RIGHT!!! ... They were great fighters... Like Rocky Marciano admitted.., "I wasn't a good boxer. I just kept throwing until they went."[/quote]
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That's a very interesting quote from Marciano, where did you find it? I tried searching for it, but i came up with nothing.
In my observation of Marciano, he seemed careful not to come off as overly boastful or a braggart, characteristics I would bet he found distasteful.
But, he also struck me as someone who would never suggest that he wasn't highly capable in the ring, seeming to believe most strongly that nobody could withstand what he brought to the table in a fight. Maybe in his mind that meant his conditioning and power over his acumen, but coming right out and saying that? I am surprised.
This is an interesting quote that evidently came from Marciano:
http://www.theboxingmagazine.com/is-roc ... overrated/
“I became a dedicated fighter because I had single-mindedness, purpose of winning the title. I just overcame a lot of handicaps. A lot of people thought I had too short a reach to be a Heavyweight Champion. A lot of people thought I wasn’t big enough to be Heavyweight Champion. I had the big legs and was not too fast in the ring. The one thing I really had was strength. Body punching became a very important phase of my fighting. I hurt many opponents and was able to bring their guard down so I could eventually punch them to the chin and take them out.”
He says he only had strength in there, but I can't tell if he was still talking about what people supposedly said about him, or if he was actually saying thta in his own opinion, he really only had strength; and I must admit, I would have found that hard to believe before I saw it and the more I think about it, the more I think he was still talking about the things that those who underestimated him might have said. Still, he also says he overcame a lot of handicaps, but that doesn't necessarily mean that not being a good boxer was one of them, he might have been talking more about being smaller for instance. He still seemed to think he was pretty damn special, I mean this is how that quote started:
Rocky Marciano himself said shortly before his death, “I can only say is, I enjoyed it, I liked it. I never really knew fear. I never was really hurt. And I just think that… in my prime, I could have fought with anybody alive.”
Anyway, I would be interested to know where you found the quote by Marciano. Perhaps it would shed more light on how he rated himself.
