Keep that chin tucked and that's less likely to happen. Rocky was a monster in his era. That is a fact.
It's interesting to me that many Rocky fans say he was not at the top of his game against Archie Moore ,yet his trainer and several top boxing writers such as Red Smith ,and Arthur Daley consider it his best performance. Before the fight Jack Dempsey declared,Marciano would have lost to Louis,Johnson and himself,he also said,Schmeling,Sharkey and Baer would have beaten him,and he called Marciano ,"just average,Rocky has too many faults to be a great fighter." We have no record of any Dempsey quotes immediately after the fight.lol
Charles didn't win that fight. If he'd had been 4 or 5 years younger I think he would have won. But he'd been fighting professional a long time, often against the best around, and had been in almost 100 fights. Marciano was a bit younger and a lot fresher. Charles at his best would beat him. Still a great win for Rocky though.
I don't think it was even that close,he did well early on, but despite flashes of defiance as the fight progressed, Rocky bossed the fight after the halfway mark.imo
Yeah, Rocky showed incredible stamina. I doubt it was close either but a younger Charles would have had enough to win, I think.
I think being in a fight is a really poor place to judge if you won it, add in the level of self belief you need to be a top fighter, and you can't put much on what they say. Fighters very often say they thought they won fights they clearly didn't. As for Walcott hitting harder than Marciano, I buy that. Rocky couldn't KO Charles with one punch.
Dempsey said a lot of things. I have an old ring magazine where Dempsey said Rocky was great. I might dig it out for you.
To be fair, the counter Joe performed on Charles is probably one of the best ever seen. Rocky couldnt pull that off style wise against Charles.
Charles was a tough experienced fighter and he was fresh off of a KO over Satterfield and Wallace but other than the nose cut in the 2nd fight he lost both fights pretty clearly - no controversy - That version of Charles fight 1 would have beaten many of the former champions in there primes. From Johnson to Ali Charles would have been competetive & 90+ % victorious IMO - Dempsey-Louis- Johnson- Ali -Liston he may be 50% victorious and he gave Marciano trouble but very brutal KO loss in the 2nd fight and damaging loss _ Walcott was hot and cold fighter but on a good night he could upset many ATG's and almost did- he KO'd a durable Charles with his left upperhook
Yes it was a very special performance. Against Rocky, in Round 4 Charles especially looked like an ATG fighter. He probably wins that particular round against all champions that century.
