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How would rocky Marciano do against some of the big heavyweights of today.rocky had the heart of a tiger,never took a step backwards.retired undefeated.he beat joe Louis who was way past is prime.i believe Louis would of beat rocky when joe was younger.the same with Cassius clay/Ali.ali would of beat Marciano.they say a good big man usually beats a good smaller man.example ray Robinson losing to Joey maxim at Yankee stadium.the heat is what beat ray.

BOTP.

He wouldn't do well at all. Can you imagine Vitali or Lewis hitting, him it’d be good night! I'm a firm believer that nostalgia plays a big part in past greats ability, when compared to modern fighters, especially when discussing fighters from 50 or more years ago.

SouthpawStephen wrote:

zero wrote:He wouldn't do well at all. Can you imagine Vitali or Lewis hitting, him it’d be good night! I'm a firm believer that nostalgia plays a big part in past greats ability, when compared to modern fighters, especially when discussing fighters from 50 or more years ago.

Could you imagine Marciano hitting Vitali or Lewis?

No, I cant that's the point.

zero wrote:He wouldn't do well at all. Can you imagine Vitali or Lewis hitting, him it’d be good night! I'm a firm believer that nostalgia plays a big part in past greats ability, when compared to modern fighters, especially when discussing fighters from 50 or more years ago.

Exactly! Marciano was a great fighter but no way does he beat the Klitschko's. At some point size plays in as a factor. The Klitschko's have size and boxing ability.

To be fair he would be a small CW these days and with 24 hour weigh in would probably have no trouble making 175.

For my money Johnny Nelson boxes Rocky's ears off. Against Lennox it would basically be the Glen McCory fight all over again!

polecateddy wrote:For my money Johnny Nelson boxes Rocky's ears off. Against Lennox it would basically be the Glen McCory fight all over again!

I can see where you get the Glen McCrory comparison from, with Glen being a natural cruiserweight, but aside from that he's a very different fighter to Marciano. For a start, McCrory is 5 inches taller! Rocky was shorter and more solid and possessed a stronger jaw and a much harder punch, as evidenced by his high KO ratio, although the majority of his HW opponents would be a cruiserweights and in some cases light heavyweights today. Rocky himself could have made LHW early in his career, but make no mistake - he had a heavyweight's punch and a heavyweight's chin.

For the record, I think that while Maricano did have enough power to stop Lewis, the likelihood of him doing so would be very slim indeed, with the most likely outcome being Lewis boxing cautiously and controlling the fight at distance, stopping Rocky, likely on cuts somewhere from the 5th-9th round. I'd give him a better chance against Wlad, but would still favour the bigger man.

jezzamundo wrote:

polecateddy wrote:For my money Johnny Nelson boxes Rocky's ears off. Against Lennox it would basically be the Glen McCory fight all over again!

I can see where you get the Glen McCrory comparison from, with Glen being a natural cruiserweight, but aside from that he's a very different fighter to Marciano. For a start, McCrory is 5 inches taller! Rocky was shorter and more solid and possessed a stronger jaw and a much harder punch, as evidenced by his high KO ratio, although the majority of his HW opponents would be a cruiserweights and in some cases light heavyweights today. Rocky himself could have made LHW early in his career, but make no mistake - he had a heavyweight's punch and a heavyweight's chin.

For the record, I think that while Maricano did have enough power to stop Lewis, the likelihood of him doing so would be very slim indeed, with the most likely outcome being Lewis boxing cautiously and controlling the fight at distance, stopping Rocky, likely on cuts somewhere from the 5th-9th round. I'd give him a better chance against Wlad, but would still favour the bigger man.

People are so charitable when judging old school boxers. I suspect speed and power differences of the modern fighter would blow the majority of your Marcianos out if the ring!

The same logic can be applied to almost any heavyweight of yesteryear.

Ali would be a small heavyweight today.

He fought his first 15 fights in what would be the Cruiserweight division today.

He came in at 188lbs for his 9th pro fight, a weight in Marciano's category.

Marciano fought big or tall men, as did Ali.

The difference is that the really big heavyweights of yesteryear were generally slow and ponderous. This is not the case today in many instances.

It's not really fair to compare heavyweights of different eras, due to size, diet, modern scientific training methods and supplements.

Many great heavyweights of yesteryear would be modern day cruiserweights. They also were trimmer generally in those days, due to fighting more often, and because title fights were longer (15 rounds). Also, the sugar and fat saturated fast food culture had not yet happened, leading to the massive obesity levels we see around us every single day.

They were all greats if they dominated in their era.

polecateddy wrote:For my money Johnny Nelson boxes Rocky's ears off. Against Lennox it would basically be the Glen McCory fight all over again!

You should get banned for that moronic post. comparing Glen to Rocky

I'm sorry, but if you are taking 9 rounds to put away blubbery Don Cockell, you're not winning much these days. I'm not wrong in saying Johnny Nelson would have dealt with him more easily than Carl Thompson.

polecateddy wrote:I'm sorry, but if you are taking 9 rounds to put away blubbery Don Cockell, you're not winning much these days. I'm not wrong in saying Johnny Nelson would have dealt with him more easily than Carl Thompson.

Honestly, I've never read so much pish. Nelson got dominated by DeLeon amongst others. Glen wouldn't have been anywhere in the rankings in Rockys day. Get a grip

Tomasino wrote:

polecateddy wrote:I'm sorry, but if you are taking 9 rounds to put away blubbery Don Cockell, you're not winning much these days. I'm not wrong in saying Johnny Nelson would have dealt with him more easily than Carl Thompson.

Honestly, I've never read so much pish. Nelson got dominated by DeLeon amongst others. Glen wouldn't have been anywhere in the rankings in Rockys day. Get a grip

Sorry but Carl would have broken Rocky down you dope!

Marciano would slay all of the Heavyweights of today. We are talking about a wrecking machine here - one of the greatest brawlers of all time!

There would've been no taming The Rock - they way that both the Klitchskos seem to do to their opponents today. Marciano would just head them hard and they'd fall over.

Marciano, Dempsey, Charles, Tunney, Walcott, Patterson, Burns, And even Louis and others weighting below 200 pounds would had fought at the cruiserweight division to fight the bigger guys they would be forced to weight more than 200 pounds slowing them down. Unless they could have a training with weighlifting and vitamin supplements. Specially in this era of the super heavyweights. True that there were a few super heavyweights in Dempsey era, Willard and Louis Era. Carnera. But i still believe that The Klishkos are better fighters and Lewis than some of the super heavyweights of the old era.

Ouch, Marciano as a light heavyweight. He'd murder more than a few fighters today.

marchegianorock wrote:Marciano, Dempsey, Charles, Tunney, Walcott, Patterson, Burns, And even Louis and others weighting below 200 pounds would had fought at the cruiserweight division to fight the bigger guys they would be forced to weight more than 200 pounds slowing them down. Unless they could have a training with weighlifting and vitamin supplements. Specially in this era of the super heavyweights. True that there were a few super heavyweights in Dempsey era, Willard and Louis Era. Carnera. But i still believe that The Klishkos are better fighters and Lewis than some of the super heavyweights of the old era.

Agreed.

Add Jack Johnson for all his fights up to and including the fight he won the HW championship, Joe Louis in 19 out of his first 20 fights

Hell, Big George Foreman came in at 212lbs in his 13th pro fight.

Sonny Liston hovered at the cruiserweight limit for years after he turned pro, and I think came in under the cruiser limit in a couple of fights.
The same story for Joe Frazier.

Patterson fought his first 20 fights at 170lbs and under, actually managing to fight at 163lbs once.

Mike Tyson was the same height as Marciano, and had only a marginally longer reach.

Why pick on Marciano? We may as well make the topic a bit more broader, and not single out one of the previous heavyweight champs.

But this is precisely why I hate these threads, which is extremely unfair on any previous heavyweight champ.

If they were champs and dominated their division in their time, they are all great.

the Rock would pound on most of the heavies today. I was at the Chicago Stadium fight against Walcott back in 53. He was a site to behold.
These nads to anyone that says he didn't have no power!

In civilian life Marciano walked around as high as 250 pounds. What people don't grasp is that he trained down in weight, and he only trained that way because he knew it would take unbelievable conditioning to defeat superior talents and physically domineering opponents in the ring. If I am not mistaken, Marciano (prior to turning pro) once looked at an article on Joe Louis and seen it say that the then champion sparred thirty rounds a day, etc. to which Marciano thought for him to have a chance he would have to do twice as much work. The result was a man who did 10 miles of jogging plus 20 miles of walking, in combination with 40, 50, 50, etc. rounds of sparring daily, among other things. He threw as many punches, if not more so, in latter rounds as he did in the first. He could not be tired out, he averaged some 80-110 punches a round (a middleweight pace) and because of this amazing conditioning he was never really hurt or shook up in his career. The two times he was dropped, were for mere moments and were when he was off balance, not because he was jarred. He had a very underated ability to get inside on much taller, heavier opponents without taking much punishment. If you review tapes of his career, by the time he retired he was virtually a perfect swarmer, almost untouched on the way inside. In the beginning it is true he was a buller and took alot of shots, but Charlie Goldman turned him into something of an indestructable fighting machine. Had he not retired, he easily would have made the 50-0-0, if not went on to 55, 60-0-0 or better. There simply was nobody around to have given him problems; and because of that, he retired, cus nobody drew any interest. They were but boys against him.

As for Marciano against the modern heavyweights of today, I can see him defeating alot of them. Maybe he wouldnt have beaten the Klitschko's or Lennox Lewis, but can you really honestly defend the enormous, blubbering whales that are around today who throw less than 40 punches a round with no real foot work or technique or real skill? Alot of these men are as limited as Jess Willard ever was. Big men, equal big targets. Maybe Rocky wouldnt be knocking them out, but I cant see any of them really out working him either. He could bend down so deep, that if he employed such tactics on these giant men today, he would be so much incredibly smaller of a target to hit that all they would be able to touch would be the top of his head or his gloves. It would have been interesting, but Marciano proved time after time, he was capable of not only beating, but knocking out men who were taller, heavier, more skilled, and faster than he was. It isn't such a stretch of the imagination to think Marciano could decision or knockout someone like Michael Grant, Chris Arreola, etc.

jewboypgh wrote:the Rock would pound on most of the heavies today. I was at the Chicago Stadium fight against Walcott back in 53. He was a site to behold.
These nads to anyone that says he didn't have no power!

Walcott took a dive and the easy way to exit. The left hook hit walcott on the gloves and forehead the right uppercut barely touch his jaw. With $250.000 dollars that walcott was paid he did not wanted nothing to do with marciano.

Carl Thompson would have given him a beat down, never mind the Klitchkos and Lewis!

tonydevino wrote:How would rocky Marciano do against some of the big heavyweights of today.rocky had the heart of a tiger,never took a step backwards.retired undefeated.he beat joe Louis who was way past is prime.i believe Louis would of beat rocky when joe was younger.the same with Cassius clay/Ali.ali would of beat Marciano.they say a good big man usually beats a good smaller man.example ray Robinson losing to Joey maxim at Yankee stadium.the heat is what beat ray.

Marciano would be today's Cruiserweight king...

Goliath wrote:

tonydevino wrote:How would rocky Marciano do against some of the big heavyweights of today.rocky had the heart of a tiger,never took a step backwards.retired undefeated.he beat joe Louis who was way past is prime.i believe Louis would of beat rocky when joe was younger.the same with Cassius clay/Ali.ali would of beat Marciano.they say a good big man usually beats a good smaller man.example ray Robinson losing to Joey maxim at Yankee stadium.the heat is what beat ray.

Marciano would be today's Cruiserweight king...

No Carl Thompson would have owned him!

polecateddy wrote:For my money Johnny Nelson boxes Rocky's ears off. Against Lennox it would basically be the Glen McCory fight all over again!

Put the crack pipe down