BoxRec

Liston only title wins and only wins over someone who'd been champ were his 2 wins over Patty, which are defo his most famous wins.

How do you rank his other wins compared to each other?

Solid wins. Not great though. Except for Sweet Pea Williams, of course.

DrDuke wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 20:10 Solid wins. Not great though. Except for Sweet Pea Williams, of course.

He beat Mike DeJohn, Nino Valdes, Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Roy Harris before he won the title. Who else could he defeat? He wiped out the division and none of those fights were controversial.

bwu wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 20:23 He beat Mike DeJohn, Nino Valdes, Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Roy Harris before he won the title. Who else could he defeat? He wiped out the division and none of those fights were controversial.

Agreed. He beat the best of the division before facing Ali or Floyd.

Question was how do you rank those wins, didn't say he ducked anyone or anything like that, it's all within his own record

margaret thatcher wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 20:37 Question was how do you rank those wins, didn't say he ducked anyone or anything like that, it's all within his own record

Always thought Machen was his best win outside of Floyd. He ko'd Folley early five years since Folley's last KO loss. All things considered his early ko's of Williams were real good wins. Valdes was already past it in 1958. Gotta stick with Machen as best win.

1-Machen
2-Folley
2b-Williams
4-Valdes

Always wondered why Liston never got in the ring with Terrell. That would a good mythical fight.

bwu wrote: ↑06 May 2020, 20:23 He beat Mike DeJohn, Nino Valdes, Cleveland Williams, Zora Folley, Eddie Machen and Roy Harris before he won the title. Who else could he defeat? He wiped out the division and none of those fights were controversial.

Yeah he was more or less the uncrowned Champion well before he ever finally got his shot. They used the fact that he was associated with a Mob ran organization to keep from fighting him, but after so long of him beating every contender possible he just couldn't be denied anymore.

Actually, Sonny Liston did not become the number 1 contender until after the Patterson/Johansson trilogy had already begun. Liston did a stretch in prison that slowed his progress in the heavyweight rankings. In 1956, Liston got into a fight with a policeman. He did not fight again until he was out in 1958. Patterson had his first fight with Ingemar in 1959.

Yeah, Liston's big years were 59 and 60. That's when he started clearing out the top-ten. He got himself to #1 after wiping out once-beaten Roy Harris in April 1960 and followed that up with wins over top-3 opposition Folley and Machen. In 61 he only fought twice, both times against unrated foes. I think at that point he was just sitting on his #1 ranking and waiting for his shot.

Sonny also had a nice run in 68 and 69. It wasn't nearly as impressive as 59 and 60, but he fought often, scored wins over some former contenders, and worked himself up to #3. Then he fought Leotis Martin.

In December 1970 George Chuvalo signed to fight Sonny the following February. Might've been interesting.

I think Liston's best win was the first fight with Cleveland Williams. In a later interview Sonny confirmed this by saying that once he beat Williams he knew he would be the world champion. In the first round of that fight he took several from Williams who looked confident. Until Liston got to him.
The early knockout of Bethea made a statement. Bethea was a good quality 'gatekeeper' for the division and Liston knocked 16 of his teeth out !!!