Rocky Marciano's so called punching power

This was your original post, Shawn. It's already been proved that Marciano defeated true heavyweights on more than one occasion. They may not have been champions, but they were still a lot bigger than he was. Period.

As for Archie Moore, he was considerably more experienced when he fought Marciano, and was arguably in the best form of his career when he met the Rock. Context is everything.

Just saying.

 

There is also the fact, that can be gleaned from a review of Lewis' or Wlad's resume, that in the last 20 years, fight in and fight out, champions must fight bigger, stronger opponents. I think Marciano's biggest shortcoming in the modern heavyweight division would be the continual wear and tear he would take against the bigger, stronger elite heavies of today. His back, his mysterious headaches... these problems would be compounded against a continual line of giant opponents.

 

I think that would be mitigated by the fact that he wouldn't be fighting quite as often; and by the fact that not every contender he might face would be a super heavyweight. That said, the abuse that he might have to suffer on the way in to do damage wouldn't help his cause, after a while.

 

I do think that the lack of quality big heavyweights on Marciano’s record is an issue when picking him over big modern heavyweights. I feel much more comfortable backing Jack Dempsey and Joe Louis against the current batch of super heavyweights, because they very comprehensively dismantled some quality big fighters. Even Jack Sharkey proved himself very capable of overcoming a size disparity at elite level.

The size of Marciano’s opponents should absolutely not be held against him while assessing his legacy. His title opponents were the best ones available, and got their rankings by defeating the larger heavyweights. He simply fought in an era with a very deep seam of small technically proficient heavyweights, and nothing spectacular among the big heavyweights.

You do not have to fight big heavyweights to prove your punching power. There are plenty of small heavyweights with solid chins, and small defensively orientated fighters are not necessarily the easiest to knock out. It is would be much easier to stop Hasim Rahman or Sam Peter than Chris Byrd or James Toney for example.

 

He would most likely get most of them out early from this era. Its my belief going against well conditioned, percise hitters for 15 hard rounds would take more of a toll. There was just two SHW from this era.

 

I think Louis or Dempsey, especially Louis, match up better against big heavyweights because of style ... Rocky dominated w strength and power, skills that would be more than neutralized by bigger men ...

Rocky did fight the best around .. there were simply not any real terrific or even very good guys at that time ... as far as very deep group of smaller guys, that's open to debate ..

I honestly have no clue what your final graph has to do with Rocky as he was small and not a defensive wizard nor that fast ... as far as power goes, no one's power remains effective against much naturally bigger men be it Ketchel, Duran, Robinson, Arguello or Hearns ... those who were most effective at all in moving up combined speed w their power and even they were never the same ..

 

Here we agree.

I am going to put my neck on the line, and say that it was the era with the best crop of heayweight cuties.

I was refering to the typse of fighters that Marciano demonstrated his power against.

I could name a few exceptions.

 

Please name a few exceptions of fighters that moved up in weight and carried the same power with them .. in Rocky's case he'd be giving up about thirty pounds or so so if you'd like to factor by division figure 15% over prime fighting weight ... and again I stress power, not combining other skills such as speed to stop inferior opposition ...

Tito was pretty decent at 160 but he had reach and speed, not just power ... Foster could not do anything at heavy ... Mike Spinks could not make Holmes blink ... I'm actually curious ...

 

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pleasure ta read you post, c

 

Langford is one example but when he fought a fighter he could not hit like a Fulton or a Wills he was thrashed ... Manny Paq is actually proof of a fighter that did not carry his punch up ... he could not deck Oscar despite hitting him flush dozens of times ... really other than the weak chinned Hatton his entire post Oscar victory tour was based on his amazing speed, an asset Rocky did not possess and would not be able to use against much bigger , fast men ...

Louis was a great puncher in his prime, period but he was able to maximize it with speed. His hand speed was blazing ...

BTW, if you're basing power on durability , who was the most durable fighter Rocky stopped ? Charles was stopped several times prior as was Walcott and Moore ... Louis was a shell ...

 

Except when he landed.

See my point?

Here I would have to disagree.

In the lower weight classes Pacquio was going to the scorecards, but when he moved up we startede to see destruction.

Lets start with Walcott.

He fought a shed load of punchers, and the only other person who stopped him as a full time profesional fighter was Louis.

Look at teh combinations Louis hit him with to keep him down, then look at the way Marciano scrambled his brains with a single punch.

 

Laughable example. Pacquiao's last stoppage win was in 2009. His power at 147 or 154 is very clearly not what it was at the lower weights.

Size is a major factor in durability, no matter how you try to spin it.

 

Is it though?

Who were the most durable heavyweighs in each era, and were they big heavyweights?