What weight class would Rocky Marciano fight in in the present era?

Beterbiev do IMO. And he could probably have success at CW and even HW, he competed at 200 lbs as an amateur after all and faced Usyk, but at LHW his strength and power is something else.

Personally, I think Marciano would come to the conclusion that LHW was a very good fit for much the same reasons Beterbiev probably does.

 

LHW. He's too small to go above that.

 

Here is a thread where Serge listed a number of unofficial weights for fighters weighing in at 175 - they range from 179 to 200 with most between 180 and 190: https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...ly-ko-andrzej-fonfara-yes-or-no.550860/page-4

And these guys have probably dieted before they cut water in general. If they didn't have to make weight they'd probably be 5-10 lbs above their rehydrated weight in the ring when they have to make weight - i e the average weight would probably be around 190-195.

 

He wouldn't need to be as low as 180 in the ring to make 175. He wouldn't even need to be that low to make 168 lbs.

And besides that, eating whole roast chickens and steaks and getting down to 180 is something quite different from eating lean meats instead (fish, game, chicken breast etc) and getting down to 180. He wouldn't even have to go vegan or anything, just swap the fatty meats for lean ones and that would probably be 5-10 lbs.

And that wouldn't even be needed to get down from around 185 to 175. He could do that solely by cutting water. Even down to 168, even though that would get probably get taxing after a while.

But modern camp diet for a fighter and he'd not be far from, or maybe not even over, 175 without cutting water.

 

I’ll take your guys word for it. I don’t see LHW being a problem at all…I know a little bit about dehydration before weigh in. I don’t see sweating out ten pounds as a problem (maybe a few more can be added not sure of the limits but I’d assume not much more then ten)I still think smw is a big stretch. Because of his natural build I’m not sure he would be as affective lighter…it’s more believable for me that he has better success heavier. I think it would be easier for him to build on his natural 210 weight now adays as he would only gain today with modern workout methods by being heavier as he would lose to much getting to small.

 

Those that really cut weight can cut more than 20 lbs. Jacobs regularly weighed around 180 lbs in the ring when at MW and I know that Clottey came into the ring at either 168 or 169 once when he was a WW. Canelo was 172 I think for the fight with Trout and Trout was just a pound or two lighter. One of the guys Serge mentioned in his post apparently came in at 200 lbs after making 175!

But few stick to such regimens for a whole career (Jacobs stuck around at MW for quite a while, though). Golovkin, for example, is only around 170 in the ring and I think few that make their career at one weight drain much more than that. Just takes too much out of you physically and mentally in the long run.

So if we imagine Rocky having the same muscle mass as he in fact did, he'd probably either start as a small LHW and stay there, or start at SMW and move up to LHW. Staying at SMW is not impossible though with a better diet, but few do stay there for a whole career so I imagine Rocky would have gone up to LHW at some point.

But that's only imagining him with the same muscle mass, which is far from certain he'd have in the age of weights and PEDs. With the help of those he could probably add 20-30 lbs or more of pure muscle mass. The question is if he would. He'd still be a fairly small HW in terms of weight and a very small one in terms of height and reach, without having the speed advantage Tyson had. So would he do that or would he be content to dominate the LHW division, a prestigious division with a rich history?

As McGrain said, a white American racking up highlight reel KO's is going to make a lot of money no matter in what division he fights, so why not pick the division you're going to dominate the most and that you can make without being too uncomfortable?

 

That’s a crazy amount of weight cutting. I’ll concede the point that he could cut that low if true. I also still see him chasing the money. I wouldn’t be surprised with either outcome I suppose.

 

In MMA cutting is truly crazy. A guy like Costa walks around fairly cut at 230 lbs and still makes 185 at the weigh-in, but he didn't manage it the last time around. Yoel Romero do something similar and he's in his 40's. But he has also failed to make weight on one occasion that I know of. These guys must be at the edge of what you can do weight cutting wise, but I think Poirer said he actually walked around at 190 when he still was fighting at 145. Now he's moved to 155, though. Khabib also walks around at 190 and made 155 when he was active.

 

In the last decade or so the big weight cutters that I know of are Clottey, Margarito, Canelo, Geale, Jacobs and Brook. They all cut 15-20 lbs at one time or another. Clottey even more than 20 lbs.

I have no figures on Williams, Chavez jr, Yarde, Benavidez and Callum Smith, but they also look like big cutters. Smith looks big even at LHW. And I don't know what Crawford weighed in the ring at 135, but I think he comes in at 160+ nowadays.

 

I've decided to just lay this one on the line, and many here will not like it, or at least vehemently disagree with me.

I knew Rocky, I met him several times. If he was here today, and young, he would do whatever it took to be a Heavyweight. It's that simple. He would NOT even consider avoiding that Division because of weight fears, and, if he didn't fight as a Heavyweight, that's exactly how he would look at it...fear of the size of the boxers in the Heavyweight Division keeping him out of it. Rocky was who he was, and he would do what he would want to do. And what he would want would be to fight as a Heavyweight. The sizes would NOT have scared him off into a lighter division.

We can argue about what success, or lack thereof, he would have, but it would be as a Heavyweight, over 200 pounds at weigh-in if necessary.

(IMHO, of course.)

 

So- let us get this straight you believe Rocky is 10% or below bodyfat?

Then what do you think Manny Pac is Jan?

 

Marciano would be under 14 for sure, and possibly under 10.

Pac would be in the 5-9 range somewhere.

I have been between 12 and 20 at various stages of my adult life, so I have some idea what these numbers look like.

 

Slight correction.

He was a puncher at 180lbs, who was capable of knocking out any 200lb fighter, and capable of doing it brutally.

 

So you think Rocky could be under 10% and you think Pac is close to 9% bodyfat.

Jan do you understand how silly you sound?

I will tell you again- a true 10% looks like Manny.

The hill you have chosen to die on is at 175lbs Rocky would be 5% bodyfat which is bodybuilding show condition territory?

You realize he was once 178lbs for a fight right?

 

I think Pac would be around 5 % and Rocky around 10%. I've personally been around 11% and looked nothing like Pac, that's for sure.

That was measured in a Bod Pod at a health facility/clinic. They told me that 5-10% is the typical range for male elite athletes and a normal man ideally should be around 15%.