prime joe loius vs prime rocky marciano ??? how does it go???

They asked Charlie Goldman after their fight in 1951 how The Rock would have done against a prime Joe Louis...he said the fight would have ended sooner...they asked him why...he said"You don't come AT Rocky Marciano!"...love both of them...but Rocky was a different kind of animal...tough for me to go against Marciano...

 

Louis' better boxing skills would have prevailed eventually. Both Marciano and Louis would be on the canvas,at least once in a thrilling fight.
Louis by stoppage around the tenth stanza.

 

Great match up that turns one sided ... Louis is simply going to hit Rocky far more than Rocky hits him and no one holds up under Louis' assault ... Louis busts him up and stops him .

 

I think that once Louis realised that this was the most dangerous oponent of his career, he would sit down with Jack Blackburn and put a plan together.

Then you would see the sort of virtuoso performence that Louis only put forward against a fighter that he regarded as a serious threat, such as Max Baer or Schmeling II. The strategy would be worked out to the last detail and followed with total discipline.

The most likley result would be a brave Marciano getting battered until the reff intervened (or in Louis's era, the police enter the ring to stop the fight).

 

Joe Louis disagrees with you. He was quoted as saying he could never beat Rocky because Rock had the crowding style to negate Louis's best weapons. He also said he had never been hit harder than when he fought Rocky.

Add Charles, Walcott, Moore, and LaStarza; and what you have is an impressive list of victims. It is also true that Rocky fought the best available guys in his era, and that they would most likely (because of skill set) be successful in this era as well.

 

But Joe's assaults always started by him lunging in - in other words, he started his attack from the outside. He was an outside fighter. He wanted to keep his man at his distance.

But Marciano would have stayed skin-close to him, never letting him get away. Even Arturo Godoy did this with success against Joe Louis (one judge scored that fight for Godoy, and most at ringside agreed with him).

 

Marciano had the best defense in HW history, even better than Tunney and Ali.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0yHvw-vW0[/ame]

 

I remember this. Trainers are always going to protect and defend their fighters, but I thought it was a somewhat insightful point by Goldman.

 

But who would realize this? Marciano was criticized highly for his crudeness and plainly unaesthetic fighting style. Writers would praise and glorify master pugilists for their cerebral boxing ability, especially if they showed they can box & punch and be a killer. Walcott called Rocky an amateur. Said he would embarrass him.

If this scenario plays out it most likely means Louis is losing the first fight. Rocky was not this cosmic star. Louis might not think of him as the most dangerous man. Just another opponent.

 

Stop embarrassing Marciano fans.

 

Certainly a plausible/interesting scenario.

An older Louis certainly underestimated Rocky.

Some people preffer that fantasy fights pit opponents at their absolute best, in which case we have to give Louis an accurate appraisal of what he is up against.

Alternativley, we can try to judge how highly he would have regarded Rocky as a contender coming up in his own title reign.

 

Marciano fought coming forward, and was only floored twice in 49 fights. That means he had excellent defense. Ali was floored a lot more times despite fighting in a more defensive style.

Marciano looks crude and primitive. But he's a very skilled fighter. The most difficult to beat, because he really didn't have a style.

 

Louis could potentially underestimate Rocky even more if he's fighting him at the height of his heyday.

Then again, maybe not. I know the Joe Louis HBO Documentary tries to make it like Louis was playing golf all the time and overlooking Schemling for their first fight. Of course, this isn't pre-title Louis.

Of course, the main point is that... if almost everyone thought less of Rocky than what he was. Why would Blackburn and Louis be any different?