Bigger Puncher: 1951 Rocky Marciano or 1919 Jack Dempsey?

Dempsey was a far more dangerous two handed puncher. He KO'ed much bigger, tougher guys. No doubt Rocky was brutal as well but Louis was a shell, Walcott a cruiser, Charles a blown up light heavy as was Moore ... I never saw Rocky pound out a massive KO over talented , large heavy in prime condition ... his best KO to me was the shot that put out Layne. Terrific shot. Dempsey is reported to have a dozen of those himself but just not on film ...

 

and which of dempsey's opponents would you put in this category?

 

A lot more than I would with Marciano's opponents.

Dempsey was more proven against bigger fighters, period.

 

bigger? 100%

better? debatable.

i will go along with the theory that marciano will need more rounds than dempsey to get the job done against some of dempsey's opponents. I chalk that up to styles

willard, fulton, and firpo would need to stand on a ladder to kiss walcott and charles' ass in terms of quality though

 

Yes and no.

Fulton might not have had the defensive genius of Walcott, but it is almost unheard of for a fighter Dempsey's size, to reach up to and destroy a tall defensive fighter like Fulton.

Mike Tyson never did it.

 

i wouldn't call fulton defensive necessary but he could neutralize superior punchers.

tyson didn't do that but he demolished the 6'4 carl williams (and struggled against the 6'4 smith who fought scared)

it is hard to destroy a much taller fighter but monte barrett destroyed the much taller tye fields, does he get credit for it? fred fulton was simply not that good. he beat gunboat, he beat a fat blind langford. that's about it.

 

I think Marciano. Dempsey tended to bounce guys off of the canvas, but Marciano tended to put them down once and they'd be unconcious and litterally asleep.

I haven't seen Dempsey knock guys out with 1 shot the way Marciano did to Layne or Walcott. I can't envision Marciano landing as many clean, hard, wound up punches to Willard's jaw as Dempsey did and Willard being stopped in the corner. I think he'd have been out cold on the ground long before it was up to the corner to stop it.

People seem to attributing Dempsey's early round knockouts as evidence that Dempsey hits harder, but I don't really agree with it. Dempsey was a very, very fast starter and would often catch guys before they warmed up. Marciano, on the other hand, was a slow starter and didn't really get going until a few rounds had passed.

Swap Marciano and Dempsey's styles, I think Marciano would have ended up with several early round knockouts like Dempsey had. Dempsey in turn would most likely have many mid round knockouts like Marciano had.

 

The correct answer is Ingemar Johansson.

 

:tong