Marciano v Cockell.Commentator Marciano

It is comical to me that some take issue with others calling Marciano an attrition fighter as if it were some sort of an insult. I greatly admire Marciano’s accomplishments and don’t see the need nor benefit of exaggerating or downplaying any of his attributes or weaknesses.

Statistics applied to a Boxing are far less inside for them and others words in which teams play a uniform schedule for example and where there are fewer variables.

 

For what it's worth, I am copying my prior post of Nov. 6, 2018, which appeared in the earlier thread "Whose 'left on the table' hurts their legacies most?":

"Al Weill's theory of managing a heavyweight champion was to have two fights per year to allow for a long build-up and to save his fighter from taking too much punishment. I think he might have had a more ambitious plan for Rocky if he had known in advance that Rocky was going to retire rather than hold the title until he lost it.

"My point here is that Rocky was defending his title twice a year, usually in the early summer and late summer (because the outside venues that were available only in the summer held more people) so that during the course of the year as much as six months or even nine months would pass without a title defense. During that time, a lot could happen in the ratings and several different fighters could hold the no. 1 contender spot during that period. That's why Valdes was not given a chance. He didn't hold the spot long enough. Moore beat him in the meantime.

"I suppose you can fault Marciano for not defending more often, but he defended on average every six months, and that was accepted then. With hindsight, it is easy to complain that ****ell wasn't no. 1 overall, but he was right up there in the ratings, and he was the no. 1 non-American challenger in the Ring Magazine ratings at the time he fought Rocky. The championship was a world title, after all, and it can be argued that Weill and Marciano were entitled to give the rest of the world some consideration.

"I, for one, think ****ell is given a raw deal by today's armchair pundits. I think he was a decent and courageous fighter. He would have done a lot better against Valdes if he had fought him before Rocky beat him. He got a raw deal against Marciano in SF. The press berated him, the commission ignored his request for a larger ring (he had been promised one), and the referee allowed Marciano to foul him repeatedly. He was demoralized by the entire experience and never had his head in the game afterward."

 

I totally agree.

 

He beat everyone that was put in front of them him and faced the best available. What else can you ask of anyone?

I really don’t think any fighter cared much about how fans think they would have fared against non peers from other time periods in hypothetical universes. Even Muhammad Ali who popularized the greatest of all time did it for hype and really didn’t seem to give much credence.
Universally they seem to have the attitude that they went out and did the best they could with what they had.

 

Obviously I did. Marciano’s KO percentage is HIGHER then everyone you mentioned but his quality of opponent isn’t. That’s why power wise he is placed below those mentioned but there is literally only five or six people you can say have a better power. That isn’t many. By your rationality only five people have KO power.

 

The biggest beef w Marciano that I agree with was his level of competition. But he literally cleaned house. Knocking out 3 ATG and several prime fighters is no small task. Despite the age of three of them (the argument that Charles was to old is ridiculous). But the quality otherwise is what puts Marciano below Lewis Tyson Foreman Liston and Louis and an argument can be made for Frazier or Ali but otherwise it seems absurd to me to label him an attrition fighter is just false.

 

I wish one of the Youtube boxing interviewers would take clips like this one around to contemporary boxers and trainers and get their assessments of the fighters and the action in the ring. Would make for some entertaining footage.

 

This is idiotic. Anyone can pick out the one bad fight.

Joe Louis said that Marciano hit harder with one punch than he did.
Joe Walcott confirmed this.
Dempsey said that Marciano probably hit harder than he did.
Ali was in awe of his power after sparring him.
He has an 88% KO ratio, the highest in heavyweight history.
He seriously injured opponents such as Vingo, Layne, and Lastarza

His power is simply not in question.

 

So it your contention Marciano was being idiotic about his own power? It is unfortunate that you were not there to set him straight . . .about him!

You were emphatically called out for falsely claiming Joe Louis said Marciano hit harder than he did. Am I to assume you do have proof now?

 

I don't own his biography anymore, where I got the quote, but if you want to hear Louis talk about his power, this came from a simple google search:

"It hurt to bump into him....He hits harder than Max Schmeling...this kid is tough enough to beat anyone."

So there: Louis, Walcott, Dempsey and Ali, two of whom fought him, and one who sparred him, all confirming his power.

You would be an idiot not to agree with these four greats.

Repeat: power NOT in question.