Rocky Marciano In The 70's?

Marciano's one punch ability is a bit overstated. He mostly wore guys down. He had Walcott spent and reeling after Joe put up a stand in the 11th. Rocky had nailed him with huge shots since the 5th... Louis the same.

 

I could see him losing to every one of them but Quarry and Ellis .. Shavers and Bonavena are pick em .. Norton would have huge advantages in size and reach, another pick em .. a prime Young would be a stylistic nightmare .. Bugner, with huge height , reach and boxing skills with an iron chin would be anther tough match up .. Rocky never entered the ring with anyone the size, strength and power of Lyle ..

Let's just say it was not the quaint 1950's ...

 

I would pick every undisputed ( and a few disputed ) Heavyweight Champion from Liston onward's to comfortably beat Marciano, with the more vicious punchers stopping him on either KO's, TKO's or cuts.

 

No. There are threads asking specifically for posters to make a case for Marciano or asking how he could do it but the assumption is always Foreman as The favorite.

 

Its funny but I see a many picking Holmes over Marciano and that's a fight I favor Marciano strongly=right hands,left hooks and pressure. Also Foreman in the 70's is a different fighter than the old Foreman he was not really in with any punchers, it was not because he couldn't take a punch it was because he was also easy to hit with right hands (Lyle was a decent puncher (not terrific) and he all but KO'd Big G. so Big G is not a superman and using the Frazier fight is a poor choice because of Joes absence of the right hand. as Ali and Young showed us and if you happened to get past 5 rds he was in danger and Lyle showed us he could be hit and hurt by right hands

Pretty loaded era add Marciano and a few tough fights with Ali and Frazier and I think the pick of the draw to get to the top would have a lot to do with who gets to the top. I dont think anyone has a long career fighting all these wars

overall Marciano does well and may surprise quite a few

By the way take any Heavyweight champ and put him in an era with 2-3 prime greats and there will be a lot of back and forth- Lewis, Holmes-Dempsey-Marciano-Louis would all find someone to look great against and someone to look not so great against but I think they would all eventually walk out with a loss and no one dominates. The point is the strong thing about the 70's is that Ali and Frazier were both prime and the came Foreman but in all fairness Frazier was never the same guy as he was in the FOTC

 

The thing that would make it as easy for George with Marciano as it was with Frazier is not the right hand. It is the ducking low, whether it is bobbing and weaving or a straight forward low crouch. You are simply inviting that big uppercut. If George can lift Frazier clean off the floor with it, he can certainly do that to the lighter Marciano.

Foreman KO 3 rounds.

 

When it comes to George Foreman vs Marciano I too think Marciano would be out gunned.

I feel a great stylistic match up would be Marciano vs Chuvalo. I think it would be a real war, I'm pretty sure Marciano would win in the end but I'd love to see him and Chuvalo fight a 15 rounder. Chuvalo could really bring it he was very inconsistent and struggled to a degree against rangy boxers..

 

He would have been champion at one point or another, But he would have a few losses on his record.

SO many great and very good fighters in the 70's, I see rock losing to a peak Holmes in a close bout, Frazier in a nail biter... I actually think he gives Ali all he can handle and could be favored, Foreman I have at 50/5o but leaning toward Rocky... Anyone else he is a solid favorite.... But one thing that should be mentioned.... All the above fighters had off days, and were not peak at every year, not even close... Rocky almost never had a day off, He always came in at 100%.

That's why I see him winning the title at some point. He is just to good the entire fight, has knock out power all day long..... Just hell to fight...He could KO any of them at any time...None of them would want to fight Rocky.... He may well be one of the most avoided fighters in the 70"s

 

If Marciano had a three year prime in the 1970s he could have been champion but it would not have been that dominating a reign like he had in the 1950s. Foreman got all the way to #1 in 1972 without fighting anybody that decent. Why can't Marciano? What did Frazier really have left after 1971?

I can see a prime Marciano beating a faded Frazier, Joe Roman and Ken Norton. why not? I think that is the least he could do.

A prime Foreman could spell trouble for Rocky but could just as easy spell trouble for raw George. After 1974 there is no prime Ali for Rocky to fight either. Prime Rocky can match Leon Spinks on a bad night. Truth of the matter is unlike the 1950s the ratings in the 1970s did not reach a point where it could be acceptable for a prime champion to just up and retire like Marciano did so he would have just kept going until he lost like all other great champions.

If Maciano started a prime early in the 1970s he would burn out by 1974 and be ripe for say a Foreman or decent Ali. If his prime Started out later say 1974 then by 1979 he would be half the man and ripe for who ever was tops in 1979. I think within a 3year prime you could put Rocky in with any 1970s heavyweight and he would not disgrace himself at all. Far from it.

 

Frazier problem was he couldn't see Big George's right hand coming at him. I double checked on his blind eye and found this:

In the '60s, shards of metal landed in his eyes while training with a faulty speed bag in Philadelphia. His trainers kept it a secret so he could continue to fight, but a decade later, he developed cataracts from the scar tissue and lost most of his vision in his left eye - See more at: http://www.mensfitness.com/life/spo...about-joe-frazier?page=2#sthash.TImmpCKU.dpuf

 

:good exactly!! I have long described how Frazier lost an extra range after 1972. He could still punch and was still a great fighter if he could feel his way inside but Joe could no longer punch his way in like before and this explains it.

George Foreman, with his long range power had a huge style advantage against a one armed, exclusive inside fighter who could not land at range as he once could.

 

He could beat the Frazier that lost to George I reckon, also the older Ali. It all depends on the timing of his carreer.