Why do historians of all ages give Sonny Liston the shaft?

I agree

 

This was a very informative good post.

 

I believe both fights against Muhammad Ali did put a stain on Sonny Liston's later career following those fights. He continued fighting in Sweden, as Floyd Patterson had done in his fights against Eddie Machen and Sante Amonti in 1964, both victories. As mentioned in one of my previous post, Yank Durham was afraid for Joe Frazier to meet Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali, and Karl Mildenberger in 1967. He even said publicly that he would not let Joe enter the WBA tournament. And said, Clay Might Go To Prison. I believe the boxing public let Liston age until his knockout loss to Leotis Martin in 1969, so that they could say that Sonny was not much. Sonny did beat the best in his era, that is all you can do. I know that Liston was connected with the underworld, but so was Ernie Terrell, that was the hold up in the proposed Ali vs Terrell title unification bout set for March 29 1966, which did not happen due to that fact, instead Ali fought George Chuvalo on that date and won.

 

Sonny was an angry bear dual wielding telephone poles!

 

When Sonny was champion he really was regarded the best in the world. Not just champion. Best in the world. Without question. So he is almost unique on this front.

Aside from Joe Louis and Mike Tyson I cannot think of another champion who was quite as universally accepted as the best out there like Sonny was. And he gets measured harshly because he has to live up to that.

Even when Ali, Marciano, Lennox Lewis and Holmes were riding high as good champions there was always an upcoming challenge out there that could be regarded as a potential banana skin. For Sonny Liston nobody thought that there was ever a banana skin out there for him when he was champion. It’s a tough reputation to uphold.

If Sonny retired without meeting Clay it would be impossible to imagine a stronger champion but nobody retires as champion after just one successful defence.

I think what hurt Sonny was his career lost momentum a couple of times. Ultimately he became a victim of his success and he went too stale on too few rounds of action at elite level.

Before losing the title Sonny fought at elite level for only three years. He got far too used to having things too much his own way, just like Tyson, because he had such serious talent.

So much so, That in the first Clay fight he was not fully prepared for resistance. And it caught everyone out. A huge upset. This must be partly why Joe Louis lost to Schmeling the first time. Sometimes a guy can have too much talent. The thing is, Louis overcame this. He went on from that.

Tyson and Liston never did. So really and truly, regarding reach advantages, size advantages etc etc, the one thing anybody needs to be absolute one way or another is this. Can they comeback? Have they had it tough? Have they came against stubborn fighters with no quit in them who can hurt them? On that major point, I don’t think that was certain. And this hurts Liston’s legacy.