What if Rocky Marciano had fought on into the early 60s?

Didnt Rocky try to make a comeback for a bout with Patterson but he couldnt perform to his standards in the training camp?

 

He should be favored over all of them, although Doug Jones' trickyness, Terrel's annoying jab and grab tactics+size would be a cause for concern. The problem isn't the matchups but Rocky's pace and health.

His gruelling training camps and oressure fighting style mean that even an opponent he would normally not have too much trouble with could become a life and death affair. 32 isn't that old but Rocky's back was acting up and he would sometimes have issues with cuts/scar tissue so he was essentially a ticking time bomb.

I could see Chuvalo upsetting him in a very close gruelling affair with a shopworn old Rocky, Terrel frustrating him and pulling it off, or Machen fighting super cautiously and winning on clean punches and ring generalship.

It would just be a matter of time. I doubt he goes undefeated.

 

Rocky would of been 35-39 years old in this scenario and definitely on the downside or completely out of his athletic prime. He probably wins some of these but eventually the mileage and age are going to catch up to him

 

I don’t think his body nor style would have aged well to be very effective in that era.

 

Except by the time he would have faced Ingo, Rocky's back would have been 3 years worse, he would have been 3 years slower and 3 years less explosive. Those with styles anywhere reminiscent of Rocky's have a short shelflife at the top.

I think he wins about half of these match-ups at the time they would have happened.

 

By the 1960s, he would have been a trial horse!

 

Rocky should get credit for stopping at the right time. How many other fighters have done that? He went back into training for a while, with a possible Patterson fight on the horizon, and he realized he just didn't have it any more. Could have received a big payday, but walked away.

 

That is a very hard thing for a champion to do, especially when they appear to be in a position of strength.

 

Liston would of steamrolled him.