses: Bivins, Ray, Walcott 2x, Layne, Valdes, H Johnson, Marciano 2x, young jack Johnson, bethea, Jackson 2x, mcmutry, matthews, Richardson Final Record: 25-16 Liston wins overwhelmingly by the much higher winning percentage and far more consistency Even if we take out Charles losses post 1954 and listons losses post ali, charles record still remains 25-9 where Liston was 18-3. “Quality” The best heavyweight Charles beat was Walcott. He also lost to him twice, once by a one punch knockout when Walcott was 37. So Charles established no superiority over Walcott. The best heavyweight Liston Defeated was a 26-27 year old Floyd Patterson. Liston beat him twice by KO in first round. High quality dominance over a prime hall of famer twice Charles next best wins were over Ray, Bivins, and Louis. Charles lost to Ray once, lost to Bivins, and Louis was 36 years old coming off a 2 year layoff. Archie Moore weighed less than 175lb every time he fought Charles. These were not heavyweight wins. Charles overall record against Bivins ray and Louis was 5-2 Listons next best victims were Machen Williams Harris and Folley . Liston went 5-0 with 4 knockouts against these men. Folley didn’t make it past 3, Harris didn’t make it past 1, Williams didn’t make it past 2 and 3, and Machen lost a clear unanimous decision. This is high quality dominance right here Head to head Make your own opinion. Liston had considerable advantages. Taller, bigger, much stronger, much better jab, much bigger puncher, and was far more durable.
I think most of the time Liston gets considerably overrated in therms of achievements, defendet the title once, with the next best fighter beeing Williams and Machen, who took him the distance. But he was at least dominant doing so. Charles: In four bouts with Walcott he came out second due to that KO loss. Next thing is a question of rating Louis in 1950. Did Louis as well lack preparation beside beeing inactive in the ring? I agree the Moore fights can be exclusively evaluated. H2H potential is no question, this one goes to Sonny. But keep in mind Liston had next to Foreman the biggest weight adventage over his victims, for Charles is was the other way around. I don´t think Patterson was a durable guy, but Liston definately got the job done perfectly. H2H goes to Sonny. In therms of achievements, it should go to Sonny because of dominance. But if you just check the results, its very very close for both. There is no way I can rate both of them into the top ten, since there are easily ten fighters ahead for resume, maybe even 13-15 fighters.
Liston comfortably makes my top ten , based on head to head.Charles is emphatically outside that ten. Just my opinion.
