Would a Marciano born in the 80s or 90s have been trained as a HW?

I can't see it. Cruiser.

The argument has been made that with rehydration, he could possibly make LHW. Since he fought at 189, that would mean losing 14 pounds of water weight, but the argument has been made.

 

Lightheavyweight
Marciano entered both fights with Jersey Joe Walcott at 184.5lbs (he won the title at 184.5lbs). With rehydration, Marciano belongs to LHW.

 

Starts his career at LHW then moves up to cruiser mid-career. Never contemplates HW

 

Boxers were getting bigger so Marciano probably would not have fought at heavyweight. With modern trading he would be substantially heavier though. His road work miles and training would probably be down substantially making him heavier.

Tysons height and reach were similar to Marcianos and Holyfield was successful at heavyweight at not much over 200 pounds. So Marciano could maybe be successful as a small heavyweight. With his frame I don’t see him being over 210 pounds.

 

Has a great walk-on career as a waterboy for a religious college football team. A movie is made about him starring the great, and better athlete, Ned Beatty.

This content is protected

 

with only 2 - 3 Fights a year, less as he moves into Contention or Championship, he Would Do EXACTLY as Every Other Fighter in the last 40 years, which is Trim & Fight DOWN - like a JT for example, as a young Marciano, he'd be a MW cum S-MW, then finish out as a L-HW.

Everyone does precisely the same as everybody else in the time period or Era that they live in, not different generally speaking.

 

Well...Tyson had 4" of reach on Rocky if the 67" is accurate, some places list 68".
Tyson was dramatically more muscular than Rocky-& way faster.
It would be very impressive if Rocky could be a successful HW.
He could weight 210 w/modern training, but how much speed & endurance would he lose?

Evander filled out to Tyson's weight, but anyway he was way taller & longer than Rocky.

 

He'd have likely competed in the 190lbs CW division in the 80s or 90s.

Fighters didn't dehydrate then to the extent some do now, evidenced by the fact hardly any fighters moved to lower weight divisions with the advent of day before weigh ins in the 80s.

Weight making "techniques" have evolved considerably since the 80s and 90s, so LHW would have been out of the question for the Rock back then, imo.

If he were competing today, with CW being 200lbs and weight draining being more commonly extreme, he might squeeze into LHW. He was probably a similar weight on fight night to Beterbiev.

 

In same day’s weigh-in era, I would say cruiserweight although with a 190 limit he could have fought at heavyweight, but I don’t think he would be wise to.
Day before weigh-in he could make LHW and this would be to his advantage as relative size of HW and CW was increasing.
Not saying he would have to, but it would seem logical to give oneself the advantage not one’s opponent.
He would have brought a level of quality to CW that was lacking in its early years, until it became more established.
He would have been very effective in those divisions, I would have enjoyed seeing it

 

That is effectively two questions.

There were a few heavyweights his size knocking around in the 80s, especially in the early 80s.

The further past that you go the less likely it gets.

 

Which world rated HWs regularly weighed sub 190lbs in the 80s? I'm not saying there aren't any, just that I can't think of any and I'm genuinely interested.

 

The trainers of those decades would all give him the same answer: Forget about HW. Futch, Steward, Dundee, Newman, Clancey, Cus, they all saw the changing of the tide. It really started as early as the 60's with Liston, it became harder and harder for men with the height, weight, and proportions of Rocky to reach elite status.

If they managed to get Rocky as a young amateur, they'd start him off as a light heavy weight and get him some much needed experience. It's hard to argue against this since the tradition of the past few decades was to have a guy move down a weight class, then move up for the pro ranks. Ali, Patterson, even Holyfield did this. So 9/10, Rocky starts at LHW, compiles a record of at least 30-40 fights, then goes pro at cruiserweight with a good promoter seeing his potential as a tough, hard puncher with a good work ethic.

This sets him on a collision course with the likes of Leon Spinx, Qawi, Ocasio, Holyfield, etx. I think he'd have a pretty good career in the 80's so long as his management avoided the temptation of moving up to challenge the behemoths above.

 

Evander was a great heavyweight at 205 pounds. Tyson was a short heavyweight with a short reach and probably reached his peak after training boxing for six years, he started around 13 years old. He arguably had the potential to be the greatest all time with a short frame. Smaller heavyweights were very successful during the 80s and 90s. Now they both bulked up, I don’t know if that helped them honestly. They both looked great at a lighter weight.

Marciano putting on around 10 pounds would be 200 pounds. Backing off the the very long road work might have accomplished that. Tyson was faster and Holyfield longer but Marciano did some things better and basically I think he had a stronger style which was harder to beat. I don’t know how successful Marciano could be it’s subjective but in my imagination he would do very good.

 

Evander was very good at the lightest 205, but needed the extra bulk to be competitive or beat Bowe, Tyson-or have any shot at Lewis.
Tyson bulked up? Except for a few lbs. over when he was VERY young, no, he was always heavily muscled.

Marciano said himself his peak was 187/188. Sometimes he came in lighter/pre-peak.
At even 200 lbs. he would likely compromise his superb work rate & endurance.
He ws naturally smaller in build-I do not think his style was harder to beat, but it was something!

You have the same username as on AJ Dugger's often re-named, hacked, endlessly terrorized & sabotaged website.
Are you like me from there Big Red?