How does this fight play out? Jackson was considered a marvellous, quick boxer with sharp punching ability. Jackson was also young and about 200 lbs, so he would be a pretty unique test for the Rock.
I suspect if Jackson came along in Rocky's day, Marciano gets Jackson, but not easily. Counter is that maybe a '50's PJ would be a bigger and better Ezzard, and presumably more prime.
The whole Lord of the Rings trilogy is overrated cinema. I don’t think Marciano is going to get beat by a guy who glamorizes hobbits.
Jackson was probably a hell of a talent as he fought Corbett to a 61 round draw and was ducked by Sullivan and Corbett in a rematch, but, I think it is mostly a matter of stylistic evolution. Marciano would have done very well against a straight-up fighter with his low crouch.
Marciano should take this. I have no visual evidence of Jackson’s skills, but I can imagine what Marciano would have done to someone like Corbett, it would not the a 61 round draw… Even if Jackson was as good as, or almost as good as Charles, Marciano beat Charles, this style is not Kryptonite for Rocky. Advantages in endurance one might assume for older era fighters are somewhat irrelevant here too, Rocky could have fought for as many rounds as anyone, his conditioning was exemplary. While I don’t entertain ideas of Marciano beating giants, for men roughly his size I find it very hard to pick against him. Sorry if this sounds dismissive of Jackson, it’s not meant to be. Rocky is underrated far more than overrated, he was a great fighter.
Nobody knows, it's impossible to know. One thing that is interesting to ponder though is stamina. Is Jackson the first fighter Marciano would meet with clearly better stamina? It was he, after all, who was calling for the Corbett draw to continue after seventy odd rounds. But is the slow pace of boxing in those days more responsible for these feats than Jackson's intestinal fortitude? Your guess is as good as mine. The styles favour Rocky though; he smashed up several brilliant technicians with pressure and aggression and Jackson was the definitive technician of his generation. Definitely tall, definitely strong, he needs also to outwork Marciano, maybe not impossible but the raw data suggests he has a chance.
Peter Jacksons prime is likely the best of any HW from the 19th century and its wrong how his reign has been edited out of history. That being said he couldn't take out Corbett for 61 rounds in a fight. For Jackson to be picked over someone from the modern period on account of their boxing skills he'd need to be mountains ahead of the rest of his era. And that fight demonstrates he wasn't that. Whether he was the best or not he was a product of said era. The only one from their era who should be in H2H discussions with modern HWs is Fitzsimmons and thats just because of the U238 hands not because Fitzsimmons was better than Jackson, or Jeffries. He just has something we know would translate into modern eras whereas I don't think Jackson or Jeffries who were better boxers do.
