[1954] Ezzard Charles: Marciano doesn't really hit hard, Walcott punches harder

To be fair he was better defensively then given credit. Many of his opponents were a little surprised that they couldn’t land cleanly or even combinations. You rarely ever see rocky get hit with a combo (easy people I said rarely)

 

You had Rocky in your top ten yesterday lol. Edit correction it was an old post from 2013 ignore this good sir

 

Game.
Set.
Match.

 

Ali was sufficiently tall, had sufficient reach and was unworldly fast.

Marciano was none of the above.

And Joshua isn't all that good so far. He's a huffing, puffing, tight, ponderous behemoth.

 

Walcott took on younger versions of Charles and Louis and produced more eye catching results. Three clean knockdowns versus a knockdown then a brutal, skyscraper demo job type knockdown is debatable. Yes. But his knockout over Charles is rightly regarded as one of the best ever, especially in aesthetic terms (morbid, isnt it?), while Rocky's is not even considered his own best ko.

Walcott was not a volume puncher, nor a swarmer. He rarely even threw combinations. He was much more of a one hitter guy than the Rock; Marciano, in any of his fights, is always trying to punch after a miss. Whether he's on balance or not, whether his opponent is also throwing or not... it doesn't matter. Walcott on the other hand is always looking to get away. He's a firm believer in his right hand. The Rock doesn't care if he believes or not because he just throws. He just keeps throwing after he lands because he knows the first shot doesnt take them out. It hasnt ever since he stopped fighting Harry Matthews and Gino Buonvino.

Walcott looked awful fighting middleweights and lightheavies when he was down on his luck. Marciano by contrast seemed to be blowing them away. And when each man stepped up in weight Walcott started sparking out ATG heavies after outboxing them while Marciano decided he longer had the punch of "an armour-piercing" bullet.

 

I had him in it until the emergence of,Holmes, Foreman, Holyfield,Tyson,Lewis. He was number 9 with Frazier at 10.

 

I don't want to bring him down.I have many times stated he was a great champion who ducked no one, and a fine man.
Of fighters under 190lbs I would give only Langford and Dempsey a reasonable chance of defeating him.
I don't have rivalries online ,petty or otherwise.
Bottom line, I don't think the Charles quote means jack **** ,but it was fun watching the three Rockista's getting their knickers into a right royal twist over a quote made over 60 years ago.

 

Ali was 6'2 1/2 with a 79 inch reach. The only lineal champion under 6'4 since the mid 90s is Hasim Rahman who didn't manage a single title defense. This certainly seems to undercut that argument pretty heavily. If 6'2 1/2 was tall enough than a fighter that height would have managed to make it to the top don't you think?

 

I wouldn't dismiss Charles's testimony, but I wouldn't take it as gospel either.

It is an often noted phenomenon, that a fighter will talk up the power of somebody they beat, at the expense of somebody who beat them.

Abe Simon once said that Walcott hit him harder than Joe Louis!

On the flip side of the coin, I have sometimes speculated that Walcott's power is being sold short a bit.

Obviously if that is the case, then we have to give Marciano some credit for taking Walcott's best shots.

 

Didn't Rocky say Walcott was the hardest puncher he fought?

 

I don't dismiss it I'm sure he was sincere but in the overall scheme of things what does it mean?
Walcott hit him harder yes. Others ,[Moore,Cokkell ,] said the same thing concerning Rocky naming different fighters who hit them harder.The thing is Rocky kept up that incessant bombardment throughout a fight, he wasn't very accurate ,and missed quite a bit, but everything he threw was hard and he kept throwing.
I don't place Walcott in the top echelon of punchers, he was a good puncher and pinpoint in accuracy, a rapier to Rocky's broadsword.We as individuals take different things from quotes .Who is right,who is wrong?QuienSabe.

 

He said the Moore kd buzzed him and he blacked out for a couple of seconds.The Walcott kd looked perfect to me but he was getting up as soon as he went down ,conditioning,plus a good chin.

 

It would be interesting to know.

 

I'll need to check, the clip I'm thinking of is the one where they commented their fight, but the clip was used in Reznik's and Hanzagod's Walcott video's too.

 

I don’t know who was Rocky’s hardest puncher but he’s said the first Charles fight was the most painful. Believe because of the body blows.