Harry Wills vs Sonny Liston. Who wins?

Question

15 rounds

Answer 1

Thanks for the welcome you gave me in the other thread. A pleasure to talk to a knowledgeable fan like yourself as well.

That said, Liston by KO. I was never impressed with all the hype surrounding Wills. He's done nothing to earn it and why Bert Sugar had him as one of his 100 Greatest Fighters will forever leave me scratching my head. Then again, Bert has a lot of strange rankings so I shouldn't be too surprised. I'll add that he is horribly biased towards the fighters of the 1920s, so I guess Wills ranking so high isn't so strange. I just wish Tex Rickard would have let Jack fight Wills. He would have KO'd him within 5 rounds and we wouldn't have to listen to all this Wills talk 80+ years later.

Harry was a big guy and a good- not great- puncher. Not very mobile with his feet and decently fast with his hands. Sonny's handspeed was in the same class, but he hit harder than Wills, had a better chin and a much better defense(check out the films. Sonny had nice head movement in his prime). Wills was an upright statue in comparison.

Not to sound cocky here, but Harry would be a sitting duck against the huge punches of the powerful Liston. Those 15 inch fists would be slamming against Wills' head from an 84 inch reach. Harry would have no answer for the jab, so he would try and come inside to deliver his big shots. Hello left hook/right cross combo. Goodnight Harry Wills. Liston by ko within 5 rounds.

Answer 2

WILLS - W 79 (KO's) TF 103 - W pct 77% - KO pct 48% - wins over J. Jeanette, Langford[13], Firpo and S. McVea - KO'ed by Langford[2] and 4 others
His greatest claim to fame is that he signed a championship fight against Dempsey that Dempsey backed out of.
Wills was part of a cadre of good black Hvy wt fighter that never got a title shot because of the color line

LISTON - W 50 (KO's 39) TF - W pct 93% - KO pct 72% - wins over Patterson{2}, "Big Cat" Williams[2] and Folley - KO'ed by Ali and L. Martin - #15 ranked puncher - #71 ranked fighter

Wills was a good fighter but for a Hvy wt he was not a strong puncher and definitely not a defensive boxers. Liston was a great puncher and in this bout, he wins by 8 rd KO.

P. S. Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but not to their own set of facts.

Answer 3

The blogbaba has to agree with Douglas, Wills was a tough dirty fighter, but Liston was more than a match for any tactic Wills could have brought to the fight. Few fighters of any era could have stood against Liston in his prime, and Wills wasn't one of them.

Liston by KO in 10

Answer 4

Douglas,

Bert Sugar has Langford highly ranked not Wills in fact Wills gets a slight mention in his book Langford several pages. Wills is not ranked in Sugar's book. Wills avenged two defeats to Langford by beating Langford 6 times.

Liston might beat Wills the first time they fought but Wills had the ability to beat Liston in return bouts. Wills ability to take a punch was as good as any heavyweight.

Douglas in apology to you he is not ranked in newest book I have not seen the old book like you have.