Lennox Lewis Or Sonny Liston?

[Southpaw Great]

Who should be remembered as the greater fighter and why?

[FunkyFresh]

Lewis, and it's not even close.

[sonnyboyx2]

Lewis, and it's not even close.

explain your choice and why its not even close?

i would have to go with Liston due to his level of competition with all his opponents being in their prime, Liston was totally dominant over the division from 1958-64 he lost the title to Cassius Clay who was the greatest fighter who ever laced a pair of gloves on. Lewis fought and beat some decent fighters but it has to be remembered that Lewis is the only champion in history to be stripped of every belt for refusing to face the No1 contenders, which is a huge black mark against him, as well as the only two IBHOF fighters Lewis fought was more than a decade past their best.

[Obama]

Resume Liston. But Lennox edges it for me because he actually had a couple decent reigns as Champion and seemed to be cable of beating fighters of all styles. But I'm sure if Sonny got his title shot in the mid to late 50s when he should have, I'd rate him higher.

[frankenfrank]

Lewis, and it's not even close.

+1
lewis was stopped less , lewis was an almost absolutely dominant champion in the strongest era of the HW division.
and liston ? he was stopped by ali twice , a quarrysh/pattersonic achievement. and liston was not even smaller than ali the way patterson was.
lewis , primarily due to his size but also because of his necessary skill was simply a much tougher opponent for anyone. he would have beaten anyone liston did but not vice versa .

[frankenfrank]

explain your choice and why its not even close?

i would have to go with Liston due to his level of competition with all his opponents being in their prime, Liston was totally dominant over the division from 1958-64 he lost the title to Cassius Clay who was the greatest fighter who ever laced a pair of gloves on. Lewis fought and beat some decent fighters but it has to be remembered that Lewis is the only champion in history to be stripped of every belt for refusing to face the No1 contenders, which is a huge black mark against him, as well as the only two IBHOF fighters Lewis fought was more than a decade past their best.

you would have rated jerry quarry above lewis if that was the question pending.

[Schmerzen]

head 2 head i favor maybe 2-3 heavyweights to beat liston, lennox lewis is not one of them.
liston would KO lewis imo

[Jim Jeffries]

Resume Liston. But Lennox edges it for me because he actually had a couple decent reigns as Champion and seemed to be cable of beating fighters of all styles. But I'm sure if Sonny got his title shot in the mid to late 50s when he should have, I'd rate him higher.

59 is about as early as you could argue he was worthy of a title shot, but yeah, definitely avoided for about 3 1/2 years.

I guess Lennox had 3 reigns as champ, with the middle being the longest.

I have LL higher on my ATG HW list, but I'm not quite as confident in a head to head.

[Silencers]

I think Lewis had better skills and ranks higher on the all time heavyweights list and I think he would've beaten Liston unless he got caught by a big shot.

[sonnyboyx2]

you would have rated jerry quarry above lewis if that was the question pending.

most definitely .. Quarry was a great fighter from the golden era of boxing.

Liston never fought Quarry..

Lewis was not a dominant champion he was stripped of every belt for refusing to fight the No1 contenders.

your once again using your playground-theory of "My brother is bigger than your brother" claiming Lewis is bigger and Liston is not bigger.

Are you saying Lewis would have beaten Cleveland Williams, Floyd Patterson, Eddie Machen, Zora Folley?

if McCall & Rahman could put Lewis lights-out then just think what Cleve"Big-Cat"Williams would have done to him.

once again frankenfrank.. you come out with a load of crap because you have not a clue what you are talking about.