From the Boxing News Rocky Marciano special,his ten best performances. 10.Rex Layne. 9.Harry Matthews. 8.Roland Lastarza l 7.Roland Lastarza ll 6.Don Cockell. 5.Joe Louis. 4.Archie Moore. 3.Ezzard Charles II 2 Ezzard Charles I 1.Jersey Joe Walcott l Any thoughts? Disagree?
I expect they chose his filmed performances. The early rounds of Lastarza 2 saw a pretty clumsy underwhelming performance from Rocky,before he began targeting Rollie's body and breaking him down. The Cockell fight wasn't a great performance either imo.Too many blatant fouls against a brave but severely outgunned challenger. I think any durable puncher would have got Louis out of there by that stage of his career Rocky ate a lot of jabs in that fight before Joe's legs went on him. The way Marciano went to work once his nose was split open and he was in danger of being tko'd in the second Charles fight was the mark of a true champion. The systematic destruction of Layne is impressive,and the pay off final right hand awesome. The way Rocky came through the first Walcott fight is a testament to his heart , dumped on his butt from a terrific hook in the opening round, At one point blinded by liniment, with a cut in his hairline from a head clash.Behind on the scorecards he never for a moment considered defeat and finally produced the perfect right hander to send Walcott into dreamland.That was the performance of a great warrior. Mathews was overmatched against Rocky but those left hooks that destroyed him were accurate and clinical which was not always the case with Rocky's salvos. I would like to see the Bernie Reynolds fight,by all accounts Reynolds, a tough man in his own right, met Rocky in a tear up but was taken out with a monster shot that lifted him off the floor. Not having seen the fight ,or others we have to go with the ring footage we have.
Good points there, T. Suppose we can only really go on what we can actually watch. I don't think the list is too far off what Rocky best performances are but it does boil down to personal preference sometimes as well. Some might actually say that his performance s against Charles shouldn't be rated so high as he did actually struggle at moments, trying to stop him and nearly getting stopped himself with his cut. It's Rocky tho, he always brings out diverse opinion. Lol
1) Walcott 1 2) Moore 3)Charles 2 4) Charles 1 5) Lastarza 2 6) Louis 7) Layne 8)Matthews 9) Lastarza 1 10) Walcott 2
Rex Layne should certainly be higher. That is one of his best showings on film. You have a guy who was slitting series with Charles and Walcott, and he just dynamites him down.
Agreed with that. I just think Jersey had had enough by then. The first fight must have seemed a bad nightmare to him.
I would also call Tysons win over Spinks or Louis win over Baer (Max) top performances. Despite those men quitting. They were all legitimate knock downs and the men chose not to get up. It’s not top five or arguably top ten but I think mentally destroying a great fighter to quit early deserves some credit. I don’t see a problem with not including it if that’s what you’re inclined to do.
