Category profile
- Dominance
- 82
- Peak
- 90
- Longevity
- 74
- Honours
- 76
- Statistics
- 84
Career timeline · Form index per season
| Season | Form index per season | Share of career |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | 4 | |
| 1959 | 4 | |
| 1960 | 3 | |
| 1961 | 2 | |
| 1962 | 2 | |
| 1963 | 1 | |
| 1964 | 1 | |
| 1965 | 3 | |
| 1966 | 4 | |
| 1967 | 3 | |
| 1968 | 2 | |
| 1969 | 1 |
Data sources
- BoxRec
- The Ring
- International Boxing Hall of Fame
Figures come from public records and are normalised per sport. See the methodology for category weights. Method
Why Sonny Liston ranks #109 in Boxing
Sonny Liston ranks 109th among Boxing athletes on GOAT Rank and 961st of 2289 across every sport in the index. The published GOAT Score of 81.1 is the weighted result of five verified category scores: Dominance 82, Peak 90, Longevity 74, Honours 76, Statistics 84. Those categories are normalised against the full Boxing reference universe of 267 records, not a shortlist, so the position reflects the whole sport rather than a handful of famous names.
The record covers 1953–1970 with 12 documented competitive seasons. The strongest single season in that series is 1958, which sets the Peak component at 90. Peak is the defining strength of the profile at 90 out of 100, and it carries 20% of the final score. The underlying career record includes world heavyweight titles 1, professional wins 50, knockouts 39, career losses 4.
Immediately ahead sits James J. Braddock on 81.4, a gap of 0.3 points. Directly behind is Savannah Marshall on 81.0. The position moves whenever the verified record moves: new titles, new seasons or a corrected source all feed straight back into the same formula, and every change is dated on this profile.
Sonny Liston GOAT Score explained
- Dominance82/100 · weight 25%
- Measures how far Liston stood above the field while competing. Scored 82/100 against the full Boxing cohort.
- Peak90/100 · weight 20%
- Rates the best sustained stretch of the career, centred on 1958. Scored 90/100.
- Longevity74/100 · weight 20%
- Rewards staying at that level over time: 17 years of competition and 12 recorded seasons. Scored 74/100.
- Honours76/100 · weight 20%
- Counts documented titles, majors and awards in the verified record. Scored 76/100.
- Statistics84/100 · weight 15%
- Normalises the raw career numbers against everyone in the sport reporting the same metric. Scored 84/100.
Top Liston comparisons
Sonny Liston — frequently asked
- Is Sonny Liston the GOAT?
- Not on the current data. Sonny Liston ranks 109th in Boxing with a GOAT Score of 81.1, behind Sugar Ray Robinson on 94.3.
- What is Sonny Liston's GOAT Score?
- 81.1 out of 100. It is the weighted sum of Dominance 82 (25%), Peak 90 (20%), Longevity 74 (20%), Honours 76 (20%), Statistics 84 (15%), computed from the verified career record.
- Where does Sonny Liston rank all time?
- 961st of 2289 eligible athletes in the cross-sport index, and 109th within Boxing.
- Sonny Liston vs James J. Braddock: who ranks higher?
- James J. Braddock, on 81.4 against Sonny Liston's 81.1 — a margin of 0.3 points.