Gene Tunney vs Rocky Marciano

The three official judges scored it 8-6-1, 8-5-2 and the widest score was 9-5-1.

8-6-1 and 8-5-2 are close scorecards. The champ gets the benefit of the doubt in close rounds. Not the challenger.

When the defending heavyweight champion wins 8 of 15 rounds on two cards, that's a close fight. That's why they had a rematch.

Only one-third of the fight is available. Of course, all the available rounds show Rocky doing really well. Because the footage was used on Rocky's TV show.

They don't just show the six rounds Ezzard Charles won.

And 8-6-1 was one of the scores Ali won by in the third Norton fight. I wouldn't call that a dominant performance by Ali. If they showed six rounds of that fight where Ali was doing really well, would we just say - "Who needs to see the other nine? I'm sure the judges got it right."

I'm not saying Charles won. But I'd rather see all 15 rounds of Marciano-Charles I than just the five or six rounds that appeared on Marciano's show and say, well, who needs to see the OTHER NINE OR 10 ROUNDS?

 

Dempsey wasn't coming off a three-year layoff in the return. He'd knocked out Jack Sharkey a few months earlier.

And the combination of punches Dempsey threw to floor Tunney was faster than any combination I ever saw Rocky land.

Dempsey just had major problems catching Tunney, because Gene was moving and punching all night

 

Five years ago?

 

Gene Tunney beat a 32-year-old Jack Dempsey twice and was the world heavyweight champion.

That's better than beating a 41-year-old light heavyweight champ Archie Moore.

One could make the argument the Jack Dempsey who Tunney beat in the return fight was better than anyone Rocky Marciano ever beat.

That Jack Dempsey may have even have beaten Rocky. A 32-year-old Dempsey certainly wouldn't have had to chase a 30-year-old Rocky around the ring.

Tunney's speed and power made Dempsey look bad.

Rocky never had to run down anyone like Gene Tunney. Rocky may have looked even worse than Dempsey did against Tunney. It's not like Rocky had faster hands than Dempsey.

 

Rocky beat Moore down because Archie Moore stood right in front of him, cross-armed defense, flat-footed, on the ropes, and let Rocky pound away while he tried to slip punches.

When did you ever see Gene Tunney do that against anyone?

Styles make fights.

Gene Tunney never fought anyone who could punch like Rocky. But Rocky never fought anyone who was a boxer-puncher like Tunney, one who glided around the ring throwing hard shots all night.

Tunney had more KOs than Rocky and Dempsey. Tunney could jab very hard and punch very hard while skittering around the ring.

Dempsey might land a one-punch KO. He did that occasionally. But I don't see him outboxing Tunney over 15. And I don't see Tunney laying on the ropes lettng Marciano tee off on him round after round looking to counter.

Tunney took the lead in fights. He didn't lay back on the ropes and play counterpuncher all night.

Neither guy was ever stopped. If it goes the distance. Tunney wins.

 

Again a real toss up. I think which ever style you favor is going to sway your pick in the end.

 

Nothing "nearly" about it.

The man was, for all intents and purposes, stopped in rd 7.

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"It's split in half ,"Goldman groaned in the corner as he inspected Rocky's cut ,"How we gonna stop the bleeding" "You aint ,"Allie Colombo shouted ."There's no way you're gonna stop that.Rock you gotta get him! You gotta get him or they could stop the fight!"
The doctor was examining Rocky ,very unhappy with what he saw.Marciano's handlers pleaded with him not to stop the fight.The doctor himself was reluctant to take a man's championship away on what appeared to be a freak accident.But soon he might not have any choice.
Marciano charged out of his corner at the bell for the seventh.A swab that had been left in his nostril fell to the canvas.Blood poured from the wound.
Charles was trying to hit the nose, like a mongoose going for the head of a cobra, but he was dealing with a wild man.Rocky's punching accelerator was jammed to the floor.As the round ended Charles was floundering under the assault.
Rocky stormed out of his corner and ran into a solid right by Charles.blood trickled from the corner of the champion's vulnerabl left eye.Then he roared after Charles and crashed right to the head that dropped Charles to the canvas.
Cofused and dazed Charles got up at the count of four,only half- recovered from the effect of the punch.

Weill and Colombo were hysterical,"Go after him! Go after him! Finish him Rocky! You gotta knock him out!
It's impossible to tell which of the punches finished Charles.At the end Rocky had just thrown a right -left,right -left combination,Ezzard collapsed to the floor.He had risen to his knees as Referee Al Berl counted him out 24 seconds remaining in the eight round.
"It was amazing,said Sam Silverman,who had been sitting ringside in Marciano's corner.The fight couldn't possibly have gone another round without the ref stopping it. They just couldn't stop the bleeding.It had to be an elbow.No punch could make a cut like that.There was Rocky in the middle of a tough fight,but when he had to ko Charles,he did it.It was unbelievable."page 245 Rocky Marciano ,Everatt M Skehan.
ps Marciano was in danger of his fight with Keene Simmons being stopped.

 

Tunney took legitimate advantage of the fact that Dempsey refused to go to a neutral corner he was down for about14 seconds ,he always said he could have gotten up before 10,he also said he didn't know if he could have survived the inevitable assault that would have followed when he did.

 

Tunney wouldn't be 39 years old either would he?

 

Never read a report that claimed Charles won, but it was certainly a reasonably close fight.

 

Tunney wouldn't be around to take those shots he had great wheels , Archie had to, ,Moore said his legs were gone by the time of the Marciano fight. I see a close fight here.

 

There would be nothing easy about this fight! imo

 

Except that Moore had beaten Nino Valdes twice, Bob Baker, Joey Maxim twice and Harold Johnson in the previous two years. Who had Dempsey beaten in the two years before Philadelphia?

 

Apr 1 1924-Dempsey signed a $1 million deal with Universal Pictures to star in 10 films over 2 years
What would you have done fought Wills,Godfrey and Greb, or take the movie loot and the "fringe benefits" that came with it?