If Marciano Had Fought Valdes,Baker,& Henry?

As of the last few years...Marciano is ranked #4 by most boxing historians and writers...he's fine! The man was a FIGHTER...and nothing else! He wasn't a clown....like most so called "fighters" of today! He'd come in...give you the toughest fight of your career...pick you up off the canvas....tell you, "Great fight"...then he'd go home!

 

I don't know if it would have improved his ranking on a personal list as I do have him top 5, but it would certainly make his championship reign far more impressive. Perhaps it would improve perceptions as I always felt it was missing the big heavyweight and this would have answered the question leaving little doubt as to his status. History can be cruel at times and in retrospect, these fights would be defining moments leaving no opportunity for anyone in later years to say, "Well, he didn't fight so and so." Because, let's face it, if he had fought that triad instead of those he faced, would anyone be saying, "Well, if only he fought Cockell." And for the record, I think Marciano would have handled all three in blockbuster bouts.

 

Marciano fought five number one contenders as champion and one number two contender. Can’t argue with that level of quality. No Dunns, Coopmans, Evangelistas, Wepners as title defenses.

 

Equally there are no Listons, Fraziers Foremans, Pattersons, Lyles, Chuvalos, Nortons, Shavers etc, etc,

 

That goes both ways. No one with the boxing skill of Walcott or Charles or Moore on that list either. Certainly Marciano was Fraziers superior. Ali said so himself. Frazier was for the most part a one armed fighter.

 

I think his record would be better, but nothing like to the extent that Dempsey/Wills record would be better if either had beaten the other.

I doubt it would be sufficiently better for me to bump Rocky up from #5, where I currently rank him, above Lewis and/or Holmes.

 

Some arm though! if that was the case. One eye as well, as I recall.
Would be confident of Ali running through all of Rocky’s challengers. Strongly doubt that Marciano would beat all of Ali’s.
Mike Stanton’s book on Marciano “Unbeaten “, is worth reading. Loads of interesting information on him.

 

Actually his right arm was extremely poor. I count possibly one knockdown in his entire pro career via his right hand. No other heavyweight champion has such a dubious honor. With that poor power came poor coordination between his left and right fists. Frazier could bring his right to an opponent’s body, a much larger static target but had to concentrate mightily to land that right to an opponent’s head. His right was a work in progress his entire career. This was discussed at length prior to his final bout with Ali, very late in his career.

Ali himself stated:

“Put it this way Marciano was better than Frazier and you saw what Frazier did to me”.

“In a series I’d win one and Marciano would win one.”

 

Aside from the obvious defensive differences with Marciano blocking, parrying and slipping along with bobbing and weaving Marciano moved subtly from back to front foot. On his back foot he was out of range from opponents right hand and used his gloves and head movement to avoid an opponents left. He would then quickly move to his front foot and attack. This back to front to back foot movement is something never seen from Frazier. Add all this to the fact Marciano had two great fists with Frazier having only one puts Marciano clearly in the lead in terms of technical superiority.

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"Marciano never fought a hard puncher"
This often comes up, saying he would have been knocked out by a power puncher; a Foreman or a Dempsey. First, I will admit he never fought a Foreman or a Demsey. Neither of them fought the other, either, nor did they fight a Marciano, though Foreman did fight Frazier, who was very similar to the Rock.

Rocky had an 88% knockout percentage. Did he fight anyone who hit like him? No?

He did fight:

Rex Layne, a powerful puncher, who knocked out 25 of his first 36 opponents. 69%
Harry "Kid" Mathews, with 61 KOs in 87 wins. 70%.
Archie Moore, the man who holds the record for the most knock outs of any fighter who ever lived; 145 KOs in 199 wins. 73%.
Walcott, 30 KOs in 50 wins, for 60%.
Joe Louis, 49 KOs in 63 wins, 78%
Eddie Ross 23 KOs in 26 wins at time they fought. 88%

To compare with some other fighters:
Holmes 71%
Ken Norton 78%
Ali 66%
Liston 78%
Ingemar Johansson 65%
Max Baer 74%
Max Schmeling 68%
Dempsey 79%
Jack Johnson 38%

The truth is, to compare the punchers (among those whose careers are over and ready for a final analysis) there are only a few heavyweight champions to compare to Marciano in punching power. Based on knockout percentage:
Marciano 88%
Foreman 87%
Frazier 84%
James Jefferies 83%

Therefore, in fairness, only those who fought one of these men knows what's it's like to face that kind of power.

 

Why did you plagiarize this post from Bscene?

 

Frazier's footwork is light years ahead of Marciano's. Marciano either had his feet to close together or two far apart. He would move the back foot first while going forward, and moved his right foot first when moving to his left. This left him off balance quite often, and in fact led to him falling to the canvas several times after missing a punch.