Rocky Marciano In The 70's?

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Quarry did really well beating Shavers KO1, KOing Mac Foster and dominating Ron Lyle so I think Marciano does better.

Ali said that "Marciano would be a hard fight for him Frazier was tough and he said Marciano was better than Frazier

Bonavena would be a nice s**** for a while but Marciano was much better in every aspect and hit harder but Oscar was strong as his Argentinian comrade Firpo.

I think Marciano would be a presence and have success but would more than likely lose his 0 just like guys like Lewis, Holmes, Vlad or any other Champion would if they fought all time greats prime for prime

Frazier said there are only 2 fighters that could beat him Louis and Marciano and he said they would both beat Ali

The only one that may be a tough fight because of style would be Foreman because he was an early starter for the most part but Foreman's people avoided Quarry and Bonavena, Foreman had a very padded record until Frazier and Frazier was lacking the right hand (the punch that work against Foreman). As we saw in the Lyle fight and others Foreman could be caught with the right hand and a prime Foreman winded. I wanted to see Foreman against Quarry because to me that would have been a solid test for him.

Coetzee and Shavers always have a punchers chance and Young could bring difficulty for anyone.

Norton never beat a pressure fighter and he could not back up.

 

Ali, Foreman and Holmes are the only ones whom I'd comfortably favor to beat him. The rest are either Rocky victories or 50/50 tossups. As mentioned, Bonavena vs Marciano would be a fun fight to watch as would Marciano vs Frazier. Quarry, Ellis, Shavers, and an old Patterson get taken out quick. Bugner's safety first style combined with his size would see him through the distance to lose on points unless he was cut bad early. Lyle would be a dangerous fight. Norton probably gets knocked out but his boxing ability and size advantage over Rocky would help him to last longer than he did against Foreman and Shavers. Jimmy Young is another tough match.. There were a few other names on that list, but I think I'll leave them be.

 

He goes about .500.

Marciano's greatest talent was the timing of his career.

 

Just being a wise guy...i won,t do it again. :smoke

 

He would beat most of them...not sure he could beat Holmes though

 

He would lose to Ali,Foreman,Frazier and Holmes - definitely. I'm obviously talking about the best versions of the first three in that decade.

Would be favourite over the rest with the exception of Norton whom I'd make a 50/50 one.

 

Would be very interesting to see... Not only would I really like to see Marciano take on the greats of that time Ali, Holmes, Frazier and Foreman but many very interesting match up's could be made with a lot of the very good fighters in the picture too. Norton, Lyle, Bugner, Young, Bonavena, Shavers etc wouldn't be easy opponents for The Rock. I'd expect him to win some, lose some in those match ups. You can never count out Marciano because he was such a competitor with incredible stamina and conditioning I'd give him a chance of wearing out almost anyone but at the same time never been to impressed with his boxing skills or mobility and this is why I don't feel its out of the question that some of the good fighters of the 70's could out box him. Either way if he had come along in this decade he'd have been in for some real wars..

 

I think he'd beat a 70s Ali, in a savage 15-round battle
He might beat Frazier
His chances of beating Foreman are f**king remote, to put it mildly

Holmes v Marciano is interesting. Hard to call.

 

Yes, it is hard to call which round Holmes would stop him.

 

Yes Ali Frazier and Holmes were great fighters. A lot of great fighters DID feature in the 1970s heavyweight rankings But Not all of the great fighters were in their prime at the same time in the 1970s.

I would only expect the prime version of ANY fighter to beat Marciano so what was the year that hosted the most potent version of 1970s fighters in the 1970s? For Rocky to be unsuccessful in a decade where Terrell, Patterson, Wepner, and Bodell could feature in the ratings we need to establish a moment where Ricky could not succeed at all. For every monster available at anyone time there were enough duds out there to keep Rocky winning and nobody was THAT hot for that long. But then maybe that is always the case.

In the first years of the 1970s Frazier was very hot, less so later. 1970-71 Frazier could have beat just about anyone. The 1972 version and later was a lot more human. Same with Ali. Sure he was still the best but he was running on 60% after 1974, that leaves four years where he still had enough to be the best. So how good was the 1970s talent? We can all think of a number of ATG champions who would have beat the guy who was awful against Spinks and Young.

Holmes really came into his own from 1980. He had a great fight with Norton but Foreman had already shown Kens limitations at elite level. Norton was an excelent contender though.

George Foreman was both frighteningly powerful and frighteningly raw in the 1970s. Magic against Frazier but so sloppy against Ron Lyle, Ali and Young. Young George Foreman realised his potential but for a moment in the greatest scheme of things in the 1970s. Can we bank on Foremans greatest version to feature more times than he did? The Lyle fight was possibly the one time he prevailed in a tough fight. Is that enough?

The names that were around, the fights that the 1970s heavyweight scene produced were actually quite magnificent. But having said that the decade was a lot like any other in the respect that normal fighters could live in those ratings in just about each year and the top dog was never tops for that long.