Who was the best fighter Sonny Liston beat ?

oohhh... the ever-dangerous, much bally-hooed but really not very good Cleveland Willams. He had all numbers, size and weight, but not much fortitude or true ability. Please to be telling me his finest victory before the Liston match? A dq versus Dick Richardson perhaps? That's probably it. Vastly over-rated fighter.

 

I'm not much of one for the "eye test" which is inevitably jaundiced by various prejudices and pre-dispositions of the beholder. The real source of evaluation is a fighter's record. Williams beat on a bunch of nobodies, got beat when he tried to rise above that fray and gets some sort of consolation prize from the fancy set as a great "could have been." Well, he wasn't.

 

I have to fall more on Seamus' side here. Williams ultimately had a lot of flair, but not much substance. He hardly ever delivered the goods in the big moment. I think Patterson, Machen and Folley were all better fighters- especially Patterson. The Williams who could've been champ or top-dog had he only been given the chance exists more in fantasy than in reality, in my opinion. In real life, he was given a fair few shots at the big time during his heyday, and the main reason he didn't make it was that he just plain consistently fell short.

 

patterson...easily williams was the grant of the 60's size, power but no solid defence or shin or technically tough

patterson by a country mile

 

In terms of simply 'who was the best fighter Liston beat' i would say Patterson , but if you mean considering size advantage then that fight was a bit unfair , in that case i say Williams aswell

 

I would have to say that it is prety clear cut in favour of Floyd Patterson.

 

I would say his first shot at "the big time," defined as being a chance to beat a major ranked contender and establish yourself as a key player in the title picture, was the Satterfield fight, in which he was brutally knocked out, albeit while perhaps a bit green and coming in on short notice.

Yes, but that's not saying much. He was crushingly knocked out within three rounds both times. And although Williams did better than Patterson against Liston, he did considerably worse against Machen.

This is the one major win of Williams' near-100-professional-fight career, and even then, going into the Williams fight, Terrell wasn't really a serious contender yet- he was an inexperienced young guy with a bit of a spotty record to date and hadn't beaten any name opponents yet.

That's more or less the point, except stated in a "glass-is-half-full" manner instead of "glass-is-half-empty." Williams was blown out twice by Liston and went 1-1-1 with Machen and Terrell (and was blown out by Satterfield in an earlier fight). He never went better than 50/50 against a serious contender and was waxed by the only all-time great he fought.

Again, none of this indicates he was anything special compared with any other top fighter. He was even-Steven in his fights with Machen and Terrell and was decisively knocked out both times he fought Liston (and Satterfield, though he was arguably a little green and was coming in on short notice). While he looks impressive on film, his consistent results indicate he was no better than any of several other contemporary contenders and clearly not a championship-caliber competitor like a Patterson.

 

Good post and you've certainly won me over at this point. I'm not sure i can put Williams over Patterson or not, i'd like to see a bit more of him as you have but i do think he was a very good fighter at his finest.

 

Floyd Patterson.