BoxRec

Head to head, through the Lennox Lewis era, here are the fighters that quickly come to my mind as favorites to beat the Rock head to head....

Jack Johnson
Jack Dempsey
Gene Tunney
Joe Louis
Sonny Liston
Muhammad Ali
Joe Frazier
George Foreman
Larry Holmes
Mike Tyson
Evander Holyfield
Lennox Lewis

That is 12 names right there.

I stopped paying a lot of attention to boxing starting about 1980 and I wouldn't be surprised if there are at least a few other names that I'm missing that would do well against Marciano. I feel like I'm missing someone.

The Klitscho's? Don't know, never really studied them.

Prime Ezzard Charles would have a good chance against Rocky. There are others. You may laugh, but I would have loved to have seen Jerry Quarry go against Rocky. I think Quarry likely loses, but he gives a damn good account of himself.

Bowe, Norton, Shavers? Other names from the olden days?

In terms of his record, Rock is Top 5.

In terms of head to head, he struggles to be Top 20.

I would favour the following former champs over Marciano, head-to-head (with varying odds, of course)...

Jeffries
Dempsey
Tunney
Louis
Liston
Ali
Foreman
Holmes
Tyson
Bowe
Lewis

yancey wrote:

Goodnight, Irene wrote:I don't think he makes the grade in that context, but I think he may go closer to doing so than we sometimes imagine.

He doesn't make the grade in that context and I think he may be farther away from doing so than we sometime imagine.

All I can tell you is I see him heavily under-estimated a whole lot more than I see him over-estimated, or evaluated correctly.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:

yancey wrote:

Goodnight, Irene wrote:I don't think he makes the grade in that context, but I think he may go closer to doing so than we sometimes imagine.

He doesn't make the grade in that context and I think he may be farther away from doing so than we sometime imagine.

All I can tell you is I see him heavily under-estimated a whole lot more than I see him over-estimated, or evaluated correctly.

You may need to get around more, GI.

There is a large contingent out there in cyber land who think Rocky is the greatest of all time. He beat everybody put in front of him and that is good enough, they say. Some point to that computerized boxing match off done a long time ago that had Rocky beating Ali in the final. Absurd, I know, but when it comes to Rocky an abnormally large percentage apparently think with their heart and not their minds.

I've found more of the opposite, even though there will always be parties for both sides of the ledger.

Controversial wrote:It depends on how you are judging him.

Taking his achievements, he remained unbeaten, was world champion and beat some great fighters (albeit slightly faded ones imo). If you are judging that alone he is a top five fighter.

However if you are pitting other heavyweights against each other in hypothetical fights then I do not believe he is one of the 5 greatest heavyweights ever, he would struggle to beat several fighters.

Marciano was fortunate to fight in a fairly weak era in heavyweight boxing. It was post WW2 and many of the heavyweights were blown up light-heavyweights or getting on in age. He was lucky to get wins over LaStarza and Lowry and his record is padded out with some fairly average fighters and journeymen.

If Marciano was born 20 years later he wouldn't have remained unbeaten and possibly not even won a world title. Fighters like Ali, Lewis, Holyfield etc.... would have been successful in any era in heavyweight boxing, Marciano wouldn't have.

This is how I see it. Some felt Marciano lost the first fight to LaStarza, and Lowry.