If Marciano Had Fought Valdes,Baker,& Henry?

This is exactly right.

 

It might up his standings a notch but doesn’t change anything h2h imo. None of those men were threats to his reign. Kind of wish we had Bob Baker v Marciano as Rocky’s last fight. Almost happened. Would have quieted some of the size arguments. Bob being 6”2 220

 

Had Marciano fought and beat Baker, Marciano detractors would just call him an unskilled bum.

 

Do you have a source “almost happened”

 

Believe it’s widely known. I don’t remember where I read it tbh. But Marciano was set to fight Baker the Feb after Archie. The fight didn’t excite anyone as no one thought Baker a threat and Marciano had a massive fall out w his manager Weill. Whom he didn’t want to give another dime. Would have been nice if he had that one more. Think he KOs Bob within 7

 

not necessarily. Baker was a fine amateur with a reputable reputation. He was a big man 6’2 around 215lb. He could box, he could punch, he had fast hands. Plenty of film on him, he looks pleasing to the eye.

Resume is solid:

Payne
Agramonte
Gilliamx2
Bivins
Brion
Valdes
Baksi
Wallace
Layne x3
Holman
Richardson
Slade
Mederos

I talked to an old friend whom used to train with Baker at Stillman's Gym, he said baker was considered a behemoth for the time. My friend always felt sorry for him: Stillman's was an airless armpit in summer, and Baker sweated like a pig training bundled from head to toe, constantly wincing taking off his wraps after sparring. A little known fact about Baker is he suffered from brittle hands. Constant hand injuries plagued his career which resulted in a few dubious performances

 

Word is he used to hit a lot harder before he hurt his hands. He was compared to Louis early in his career

 

Lol. The "size arguments" are completely dishonest. There is little more evidence that Sonny Liston could handle a 6'6" or better fighter than Marciano, but you never heard a certain crowd bring that up. And, as we showed, the average size of Usyk's quality opponents is significantly bigger than Liston's, and the heavies he fought dwarf Liston's biggest. But Usyk is not a top ten heavy because proving head to head ability against big guys only matters when you are Marciano, does not matter when you are Liston, and doesn't help when you are Usyk.

It is stupid. A fighter is judged by who he beats IN HIS OWN TIME, and that is all.

By the way, Baker had brittle hands and was a pretty poor contender overall for it. Not that he didn't have talent, but he had serious problems applying it on a consistent basis.

A lot of people around here need to look in the mirror.

 

I don't think he's a bum. I'm just parroting what the anti Rocky crowd would say

 

Since you asked for a direct 3 for 3 swap, I would say no, Marciano's legacy would not be better for it. Failing to rematch LaStarza would hurt his legacy & offset anything he might gain from beating the other 3 IMO.

 

Or he could've fought both?

 

Well researched.

Excellent post.