One-Hit Wonders in Boxing History

[marbleheadmaui]

Liston is the worst suggestion on this list (apart from what I hope were jokes about Duran & Pacquiao). He fought just 2 opponents with sub .500 records his whole career & was beating up on experienced guys from his 6th fight. Avenged his first loss, which he fought with a broken jaw. Apart from Patterson, he beat some really credible guys in Summerlin, Cleveland Williams, Folley & Machen. He's much more than a 1 hit wonder, he just happened to get defined by his losses to probably the greatest HW of all time.

I'm gonna stick with Liston being a 1 hit wonder, like I said earlier in this thread, he won the HW title from Floyd Patterson, defended it against Patterson 10 months later, then lost the HW title to Ali 6 months later. His main claim to fame at the Championship level was his two 1st round destruction's of Patterson which made everyone believe he was fuckin' superman.

Was Liston a feared above average HW, and did he have a few nice wins besides Patterson? Sure, but what he was actually able to accomplish in ring wasn't really all that special, especially in title fights. Remember, Ali was far from being a "legend" when he fought Liston, he was a 22 year old kid with 19 pro fights and was something like a 7 -1 underdog before their first fight.

Well, if he won twice, surely he would be a two hit wonder

You've also got to remember that he beat the shit out guys like Folley & Machen who the Champ really wanted no piece of. It's like saying that Charley Burley wasn't great because he never fought at Championship level. Beating everyone available is all that a guy can do. He lost to Ali, but he was somewhere between 34 & 39 by that point. I see him as the Tyson of his day. Just with a much worse publicist.

Hey, it's all good, this topic is subjective, I just believe that Liston was a very good but over-hyped/overrated HW, and much of his fearsome reputation was based mainly on his 2 demolitions of Patterson, who was a blown up crusierweight with bad chin.
As for the comparison to Tyson, perhaps Liston needed a better promoter/publicist, but I don't see it, Mike faced and defeated much better competition, and accomplished much more. Mikes reign of terror lasted for the better part of 10 years, Liston's began with Patterson and ended with Ali 2 years later.

Man I dunno about that. Sonny was the #1 ranked challenger for three years or so before he got his title crack. Prior to beating Patterson he took out a whole series of ranked guys like Bethea and DeJohn and Nino Valdes and Eddie Machen and Harris and Zora Folley.