Liston - What a shame

[Foreman]

Liston is definetly top ten, probably closer to the middle.

Why is it that Liston is totally dismissed because of his fights with Ali, being cowardly or lack of skills, but Tyson get's the benefit of the doubt. What's more cowardly than biting someone, trying to break opponents arms on at least two occasions and his lack of skills is overwhelming.

It's hard to judge fighters without personal bias creeping in. Judged straight, Liston deserves to be close to the top.

[jabsRstiff]

Liston is definetly top ten, probably closer to the middle.

Why is it that Liston is totally dismissed because of his fights with Ali, being cowardly or lack of skills, but Tyson get's the benefit of the doubt. What's more cowardly than biting someone, trying to break opponents arms on at least two occasions and his lack of skills is overwhelming.

It's hard to judge fighters without personal bias creeping in. Judged straight, Liston deserves to be close to the top.

I hold the cowardly performances of both against them.
They were frontrunners. True greats are the furthest things from from frontrunners.

[acquitted]

liston wasnt a great fighter...george foreman use to give liston hell when foreman was 17 18 years old..they use to spar and hang out..liston was kind of like a big brother

[dempseyfire]

Cowardly?? Liston won 3 of his 6 rounds with Ali and only stopped b/c of a torn rotator cuff, which is an injury he really had. The Ali revisionists say he quit b/c of the 'beating' he was taking but if you look at the film Liston was very much in the fight and even in the last round slipped the wide majority of Ali's punches. And the 2nd fight is a joke-a clear dive (for whatever reasons) if there ever has been one. Liston was not a front-runner he went the distance against a very tricky a determined Eddie Machen, winning a clear decision, and also came back from bad 1st round beatings to stop Cleveland Williams, who in his prime (when Liston fought him) was a remarkable boxer-puncher.

[MikeHunt]

Liston is so over rated. He beat a scared to death Patterson and his efforts against Ali were pathetic at best. He should not be in the top 20 of the best Heavy's ever.

[marvdave]

I have Liston in my top ten for sure. The "cowardly" performances against Ali were tragic. He was a below average intellect guy who had to take his dives to stay alive. He was so deep into trouble with the mafia and had no choice. If we talk about about which guy would beat who, he would stand a great chance against anyone.

[Sir_Jose]

Everyone seems to want to talk about great heavyweights, always ****ing on about Ali, Fraizer, Forman, Holyfield (as if), Holmes.... Is Marciano underrated/overrated. I'll tell you now the most underated Heavey of all time is Sonny Liston, he sould be in the top 5 of anyones heavy list, nobody had a clue how old he was he was almost certainly fighting well into his fifties right at the top of the tree. If only he had not got mixed up in the mob (re Ali) then I truely believe that he would be regarded as the truely awsome fighter that he actually was. You want to talk about how hard Fraizer and Forman hit, Liston had more punch than either.

Top 5?

HELL NO

He aint top 20

[tikal]

Liston is a definately a HeavyWeight great, he had a brutal jab that would give you headaches for days. He outslugged heavyhitters like Cleveland Williams and anihilated Floyd Patterson twice. If him and Marciano fought he would have whooped him up too. I got Liston rated at #9 on my top 10 list. I do believe Liston took a dive in the second Ali fight cause Liston has a granite chin and KOing people in the first round just isnt Ali's style.

[realtim]

It's no myth he took the dive in 2nd fight because alis life was threatened and he didnt want to be in the crossfire.
You would have to put him in the region 8-12.

[rey]

If Liston "threw" the first Ali fight, why would he resort to cheating? (illegal substance)