More Than Probably ANY Other Fighter, Sonny Liston BEST Represents REED's Overall Growth as a Boxing Fan... When Boxing 1st Hit the Internet, Liston was Just a So-Called Mob Affiliated, FAKE Tough Guy Who Cassius Clay Spooked in the Build Up to Their Fight, Because All the While, Liston was Afraid of "Crazy People", Right???...He Also "Quit" in the RE, Via a "Phantom Punch"... This was All PER Bert Sugar, Primarily; the WHITE One of Course... REED Knew from his Ol' Man Clay was a Huuuuuuuuuuuuuge Underdog and Liston was a Universally RECOGNIZED Badass, but Btwn That, NO Access to FOOTAGE and Bert Sugar's Exaggerated, Cliff Notes Version, the ACTUAL Truth was LOST on REED for a Loooooooooooooong Ass Time... Boxing Messageboards....ESPN Classic....YEARS Past....Youtube Surfaces.... You Get to a Point You've Watched and Re-Re-Watched Your Favorites Over and Over, Your Father's Favorites, Virtually EVERYBODY, Right???...Sooooo, Then You Eventually Start Peeping the Dudes Who FOUGHT Some of Your Favorites... THAT's When REED Began to FULLY Appreciate Sonny Liston... Right Off the Bat, If Anyone Thinks Sonny Liston was a FRONT RUNNING BULLY, Please Watch his 1st Fight w/Cleveland Williams...An UNDERRATED Action Fight Btwn 2 of THE HARDEST Punchers in Heavyweight History...Williams was BIG/STRONG Just Like Liston & BROUGHT the Fight TO Him... Liston vs Folley, Bethea, Besamoff, Patterson (2x)...& Pooor Albert Westphal...For the Time he Fought, There was a HEIGHTENED Level of AWE and WTF? to the Quality of Sonny Liston's KO's...He WIPED His Ass w/Opponents in a FEAR Inducing Way... In Hindsight, it's OBVIOUS Why Cus D'Amato NEVER Wanted Floyd Patterson Facing Liston, as Back to Back 1st Round KO Losses PAINFULLY Illustrated... Now, REED Appreciates the THREAT Level Cassius Clay was Faced w/...That Said, the "Phantom Punch" as the Media Called It, Referred to as the "Anchor Punch" (by Clay), was LITERALLY What we NOW Call a "Pull Counter" Today... Anyways, What Specific Fighters (Past/Recent Past/Present) Assisted in GROWING/ENHANCING Your Boxing Fandom From What It ALREADY Was???... REED
There's not a year that goes by that I don't watch Liston-Williams 1. Not just because of the action, but because Liston was a helluva lot more skilled than given credit for. And of course, the left hook he KO'd Williams with was wicked... and VERY short/compact.
Benitez and Sal Sanchez were probably the two fighters that propelled my interest in really exploring guys who were around when I was too young to follow the sport. Tyson made me a casual. Roy turned me into more than a casual, which enticed me to watch old films, and Benitez and Sal were the two guys who most piqued my interest - namely watching Sanchez-Gomez and Benitez-Duran. Watching Benitez-Duran was the first time I understood what the artistry part of the sport was all about.
Indeed... Liston Remained Composed and Stayed in Punching Range, DESPITE Taking the Worst of the Exchanges, Primarily...Landed TIMELY Jabs (All of Them HARD as Fuck, Visibly AFFECTING Cleveland) and Lowkey BATTERED Williams' Body Also... And This was a MUCH More Spry, Lively Version of Cleveland Williams than Ali Faced... How 'Bout the LEAD Uppercuts He Caught Patterson w/In Each of the 1st Round KO's???...Liston Clearly STUDIED/TRAINED for Patterson to Dip and BANGED The Shit Out of Him w/Lead Right Uppercuts for His Transgressions... For a Man of Liston's Size (By 1960's Standards), That was VERY Impressive Shit...A Display of More SKILL Than Urban Legend EVER Acknowledges, to Your Point... REED
Definitely Holmes, Tyson, Mancini and Arguello were the fighters I most watched early on. I knew about SRL, Duran, Hagler and Hearns but do not remember seeing them as often - maybe they appeared less by that point on regular TV. After those guys there was a fairly long lull until the late 90's. At that point, Golota caught my attention, then Lewis and of course ODH.
When I first started following boxing, believe it or not I loved Leonard and despised Duran, purely because he was Leonard's archrival. That's back when I was still a semi-casual. When I really became a hardcore, and started watching film of lightweight Duran, my feelings changed.
Two events that made me into a boxing fanatic. Watching the 1984 US Olympic team starting with the box offs and watching them win 9 gold, a silver and a bronze medal. I couldn't wait to follow those guys as pros. Then watching my first Chavez fight (against Mayweather I.) Not that it was a great fight but I loved his entrance, style and everything about JCC.
Ummm Donny, dontcha think you might have some more pressing issues to attend to today, other than posting on a message board?
