Most don’t want to admit the average age of opponents for Fury and AJ are much higher then Marcianos.
Marciano was an excellent athlete and had strong catcher position legs -he excelled in many sports and was also a tough street fighter as a kid with a reputation for having never lost in the streets. His style was not pretty but effective by design, he had a good defense for a fighter who was coming in aggressively - his awkwardness was a rhythm breaker and his stamina and will to win and power together was a tough combo- I don't think he looked for shoe polish speed as much as landing short powerful shots to KO or wear a man down but his speed was fine , he beat speedier crafty guys to the punch and doubled up very well on hooks and right hands - Its very hard to accomplish what Marciano did and as sole Champion fighting his # 1 contender 5 times- your right we may not see anyone like him again - times change, fighters change, circumstances change but a fighter that was great in his era will always be a great fighter. 49-0 43 KO's written in stone!
Fighters have longer careers now,less fights ,better nutrition, they have teams around them nowadays.
Not really, in his previous fight Cunningham had lost a split decision to Tomasz Adamek the number 5 ranked heavyweight in a final eliminator ,so how was he a," C level fighter? "
His greatness is not disputed, whether it would translate successfully to the modern game is the question?
How does a man with poor balance knock out 88 percent of people and only get knocked down twice? It’s impossible. He got wild with his punches time to time but when you’re 5”10 w a 68 inch reach you have to take wild chances which he did. His balance was poor when he started not in the course of his career. You can’t go through that kind of career w bad balance. It’s impossible. Literally impossible.
Hi Macca, Adamek was a super brave fighter and a very good light heavyweight but I don't rate him as a heavyweight. With so many alphabet belts I don't really put much stock in eliminators. Our own Paul Briggs gave Tomas absolute hell in two great light heavyweight scraps which shows me what kind of level Adamek was as a fighter. Cheers Mate, hope you n your's are all doing ok in these very " interesting " times.
Rocky would probably be a light heavyweight these days in my opinion and a great one. There is a reason nobody of his size and style has been Heavyweight champion of the world since. And before the Rockistas mention Frazier and Tyson, no they were not the same size as Rocky. Cheers All.
Charlie Goldman made a workable masterpiece out of a short fighter and made him fight shorter using his freaky short strong legs as a base - Charley was a short guy, a fighter himself so that was his expertise. Stewart excelleled with the taller fighters and did well with Hearns- tall for his weight and Lennox Lewis and Vlad Klitschko - he did well but Lewis was not without a loss, he was KO'd by 2 fighters with less amateur pedigree and Hearns was ko'd by a shorter SRL who had little Angelo in his corner and Hearns was KO'd by a rhythm breaking brawler named Iran Barkley who's balance was horrific and beaten in his next fight by 5'7 Roberto Duran who was 38 at the time Stewart had his area of expertise as Charley had his and I think they both worked well despite their difference of opinions and methods. Marciano was not built to be a ballerina like Willie Pep but his punching balance vs Charles 2, Mathews, Moore, Layne and Walcott 1 & 2 was on the mark. genius is genius but not necessarily the same formula. By the way these posts are purely speculation- a fighter is great in their era and its impossible to know how well a fighter would be in an era they were not born in, who knows what type of fighter Tyson Fury would be in the 50's or what type of fighter Marciano would be if he was born in the late 90's -
He certainly made some eye opening points. I'm not on top of current day boxing anything like he is and it's good to get a spiel.
Adamek was 36 years old and lost 2 of his last 3 fights before this eliminator with Cunningham. After those 2 losses, Adamek beat Jason Gavern who had 2 back to back KO losses. How does losing 2 fights and then beating a guy who had 2 losses imna row give Adamek a #5 ranking??? Cunningham failing to convincingly beat such an opponent only reaffirms ny position. He was a C level and lost almost every time he stepped up. Who was his best win, Marko Huck at Cruiserweight?
His own trainer said he had "two left feet." Perhaps he should have listened to the keyboard experts.
