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

It is like a fighter that has fought his way up the ard way, then he cannot receive a title shot because the champion is held up to a rematch. Another rerun. When Muhammad Ali was asked following one of his title defenses in the 1960's if he would give a challenger a rematch, his reply was that there were no rematch clauses in his contracts, so that he could give everybody a chance at the title

 

I respectfully disagree. Was his jab a punishing one? No, but it served a purpose for him. He used it to set up his more lethal punches and to disrupt his opponents. One combo that he threw that I really like was a lead left hook followed by his right hand. You don't see a lot of combos started by left hooks but again, it wasn't the start of the combo to fear it was that ending right hand.

You see, everyone that fought him new what his money punch was. The trick for him was figuring out how to get it involved in the fight. Anyone that ever fought knows that the right hand typically follows the jab. He would keep folks honest with that light jab and often time follow it with a left hook instead of the right hand. He was a pretty damn good fighter. You don't have his pro and amateur success without being one.

 

To be fair to Hagler, that wasn’t his choice. The WBA forced that on him and the Petronelli’s or face stripping of his title. Venezuela was one of the WBA’s cash cow countries whom they catered to. Hagler made it a point to beat the daylights out of him and then stated afterwards “I don’t ever want to see his ugly face again!” This kind of stuff went on all the time back then. And of course, seeing as how even a corrupt organization like them would have a hard time getting Obel another shot at 160, they simply moved to the newly created 168 where they finally got him a world title at about the age of 35.

 

The commentators are not the ones in the ring, and some of them need glasses.

 

Watch the first fight with Patterson. Cus and Floyd just knew that right hand was going to follow that jab but Ingo never throws it. He just paws away keeping Floyd frozen just waiting for it. Later you will see Ingo lead with a left hook followed by that hard right hand and the fight is essentially over after that. That is just good boxing right there!

 

I used to enjoy watching Jerry Quarry on the CBS Sports Spectacular with Tim Ryan, commentating on some of the title bouts, he had good insight.

 

I'll have to look for video of that. On another note, I have always thought Ingo vs Quarry would have been interesting. Quarry being a natural counterpuncher against a guy like Ingo who didn't really give you much to counter. I think it would have been pretty tactical.

 

I saw that bout on television, I remember the Muhammad Ali imitation.