Controversial wrote:kaiserbill wrote:
....but Marciano always looked his billed height to me. Ignoring when Ali and him were clowning and joking around with the heights for their theatre, there are loads of standing pics of him with people of verified heights such as Charlie Powell, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, George Logan, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles, La Starza, Walcott etc...and even non boxers such as Stan Stutz, Bob Hope or president Eisenhower that showed him pretty much to be bang on his given height. In fact, there is also a pic when Marciano went to the UK and met leading or famous British heavyweights, such as Cockell, Cooper, Peterson, Erskine, Farr...and again, somewhere north of 5'10'' or around 1.79m as boxrec have him.
Marciano had an unusual build I guess, bulky in some area, not so in others, shorter arms, low center of gravity, that was misleading.
I was going by an autobiography on Marciano where it said he was only 5'9", I've have also seen a photo of him next to Bob Hope and they were similar heights and Hope was only 5'8". I think his reach is also a good indictor for his lack of height, 68" reach is very short.
Thanks for the reply Controversial.
The picture you selected is one of the pics of Ali and Rocky clowning around, as mentioned in my post above that you replied to. The fact that it isn't a full length pic and that Rocky and middle guy are laughing their heads off tallies with the description I recall reading in two different accounts of the "computer superfight" that they clowned together, with Ali at one stage in filmed or photographed proceedings standing on tip toes whilst clowning around to pronounce their height difference. Even Ali is struggling to keep a straight face.
There are other full length pics, but many of them are difficult to judge as either one fighter or the other is crouched over or moving on their toes. Below is a full length pic, giving a better illustration, although Ali is putting his weight on one leg and crooking his knee. It does however, taking that and camera angles into account tally quite well with the given heights of 6'3'' and 5'10''. Even the second pic of Rocky more crouched and Ali more upright demonstrates this.
It shows a very different pic to the clowning around one above, which would ridiculously give Rocky a height of about 5'5'' or 5'6'', which would make him way shorter than even Tommy Burns.
Or it would make Ali a solid 6'7'' to 6'8''........
When you say "an autobiogrophy", can you recall which one? I'd be interested.
Bob Hope was not 5'8''. There are tons of pics out there with him hobnobbing with various famous people, including presidents such as Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ that demonstrate that. He was pretty much the same height as Eisenhower or Rocky, at his given 5'10''. It is worth bearing in mind that we do shrink as we get older, and Bob Hope did live to 100 years of age, and that Marciano was basically into middle age when the Ali "superfight" theatrics was filmed,
Lastly, I would seriously urge caution in using Rocky's reach as an indication of his height. He had a notoriously short reach for just that reason. It was notoriously short even for his height. Why measure his reach accurately, making it short, but not his height?
Anthropomorphic measurements vary greatly, so I would certainly be very very cautious to base anything on that.
Sonny Liston was 6'1'' but had an 84 inch reach.
Leon Spinks was 6'2'' and had a 76 inch reach.
Jess Willard was 6'6'' and had an 83 inch reach.
Primo Carnera was 6'5'' and a half and had an 85 inch reach.
2 contempories Max Baer and James Braddock were the same height at 6'2 and a half, but Baer had a 81 inch reach, and Braddock 75 inch.
Floyd Patterson was another with a notoriously short reach, being 6 feet tall but only having a 71 inch reach, not that far off Rocky.
The shortest heavyweight champ, Tommy Burns, had the same reach as Ezzard Charles and Walcott, even though they were almost half a foot taller than him.
Mike Tysons reach sits squarely between Joe Frazier and Rocky, all of them roughly in the same height bracket, give or take an inch.
It has also recently been discussed on this forum by more than a couple of posters that Joseph Parker, the up and coming heavyweight prospect, has a short reach of 76 inches for a man who is 6'4''.
It's not something I would rely on.
But it is a fascinating topic, the different sizes, I guess there are more omportant things that can'y be measured accurately though, things such as speed, punching power, natural timing and natural leverage, core strength, and plain and simple old fashioned heart/guts.
