Why was Sonny Liston considered invincible before Clay-Liston?

[Wild Blue Yonda]

He cleared out the division beating the top contendersso I don't know what you mean by mediocre.

The crop was a very solid group indeed. Nothing mediocre about them.

[cooper5]

Alot of them were considered unbeatable. Right up til they were beaten.

[TBear]

Alot of them were considered unbeatable. Right up til they were beaten.

LOL, thats about it right there.

[IRISH LULLABY]

Sonny Liston practically cleaned out the heavyweight division before he was finally given a shot at the title. He defeated the most top contenders of his era: Cleveland Williams x2, Eddie Machen, Zora Folley, Floyd Patterson x2, Johnny Summerlin x2, Marty Marshall, Nino Valdes, Roy Harris, Wayne Bethea. And that's disregarding his post Ali wins over Wepner and Clark. Not to mention the manner in which he finished his opponents, he possessed devestating one punch KO power.

- Spent at-least two years in Prison and was a man who never learned to read. This supplemented his fearsome, evil and destroyer image.

- Northeast Mafia figures Frankie Carbo and Blinky Palermo were majority owners of Liston's boxing contract. Carbo soon was indicted on conspiracy, multiple counts of undercover management of prizefighters and unlicensed matchmaking. Further adding to Liston's bad-boy image.

- It was said he was a brooding, intimidating personality outside the ring. A no nonsense type fellow.