Why was Marciano's era not strong?

It was a strange era.

From Louis to Liston the HW division was weak.

I mean it possessed some very skilled fighters but it didn't produce a murderers row of HW fighters.

 

it wasnt weak if the fights were more competitive. i notice you used Louis and Liston as a bench mark for how strong an era is. looking spectacular can be one of two things. either the opposition is really weak or the champion really is a phenomenon. sometimes its a bit of both.

but a competitive era can only be a competitive era.

its not like each champion could win no more than one fight was it? the fights were competative, the challengers were more worthy and the champion was dominant. i dont see where weakness fits in?

 

Rocky's entire career (aside from the Louis fight) could have been fought at CW.

The weakness referred to, as I understand it, is in respect to the lack of HW fighters.

We had two CW guys in Rocky and Jersey and 3 LHW guys in Charles, Moore and Patterson.

 

No there was a load of what you would call heavyweights right the way through that era.
Joe Baksi
Elmer Ray
Cesar Brion
Lee Oma
Charlie Norkus
Coley Wallace
Billy Gillium
Embrell Davis
Bob Baker
Nino Valdes
young Jack Johnson
John Holman

So there was absolutely no lack of "heavyweights"
...They just could not get past the smaller sized older experienced gate keepers like Harold Johnson, Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles.

Competative fights, worthy challengers and a dominant champion.

 

Rocky's whole career aside from the Louis fight could have been fought under the CW limit.

No one is disputing the competitiveness of the fights nor the worthyness of the challengers nor the dominance of the champion.

We are saying the era is weak because of the lack of HW sized contenders.

 

You are saying it is weak era because of a lack of HW sized contenders, I have just shown there was no lack of HW contenders, the thread is asking why it is weak in general. I dont know where you get the "we" from.

So far "we" have discussed the TV playing a part in post war prospects coming a cropper against pre war veterans and how it might be that so many ex light heavyweights were so good and did so well against HW sized contenders.

But like you say No one is disputing the competitiveness of the fights nor the worthyness of the challengers nor the dominance of the champion.

 

Was Muhammad Ali's era (1964-'67) any less weak than Marciano's era (1952-'55) ?
Liston was an aging champion who suddenly petered out, then you have Ernie Terrell as Ali's main rival.
Floyd Patterson, a small guy already destroyed twice by Liston, was about as good as any of the rest.
And it's worth noting that Archie Moore was still ranked in 1962 when a young Clay beat him.

 

Moore does not feature in the Rings annual heavyweight ratings after 1958, nor the lhvy ratings after1961 ,are you saying he was ranked in the monthly ones?

 

This has some truth to it but with exceptions.
Charles was beaten by Holman,Johnson,Valdes & Ray .
Walcott was beaten by Ray& Layne.
Oma was 34 when the decade started he was basically done.
Davidson was no heavier than Walcott.
Norkus either.
Baksi ,like Oma was a hold over from the 40's.

 

I believe he re-entered the rankings when he KO'd Alejandro Lavorante.

 

That would seem to be the only victory that would have made it credible at that time.

 

But Charles also knocked out Ray. He knocked out Oma,He knocked out Wallace. He beat Gillium, He knocked out Baksi and beat Holman in a rematch so Charles saw off a lot of these rated HW sized guys before and even after he fought Rocky.

Walcott twice beat Ray winning their serries. Walcott beat Ian and Baksi. He beat the giant Johnny Shkor...Walcott smashed up a lot of HW sized guys. Tandburg, Hoff, Lee Q Murry.

These guys careers overlapped the duration of Rockys Career. Davidson and Norkus were big enough to compete as a HW in the 1970s. So was Holman, Valdes, Baker, Powell and all those others.

They were just some of the bigger guys. They were always around.

 

Yes that is the reason it's preceived as weak, because the top HW fighters were all LHW or CW men.

Put it this way, if all of the best MW fighters today were natural WW men it would be perceived as weak.

 

Norkus was 6ft and typically scaled around194/195lbs