Better overall fighter of the 3 Vitali Klitschko, Primo Carnera or Rocky Marciano?

Vitali H2H

Marciano - P4P

Primo- ... really?

 

Carnera is clearly the worst. Had a decent pawing range finding jab and a strong uppercut, but not much else. Very brave and scrappy with remarkable stamina for such a large muscular man, but lacks elite athleticism to really capitalize on his size. Pretty limited fighter who only has 1 gear.

Rocky was an amazing pressure fighter with a huge gas tank and could also slug. One of the best to do it in any division. Really leaky defense and not particularly fast. If he can't hurt you with a big shot, he simply hits you with an even bigger shot. There's really only 2 dimensions to his boxing.

Vitali can box, slug, or use volume punching to break guys down. He looks awkward and robotic, but he makes it work somehow. There's 3 dimensions to his game and it makes him very difficult to beat unless you're elite.

 

Pound for pound it was Rocky. Would I pick him to beat the other two head to head ? Probably not

 

Well yeah, everyone and their mom did.

 

Well, no. Carnera is better at outside fighting than Rocky but that isn't saying much. It's like bragging about getting 7th place and your friend got 8th.

Plenty of smaller fighters had no trouble getting inside on Carnera and doing what they wanted to him. Louis, Sharkey, Baer, etc. The point of being an outside fighter is to try to keep the fight at your preferred long range and against his best opponents, Carnera often failed at this. Rocky was very good at imposing his will and making the other guy fight at his preferred range/pace so that the styles that gave him trouble were less of an issue.

Rocky's overall skill set was better by virtue of having two very deep dimensions to his game plan even though he completely sucked at everything else. You could see him making adjustments mid fight against Cokkel when he realized trying to go for one big shot wouldn't work and he used short, compact blows and combinations to get him out of there. Carnera was not often known for making sudden adjustments mid fight or turning things around.

While Carnera could switch between different methods (outside fighting vs mid range slugging vs inside fighting), he wasn't particularly good at any of them. Rocky is leagues ahead of him in 2 of those categories so p4p he's better overall and the more effective fighter in an actual fight. Carnera had arguably worse defense which is saying a lot since that is one of Rocky's weaker attributes.

 

The thread title isn't asking whose the most well rounded, it's asking whose the better overall fighter. Carnera clearly isn't even if you think he's the most well rounded. his record shows that he wasn't remotely the best overall fighter of his own era, let alone compared to Rocky and Vitali.

 

I'm aware that it's your thread. That doesn't change the fact "better fighter" implies "more effective" by definition. Take it up with the English language.

Yes Carnera had more dimensions to his game, but they were very weak dimensions. Jack of all trades, master of none. He was much worse at 2 of those dimensions compared to both Rocky and Vitali. His record is worse, he looks worse on film, and he was less effective at actually using those dimensions in the ring. He wasn't even great at the one dimension of outside fighting. Therefore he was not the better overall fighter.