BoxRec

This week will mark the 60th anniversary of the Joe Louis vs Rocky Marciano
bout at Madsion Square Garden.
Here is a link to a large newspaper story about it,including 2 rare(but blurry)
action photo's if you scroll to the left at the article.
Vancouver Sun October.27.1951.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=B_ ... 4970620&dq

here is a link to a terrific action photo that I had not seen previously.
Joe Louis is dazed and falling toward the ropes,before Marciano throws
and lands a looping right to finish the fight.

http://www.antekprizering.com/marcianolouis6738.html

Nice contribution.....thanks Brutu!

another good action photo-

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... is?popup=1

This photo is from round one,when Louis was still fresh and still had his ring legs during the fight.

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... ng?popup=1



more ring action in a later round...

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... no?popup=1

Here is a real nice pre-fight photograph of the two getting ready.
"Youth will not be denied".

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... ve?popup=1

Great Win for Marciano, but this would have never happened if Joe was anywhere near his Peak. He'd have KO'd Marciano!

Rocky Balboa wrote:Great Win for Marciano, but this would have never happened if Joe was anywhere near his Peak. He'd have KO'd Marciano!

If this fight would have magically happened in 1939,
I would say Marciano would win that one too,(at least the first one) .
remember how much trouble Louis had with Artruo Godoy
in the first fight due to his style?
and the Rock could definately PUNCH.

Louis vs Marciano
Part One
(originally aired live Friday.Oct.26. 10 pm EST on NBC-TV and radio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVHNlm9MHPM

Louis in his heyday would win with surprising ease.

Scroll down the list of typical Boxing attributes, and see that one fighter does virtually everything better...then youre gonna pick the other guy? LOL.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Louis in his heyday would win with surprising ease.

Scroll down the list of typical Boxing attributes, and see that one fighter does virtually everything better...then youre gonna pick the other guy? LOL.

yeah,I know,they all laughed at the Rock
when they first saw him,awkward,short armed,no apparent rhythmn.
But then they suddendly saw his opponent knocked out and hit the canvas like a cold mackeral.
The Rock had whats called the"X' factor.

Part Two

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbl1ly8vyrE

Joe Louis wasnt Rex Layne or Kid Matthews.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Joe Louis wasnt Rex Layne or Kid Matthews.

One faces the opponents that end up in front of them.

BoxBuzz wrote:One faces the opponents that end up in front of them.

Yup, the problem is down to his management

I not stalking you Buzz, just nothing else doing lol

http://www.corbisimages.com/stock-photo ... is?popup=1


http://corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rig ... es?popup=1


http://corbisimages.com/stock-photo/rig ... no?popup=1

Part Three

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMBfW1rkc6U

historic fight

brutal ending

no way Marciano wins against a peak Louis

Here is a sad photograph to see from the fight
that was PICTURE OF THE WEEK in the
November-5-1951 edition of LIFE magazine.


http://books.google.com/books?id=gFQEAA ... pg=PA37&dq

Today is the 64th anniversary of this fight.
Would anyone here have the kinescope of the original NBC-TV broadcast of this fight?
Without the annoying voice-over from BigFights Inc.
The legendary Don Dunphy originally had called it live blow by blow.
( aired live Friday.Oct.26. 10 pm EST on NBC-TV and radio)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bmvHeqzXhA

What this fight always pretty much proved to me is how far superior Louis was to Rocky. 10 years past his prime with a 4 year break in between, old and slow, he still manages to bust Rocky up a bit with his jab alone. Im sure the prime Louis would have been far too fast for Rocky and wins by stoppage. Dont get me wrong Rocky is a legend and a great fighter but Louis was special.

a legendary fight.

id say a peak Louis has to beat Rocky.

These two were a nightmare to fight

cfang wrote:What this fight always pretty much proved to me is how far superior Louis was to Rocky. 10 years past his prime with a 4 year break in between, old and slow, he still manages to bust Rocky up a bit with his jab alone. Im sure the prime Louis would have been far too fast for Rocky and wins by stoppage. Dont get me wrong Rocky is a legend and a great fighter but Louis was special.

The aftermath of the fight, was similar to the aftermath of Johnson-Jefferies, with Louis saying at his best he could have never of beaten Marciano. Even years later, during the 1967 NCR computer tournaments on radio Louis repeated that same line. He never changed the narrative. He truly believed that Marciano was just too much of a work horse and tough in the ring, for Louis to of effectively held him off. I think that could be true--- one only has to look at such fights as with Arturo Gudoy and Tony Galento, etc. and see what kind of issues Louis had with brawlers/swarmers. None of those men were the equal of Marciano.

It would have been (imho) arguably the greatest fight in history. A prime Louis and prime Marciano. I could see both men battering the hell out of eachother for fourteen or so rounds, with the stoppage coming in the final round. As great a tactician as Ezzard Charles was, one only has to watch the first Charles/Marciano fight and see how great Rocky was overall. Ezzard still had something left at that time, and it was one of the greatest fights ever. And Marciano won a decision over him by a wide margin. Which only goes to show Marciano's incredible work rate, versus all-time great skills.

My grandfather, who seen them all from Tunney to Lennox Lewis (he died in 1996) said that Louis was the greatest fighting machine (from the waist up) that he had ever seen. I can agree with him to a point. I think in theory, Louis's style of countering in combination with his lightning fast hands, should have been able to defeat Ali. Why? Because it was that exact same style of countering, that made Ken Norton a greater threat to Ali than say Frazier was. But, that same style has its weakness... and that is the crowding, brawling style of someone like Sullivan, Jefferies, Dempsey and Marciano.

Maybe I sound biased, but I really do like both men alot. I could see Louis slashing Marciano to bits and winning on a TKO. But I also can't see Louis knocking Rocky out either. Something like the Lewis/Klitschko scenario. However, I can also see Marciano wearing down Louis, and both men be nearly spent at the finish, and Marciano either dropping Louis, or stopping Louis late in the fight. One thing about Marciano.... every man he ever fought was physically superior to him... every man he ever fought could box better than he could... yet he defeated them all. On paper, and all logic points to Louis beating him. But so did all logic and paper say Marciano should have lost to Walcott, Charles, etc.

lorenzo1791 wrote:

HomicideHenry wrote:

The aftermath of the fight, was similar to the aftermath of Johnson-Jefferies, with Louis saying at his best he could have never of beaten Marciano.

Source?

Joe Louis, knocked out by Rocky in the 8th round, said of Marciano, "It hurt to bump into him....He hits harder than Max Schmeling...this kid is tough enough to beat anyone."
He also said, "The Rock didn't know too much about the boxing book, but it wasn't a book he hit me with. It was a whole library of bone crushers."

http://www.thesweetscience.com/news/art ... k-analysis

^^^In that article there is a quote from Louis. "I had a bad weakness I kept hid throughout my career. I didn't like to be crowded, and Marciano always crowded his opponents. That's why I say I could have never beaten him."

Louis also said in the article that he found it very difficult to land on Marciano (eerily similar to what Ali said of The Rock during their computer fight in 1969) in which Louis said "The way he fights he was too hard to hit. I could've hurt my hands hitting the top of his head. It was my worst fight." Which says alot, considering he lost every round and was swollen badly against Ezzard Charles.

It must also be noted, that sparring partners of both Louis and Marciano said that without question Marciano hit harder with one punch than Louis did with a combination of punches. Not to say that determines the outcome of a fight, for there have been many men who hit harder than others that they lost to, but it does open some eyes to the possibility.