Marciano's Power?

If Rocky had longer arms he'd reach for the bill at the restaurant.

 

If Rocky had greater reach he wouldn't need a suitcase full of dilds.

 

Some will tell you he deliberately targeted their arms.Charlie Goldman would NOT be one of them!

 

No, once he kicked a guy in the bollocks ,probably just for the sake of variety !lol

 

Doing some research here and found some Archie Moore. My take from this is that he alludes Marciano had the type of clubbing power Foreman did as opposed to the snappy power of a Tyson.

Archie Moore -

Charley Burley was a terrific puncher, although to look at him you would not know it. His build fooled everybody. Burley’s legs were skinny, he was not extra wide of shoulder, he was small in weight and his height was the same as mine. But that man could get more leverage into a punch than anyone I ever fought. Another great puncher was Curtis “Hatchetman” Sheppard who once missed a punch to the jaw and broke a man’s collar bone. Lloyd Marshall was the snappiest hitter of them all. He could knock you out with either hand. Ron Richards was a tough hitter. Marciano was a very hard puncher—a bludgeoning type of hitter—super conditioned by Charlie Goldman. He was 100% aggression. There were others but I’d have to look at the record because I forget.

 

This from an early fight report vs Keene Simmons.

He is no fancy Dan, just a rugged, willing, "uphill" fighter who can hail himself out of trouble with one punch.

 

Ok found some more -

Joe Louis, knocked out by Rocky in the 8th round, said of Marciano, "It hurt to bump into him....He hits harder than Max Schmeling...this kid is tough enough to beat anyone."
He also said, "The Rock didn't know too much about the boxing book, but it wasn't a book he hit me with. It was a whole library of bone crushers."

Jersey Joe Walcott, who lost his title to Marciano in a 13th round KO and a rematch in a 1st round KO, was asked who hit harder, Joe Louis or Rocky Marciano. "Joe could take you out with combinations...Marciano was a one-punch artist. He threw every punch like you throw a baseball, as hard as he could. I have to say, with all respect to Joe, Marciano hit harder.

" Ezzard Charles "Rocky numbs you all over. Wherever he hits you, he hurts you; on the arms, the shoulders, the neck and the head."

Archie Moore (KO'd in 9th), when asked by reporters which of Marciano's punches hurt him, said, "Man they all hurt." He also said, "After a fight with Marciano, it felt like you had been beat all over the upper body with a blackjack or hit with rocks."
"He could hurt you, sure, but it was the quantity of his punches. He just had more stamina than anyone else in those days. He was like a bull with gloves."

Roland LaStarza "I would throw a hard punch, then he would throw a hard punch. The difference was that Rocky would throw 10 more. He just never stopped throwing punches."

 

I think it's become exaggerated as a tactic but we see opponents saying wherever he hit them he hurt them and that they ached all over after fighting him. Charles and Moore both clearly attest to this.

Here is however an article which claims Goldman did actually instigate this tactic for the LaStanza rematch.

In this match, Rocky again was outmatched physically by a quicker, more skilled opponent. LaStarza was an excellent boxer, with great movement, flow, and footwork. He came very close to defeating the Rock a few years earlier and was someone that on paper, should give Marciano fits. However, Goldman again came up with an ingenious game plan to utilize Rock’s strengths. He knew Marciano could not beat LaStarza by chasing him around the ring and hunting for his head, no matter how many punches he threw. Roland was too elusive for that to work. What Goldman suggested instead was to hit LaStarza anywhere he could, be it elbows, shoulders, hips, body, neck. He knew that Marciano’s seemingly limitless stamina combined with his heavy punches would break down his faster, more skilled opponent over a longer fight.

Truth be told, by the middle rounds, LaStarza was shot. The sheer accumulation of blows that he absorbed to his arms and body robbed him of his speed and since his arms were nearly dead weight, he was becoming unable to protect his head. Rocky KO’d LaStarza in the 11th round. Afterwards, it was revealed that LaStarza had broken bones in his forearms and had hematomas in his shoulders from Marciano’s assault.

 

“Rocky also had an additional weapon in his corner in the person of Charley Goldman. Goldman’s experience as a boxer and trainer was second to none. He was the strategist who could adjust Marciano’s style in mid-fight and Charley always said that Marciano followed his instructions to the letter. When The Rock could not get past Roland LaStarza’s guard in their second fight, Goldman told Marciano to start banging on his arms. Within a few rounds LaStarza had trouble holding up his hands.

“Marciano’s body and Goldman’s brain—what a combination!”

Roland LaStarza later spoke of the harrowing experience of being under the Marciano hammer: “The guy never stopped coming in. And covering up or taking the punches on your arms didn’t help. Everywhere he hit you, he hurt you. I took most of the punches on my arms. After a while, my arms were numb. I winced every time he hit me. The veins in my forearms were broken from taking so many hard punches. And then he tagged me…”

 

Marty Weill

As the son of Marciano’s manager, Al Weill, Marty Weill spent a great chunk of his life within the steaming confines of Lou Stillman’s famous New York gym, where the permanently closed windows served to enhance the pungent combination of sweat and cigar smoke.

Watching Marciano in his prime lingered in Marty’s memory. “Rocky weighed only 187 or 188 lbs., but he was a tremendously strong puncher. He could paralyze an opponent with those punches. Watch the film and see how he wears down Ezzard Charles.

“But Rocky was also a one-punch fighter. If he tagged you, it was all over. There aren’t too many of those guys around today. He was one of the greatest champions and one of the greatest punchers ever.

Joe Louis, with typical grace, was unstinting in his praise of Marciano. After bravely losing his 1951 fight to the upcoming Rocky, old Joe said, “Marciano hurt me every time he landed. He’s such a powerful puncher, he can hurt you by just hitting your arm. When he hits you in the ribs and body, you feel like sitting down for a rest. When you move forward against Marciano, you’re risking getting your block knocked off. That boy took me out with three punches. It took Max Schmeling a hundred. Of course, I was 22 back then but this Marciano is tough enough to beat anybody.”

Jack Dempsey also rated Marciano one of the elite hitters and noticed a marked improvement after watching Rocky work out in 1949 and 1952. Said Jack, “In ’49, he fought from long range and used a looping right all the time. Now he fights in close and seems to have developed a good left hand. The Marciano right against Walcott in Philadelphia was a thing of artistic and scientific beauty and downright damage.”

 

Harry "Kid" Matthews - "He was a great puncher, one of the best of all-time. He just threw one punch after another, and all of them were hard."

Phil Muscato - "I can still feel his punches. He kept punching me in the upper arms until I could no longer hold them up to defend or throw punches".

Bernie Reynolds - "He had amazing strength. Any time Marciano hit you, he could hurt you. He didn't do much flicking; every punch was a knockout punch."

 

But Roland LaStarza wasn't sh*t. He was a protected step and peck dandy. We wouldn't even know his name if it weren't for the Cult of Marciano. How does any strategy applied to his defeat garner importance?

 

Appeal to probability.

 

Well it seems Goldman certainly told him to start whacking his arms. This is notable in the overall discussion.

 

Rocky had complete trust in Goldman but I think he loved All Weil the most of all.