Before He Died, Sonny Liston Named The 5 Hardest Punchers He Ever Faced

Before He Died, Sonny Liston Named The 5 Hardest Punchers He Ever Faced Sonny Liston terrified the entire heavyweight division. He destroyed Floyd Patterson in just over two minutes and was so feared that athletic commissions refused to license him. But even the monster under boxing's bed had names that stuck with him — fighters whose punching power he spoke about differently than anyone else he faced. In this video, we count down the five hardest punchers Sonny Liston himself respected most: Ron Lyle, the ex-convict who dropped George Foreman; Earnie Shavers, whose knockout percentage still staggers boxing historians; Joe Frazier, whose left hook Liston watched from a distance; Cleveland Williams, the man Liston beat twice but still called the hardest hitter he ever faced; and at number one, the fighter Liston trained alongside before the world knew what he'd become.