Wladimir Klitschko beats Sonny Liston

Yeah, but Folley had a glass jaw as bad as they come. And unfortunately, the fight is not on film so we can hardly analyse.

 

He's trying to build up the gate.

 

Folley has no more of a glass jaw than ingo johansson or wladimir klitschko. Both wlad and folley suffered around the same amount of knockout losses in there twenties. It seems you look on boxrec and see lots of TKO losses and belive he must have a glass jaw. but the summerlin fight was a broken jaw stoppage when he was young, and the young jack johnson fight folley retired with broken ribs in the 5th round in a fight he had won the first 4 rounds and was well in control(you seem to cut vitali alot of slack for quitting vs bryd). So that leaves Alejandro lavorante(who was 6'4 212lb big puncher) and doug jones(whom folley avenged) but these losses happened AFTER liston had already knocked him out. weak jaw, but no more so than other fighters. Make no mistake about it, folley did expose and embarras many punchers of that era with his skills, he beat alot of good fighters. its not like he got knocked out everytime he fought punchers.


from 1956-1960 going into the liston fight, folley was on a 30-1 hot streak with one lone controversial loss to henry cooper which was avenged brutally. folley was in peak shape and had not been officially knocked out in more than half a decade.

 

"Sonny Liston's sledge-hammer hands smashed Zora Folley to the canvas twice in the 2nd round and knocked him out at :28 seconds of the 3rd round of their scheduled 12 rounder in the Denver Coliseum. Folley used his boxing skill and swift punching hands to win the 1st round on the cards of all ring officials and the AP. Even after the first knockdown in the 2nd round, Folley rallied brilliantly and jarred Liston with a two-fisted attack. That only served to bring on Liston's sledge-hammer blows that decked Folley again. Folley tumbled face down onto the canvas for the final count in the 3rd. He never moved until seconds after the knockout." -Associated Press

 

Wrong. Sonny Liston would KO Klit. There is simply no way Vlad handles Liston's awesome two-fisted attack. Hell, Vlad Klitschko doesn't even beat Ross Purritty, let alone Sonny Liston.

 

Sounds like an exciting fight. I just can't help but remember how Folley went down from punches that barely even seemed to have Ali's body weight behind it. I know he was old in there (and did quite well actually, i had him even on the scorecards although Ali had a few extra gears that he didn't use), but still.

 

Folley was far past his prime by 1967 and he still gave ali a dead even fight. I agree about folleys chin being weak, but no more so than say wlad klitschkos. in my opinion cassius clay's lucky he had good management and didnt throw him in the ring with folley in the early 60s, i think folley with his jab skills and slick movement would have beaten young clay. Chris, have you seen film of folley in his prime?


Also ali caught folley with his trademark lead right followed by another lead straight, it was devastating it would blind opponents. i try practicing that in the gym once in a while, god darn i dont know how the hell ali does it so smoothly and rythmically. this trademark double right would have eaten larry holmes alive all night.

 

I lay 10-1 that Vlad would have beaten Purrity in the re-match. It was a fluke result, Apollack.


Wald was 22, had never gone past 8, was in front of his home town fans, fighting an illness ( see the low weight ) and up against the perfectly iron headed type of opponent that an in-experienced guy could punch himself out against.

Have you ever seen this fight? I think many people have misconceptions about how it went down. First off, Wlad did not quit as some writers say he did. He fought on. It is Wlad all the way until the final two rounds. If Wlad had a better corner telling him to forget the KO, or more experience going the distance, he wins.


While the Purity loss doesn’t look good, many great fighters lost to tough journeyman on the way up too.