What if Marciano chose to fight Patterson before retiring?

Patterson would have got flattened.

The critics would say that Patterson was green, and that Marciano only fought small old guys, or young small chiny guys.

The supporters would point out that he beat the heir to his crown.

We don't come much closer to consensus!

 

Marciano would brutally knock him out after being dropped.

 

Patterson wasn’t ready at the time of his retirement. Think he was 20? But I def take Marciano to end it before 6.

 

If Marciano had taken fight number 50, it almost certainly wouldn't have been Patterson!

At the time that the contracts would have to be signed, the options would be something like, Pastrano, Jackson, or Valdez!

That is why Marciano retired!

 

Because he came out of nowhere very quickly!

When contracts are involved, everything works a few months late!

 

Unless Marciano falls out of shape, like what was happening, I'd pick him to knock out Patterson in 5. He'd probably come in lighter and start quicker like in Walcott 2 and Kid Matthews vs Marciano, a more explosive Marciano would do well here.

 

To tell you the truth, Patterson was still a ranked light heavy at the end of '55 and Marciano retired in April of '56. Hurricane Jackson had beaten top contender Bob Baker and then stopped British champ Johnny Williams, so he really was the logical man to fight Marciano. I don't know how Patterson got the OK to engage Jackson in an eliminator to fight Moore for the vacant title, but they met on June 8th of '56. Now, if I was Al Weill and had his penchant of picking 'less dangerous' opponents and wanted to hit the magical 50 mark, I would have signed up Jackson. He was small, wide open and an easy mark for those Marciano right hands. The perfect opponent.

 

Floyd would not have been ready for Rocky at the time Marciano retired,imo.

 

One fight can change the face of the rankings very quickly.

Marciano's retirement moved him to the front of the que, because if Marciano had remained active, he would already have signed for another fight when Patterson gained his ranking.

 

I am not sure that a Marciano Jackson fight would have made a lot of money.

 

I seriously think it would have done fine at the boxoffice because at that time, Marciano fights were like Ali's. In other words, an event, where people came out in droves. Case in point, the Marciano-Cockell fight. Neither of these fighters had ever fought in California and Cockell wasn't even a good or marketable contender. Yet, 18,000 filled Kezar stadium as well as a very healthy closed circuit distribution. Jackson was a New Yorker and had beaten several top men known to NY such as Charles, Layne, Baker and Slade. I think that fight would have done good at the Garden, not to mention hyping the magical 50-0 tag. I think the fight would have been OK as long as it lasted, with Jackson getting in his slashing-style punches, maybe even cutting Marciano. But I would see Rocky lowering the boom in about 4 rounds.