Compare Dempsey and Marciano in these 3 ways

Agreed.
Good analysis.
Absolutely, is that really you?

 

This content is protected

 

Nope. It's my old school nostalgia loving twin brother (who also has access to this account).

I've given him a dressing down and he promises not to post such things again.

Well, maybe.

 

I suspected just that exact thing!

 

Punching--Dempsey is faster with his hands and can throw better combinations, but the films and record show a guy who plods through a lot of rounds if he doesn't blow his opponent out quickly. Marciano seems more a feel out type against better opponents who starts slow and builds up the pace. Bottom line is that Marciano proved so much better at knocking the opponents out he fought that he has to get the edge from me. It is true that Dempsey's KO percentage is pulled down by limited round fights, but Wikipedia gives the scheduled rounds and if they are accurate Dempsey fought 41 fights scheduled for 10 rounds or more. 14 of the 41 went the distance. Marciano went 10 or more rounds 8 times in 49 fights. Both men clearly could punch hard enough to stop a man with one punch now and then, so power might be an arbitrary judgment, but Marciano's record shows he was harder to last with.

Chin--both men were durable, but I can't go against Marciano here as he was only down twice. I don't think his shoulder blades ever touched the canvas or the count ever reached five and he never seemed in really big trouble to me. Dempsey was against Firpo, but as has been pointed out, he took a lot of punches well and was very resilient. Dempsey was in fact stopped once. I rate this one even with both having top level chins.

Skill--I have to disagree with the consensus here that Dempsey was much more skilled. First, I don't think either were all THAT skilled, but they weren't "close your eyes and throw a punch and you can't miss him" types like Firpo or Baer. Dempsey bobbed, but carried his hands low, and frankly, the bob seems to be about all the defense he had. When an opponent put him on the defensive he really didn't seem to have an answer against Firpo and Tunney and Sharkey other than to show he could absorb punishment. He stood straight up with his hands low and took punches. Marciano bobbed also, down sometimes and sideways sometimes, but his big edge on Dempsey was that he carried his hands high and blocked quite a few punches with his gloves or arms. I watched Dempsey against Brennan, Gibbons, and Tunney and noticed how vulnerable he was to jabs. It was much harder to jab Marciano consistently. Marciano showed against Walcott and Moore that he was schooled in survival techniques as he covered up effectively or went into a deep crouch and roll which made it almost impossible to get a good shot at him. The issue is also confused by both fighters sometimes throwing defense to the wind when they had an opponent hurt and looking pretty wild and sloppy at times. I give the edge here to Marciano.

Just overall, my reaction watching the films is that the skills of top fighters improved on average over the decades, with Marciano on the whole fighting more skilled opponents. Some might bring up concerning the punching power question Dempsey KO'ing some really big fellows who were top rated, but as Marciano stopped all eleven opponents over 200 lbs. he fought, this would boil down to an argument based on a lack of evidence. Looking at their careers, one interesting fact is that Dempsey had only five official fights after the age of 26. He won three and lost two.

Better all around fighter--Marciano

 

Dempsey was also better at not fighting the leading contenders of his day.

 

Great post

 

Who would win between the 2 ? I'd take the rock