Rocky Marciano vs Frank Bruno

While I'm no Bruno fan Rocky was 5'11 185 lbs,, with a 69 inch reach,,gulp! He'll be giving up 50 pounds, over a foot in reach , and 4 or 5 inches in height which will be magnified by his crouching style. Bruno is bigger , faster and stronger. This would be the hardest puncher Rocky ever faced,, maybe he could weather a storm and Frank gases late, but I wouldn't bet that way

 

Bruno's chin was iron. Watch how much punnishment he took from Tyson without going down. It's just his reaction to being hurt wasn't great. He eventually learnt to hang on against McCall when hurt.

Bruno Liston is an interesting one because Liston is used to dominating with his jab and being the bully. He folded twice against Ali when he was against someone he couldn't bully. Bruno would actually be able to match Liston's jab. After all he outjabbed Lennox and many other very good jabbers. You'd expect Liston to set up some powershots and get the better of Bruno but I don't know if it's a given.

 

The normal criticism is that Valdez would've been a much better opponent than Don Cockell. He was next in line, after that, but yeah - he lost to Moore.

 

Diffferent eras. Rocky is giving away height, reach and weight, but he was a greater fighter than Bruno ever was. Rocky fought over the 15 round distance. Is he allowed to bulk up and use PEDS? Perhaps in those circumstances Rocky wins.
I wouldn't rule Rocky out altogether anyway. He had better stamina than Bruno, kept the punches coming with a high workrate, had underrated defense and Frank didn't knock out the best men he met. I don't think he'd knock out Marciano. Rocky cut sometimes so it's a possibility Frank busts him up enough to win that way
So Bruno possibly on cuts or maybe a close points win over 12 rounds. If it were a 15 rounder and they've got to the last three rounds, I'll take Rocky.

 

This was after 3 years of Marciano being champion. Valdes beat Charles, yet Marciano goes onto face Charles twice instead

 

Marciano never weighed more than189lbs for a title fight.
For which title fights was Wilder 209lbs?

 

As I've previously stated Rocky only weighed as much as 192 twice in his career and Wilder only weighed under 209 for his debut, so the above poster intentionally lied to make a non-existent point.

 

Oh the reply was saying Marciano would be heavier fighting modern fighters because fighters put on weight according to the size of their opponents, however Marciano did not have Tyson`s bonestructher so it would be hard for him to figt well putting on the weight that Usyk has because Usyk can carry the weight better on his 6'3 frame.

 

Tyson was very sloppy v Bruno and wasn`t landing much on Frank until he went to the body in their first clash, Frank simply held for dear life in the rematch after the first round but was still stopped in three rounds, Jumbo Cummings had Frank out on his feet.

 

This. Valdez lost to Moore twice. There were plenty of big men that were good during Marciano’s time and Valdez was one of them, but the the smaller guys that were clever managed to prevail over them and Moore just happened to be bad news for big guys.

Hein Ten Hoff was a good fighter, had a very hard right hand, was slightly under 6’5” and around 220 lbs, but was beaten by Walcott and later by Bucceroni, who Marciano did entertain fighting before he got dusted by Tommy Jackson.

Joe Baski was another guy that Marciano entertained fighting. He was slightly over 6 foot, but usually around 210-220 lbs and was an excellent puncher, but not so good if you neutralized his power, which Charles did and Charles stopped him. After climbing back up he got beat by Bob Baker another big guy, who had recently been stopped by Archie Moore.

 

But if we're going to match him up with a guy who has such a weight advantage, would it benefit Rocky gaining weight or not?

 

Yes, but it could slow him down and it`s not his natural fighting weight, he ws small boned compared to Tyson, with a small trunk, he was a natural cruiser.

 

Exactly. And if any cruiser is moving into the hevay division we'd afford them the luxury of gaining weight.