What is your opinion of the Cockell-Marciano fight?

Cockell was on his feet at the end so not a ko,

 

Taylor stopped Cockell in6 rds,Slade in 4, flooring him 5 times,Valdes did him in3 ,Lave in2 rds.

 

Ledoux and Zanon would have excellent chances of beating Cockell.

 

It tells me that the era was weak.

If a blubbery, light punching guy who moved up from LHW is apparently the 2nd best fighter on the planet, and yet he's seen as a gimme title defense with Rocky himself staying he couldn't really find any motivation to try his hardest in camp, then it's a fairly negative snapshot of that time frame.

 

Prime Liston would've beaten Don and Rocky on the same night.

 

Rocky was a young man beating the undersized old men placed in front of him.

Holmes was an old man beating the large young men placed in front of him.

 

Rocky was good. Bullwinkle was bad.

You can’t make Rocky bad via mere association.

Just like how Wile E Coyote was good - the Roadrunner was clearly the true ass hole.

Wile E should’ve sued ACME for the crap products they made.

Cheaply made imports I’m guessing that should’ve had 100% tariffs imposed on them.

 

That is one thing that it tells you.

The other thing that it tells you, is that the champion was a grade A badass, and well separated from his peers.

 

Does he what?

Always Liston, ripped from left field.

Imagine an ink blot test - RJ would say they all looked like Liston.

Word association test? You guessed it - the answer “Liston” for each and every word proffered.

OR, we could be talking the Apollo 11 mission (totally non boxing) in The Lounge and RJ would chime in telling us that if Sonny was in Armstrong’s place, he would’ve become scared and quit before taking them first step on the moon.

The scary part is, I’m not joking.

 

Rocky was badass, but how badass would he be placed in a more competitive era with younger, more athletic opponents? He himself admits he didn't want to go out like Joe Louis and that's why he dipped out of the sport when he did.

 

It isn't just Liston, he says disparaging things about virtually any big, strong HW with a big punch. He derails Tyson and Shavers threads too.

It's a clear insecurity he feels about Rocky being an undersized HW with very limited experience against bigger opponents, let alone big opponents who can punch.

 

I agree. It also tells us that Rocky, on a bad day, still prevailed. Some great Heavyweights, on a bad day, have lost to fighters no better than Cockell.

 

This was Larry's line, and completely irrelevant. It literally has nothing to do with what we are talking about, which is Marciano sought out top contenders, whereas Holmes did everything he could to avoid them.

 

You are not getting it...Marciano sought out the more highly rated people by far. Your quality assessment is just that...YOUR quality assessment. Cockell was #2 contender.

 

Marciano never picked an opponent in his life.
"I pick the opponents,I tell you when and where you fight them,you just do the fighting."
Al Weill
Marciano's management gave a miss to plenty of contenders.Valdes who beat Charles,who got 2 title shots with Rocky, and Nino later demolished Cockell, Baker,Walls,Henry,Jackson,Harrison,Satterfield,Baksi,Bivins, being just a few, that's good management,but let's not pretend they were yelling ,"bring us your best!" LOL