In the interests of balance. Rocky Marciano the prime version, versus the versions of the following men that were Liston opponents. Zora Folley Eddie Machen Floyd Pattersonx2 Muhammad Ali x2 Cleveland Williams x2 Mike DeJohn How does Rocky do?
Marciano was very consistent against opponents who were not top 20 all-time heavyweights. He would have beaten most of the people on that list with almost mechanical certainty. Even when it comes to Ali he has a window of opportunity. He is being given a green version of Ali, who is coming off a subpar performance against Henry Cooper. Liston took this version of Ali lightly, and Marciano would not do him the same favour. This might just be a scenario to showcase how good Marciano really was!
I don't think Marciano looked that special against Lowry , Lastarza, or C*ckell none of whom were remotely top 50, let alone 20 heavyweights .
He still beat them. We are having to critique him on fights where he looked bad, as opposed to fights that he lost.
Many said he did lose them.:think Here's a novel idea ,how about you actually address the question asked in the original post?
But it was a different Ali who turned up against Liston, to that who had fought Cooper. He was 100% focused and disciplined against Sonny.
Folley's chin betrays and he gets stopped Machen runs and takes a lopsided beating maybe gets stopped Patterson gets stopped Ali wins too fast and durable Williams never defeated anyone close to Rocky's caliber he gets stopped Mike Dejohn gets stopped Rocky never faced anyone the size of Williams but I don't believe Williams was very good. Patterson and Machen would be good challenges.
Knocks em all out, except for the goat. Gives Ali the toughest fight of his prime. Marciano loses to a SD in the first match. Ali seals the deal the second match with a UD.