dempseyfire wrote:Ambling Alp wrote:dempseyfire wrote:
If by your definition Rocky had a poor defense, Evander Holyfield's defense plain sucked.
Holyfield wasn't a great defensive fighter; I don't know anyone that thinks that he was. (Though lately I have heard crazier things on this forum.)
However, when Holyfield was close to his prime, he got hit less often than Marciano did by generally better competition than Marciano faced.
If you get hit a lot, (which Marciano did) then you don't have that good of a defense. This isn't exactly brain surgery here.
You need to re-watch Rocky's fights. Marciano was never hit by flush combinations the way Holyfield was. And I'm just including his fights with Qawi, Dokes, Cooper, Stewart . . certainly a group below the calibre of Charles, Walcott, and Moore, despite their advanced age.
Oh come on. Marciano was hit a lot cleanly in almost every fight that anyone has seen him. Leading with your head and coming right at your opponent makes you easy to hit.
Charles didn't have a lot left when he fought Marciano. (He lost 5 times in the last three years). Yet, he was competitive against Marciano got hit as much as he did showed that he wasn't hard to hit.
Walcott was 38 and hit Marciano plenty of times. He was ahead in the fight after 12 rounds.
Moore was 38, already had well over 100 fights and he hit Marciano pretty frequently.
Marciano even got tagged a few times by a washed up Joe Louis.
La Starza hit him plenty, especially in the early rounds.
How about Marciano's fights against the great Ted Lowry? This guy had a career losing record. Yet most people thought he hit Marciano enough to win their first fight and possibly their second. Same with LaStarza in their first fight.
No, I don't think that Holyfield was a good defensive fighter. That was his biggest weakness. However, he certainly was as bad as Marciano. Holyfield atleast varied his offense, which made him harder to hit. He would slug toe to toe, but he would mix that up with boxing from long range and bounching on his feet from time to time.
Holyfield wasn't nearly as wild of a puncher as Marciano. He didn't leave himself so wide open after throwing a punch nearly as often as Marciano.
The fights that you mentioned really don't show that he was a bad as Marciano.
You shouldn't even count the Qawi fight. It was only his 12th career fight. He was in their against an extremely tough guy and 15 rounds; he never went more than 8 rounds before. He really didn't get hit that much by Cooper. He was pretty much in control of the fight until Cooper got him into trouble against the ropes and it was ruled a knockdown.
Stewart got some shots in but not really that much.
The Dokes that Holyfield fought would have been a handful for almost anyone, including Marciano. When he came to fight, he was very good.
Marciano was a great fighter with great attributes; Power, chin,toughness. However, he wasn't hard to hit. This is as plain as day. It's mind boggling to think anyone would think he was.