“Rocky Marciano is hardly more than a second rater”

Wouldn’t be surprised if he went one better and said Fireman Jim Flynn would beat Marciano, he might as well considering how far he already took it.

 

The author’s comment on this Facebook post had a screenshot of the article:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1H6Q8zHpr6/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I wouldn’t say Dempsey is really talking badly about Rocky in a way that would jeopardize a friendship, he says he hates to talk about Rocky in such a way due to him being so nice.

 

Yeah so I have to agree with a lot of what Dempsey says. If you're looking for finesse and technique, the Rock is probably not the guy you want to look at. The technical guys you want to draw inspiration are Moore, Charles, Walcott, LaStarza, Louis ... you know, the dudes he beat into the dust.

 

Dempsey told us. This Rocky fella is a fine human being. He's honest, decent, looks out for the kids in the neighborhood, he would give you the shirt off his back.

He was just horrible at his job.

 

"Clumsy footwork and lack of boxing skill?" That's literally the same thing Emanual Steward said about Marciano,,
Also he was easy to hit, I don't know if Rocky loses to the guys Dempsey said he would but his evaluation of his
boxing abilities is on target.

 

You can respect Dempsey and still see that a lot of what he said here was emotional, not logical.

Yes, Rocky had real flaws, short reach, clumsy footwork, wide punches, that’s obvious even watching his best wins. But calling him "hardly more than a second-rater" massively underrates what he actually accomplished.

Marciano wasn't beating faded contenders or weak champions, he beat Ezzard Charles (one of the most complete fighters ever), Archie Moore (still a deadly threat), Jersey Joe Walcott (one of the best technicians of the time), and Rex Layne (a top contender back then). Those weren't scrubs. They were high-level operators who could box, punch, and think.

Dempsey also massively overstates how easy it was to hit and beat Rocky. Sure, he wasn't slick, but his pressure, conditioning, and two-fisted power were relentless. You had to survive 15 rounds of a guy who never stopped moving forward and could knock you out late while taking huge punishment himself. That's a brutal proposition even for more "skilled" fighters.

Would prime Louis, Tunney, maybe Jack Johnson have good chances against Rocky? Sure. But Max Baer? Jess Willard? Bob Fitzsimmons? Sharkey? Those guys beating Marciano reliably is pure nostalgia. Dempsey was propping up his own era to make it look stronger.

Rocky wasn't perfect, but you don't go 49–0 at heavyweight by being "second rate."

 

Said the man ( Jack Dempsey) who avoided the best fighters of his own era.

 

Yeah if Dempsey really said this he was being stupid… Marciano was someone Toney studied film of, Bill Miller must’ve saw something… Cus said Rocky was scantly hit clean and the great Charlie Goldman didn’t exactly run a boxercise class he took a 20 something and made him a world champion with what he knew, Dundee referred to him as “almost cute” Marciano understood inside fighting phenomenally he was the best at it out of all the HW champions can we name one better? he rolled shots so well, Cus, Miller and Goldman would’ve saw this, saw more if I can see it and even Ali gave him his flowers…. Does he beat Lennox Lewis, AJ or l Riddick Bowe… probably not but he was 0 doubt at and around his size a force of nature and a mechanically excellent fighter just not a pretty one.

 

Rocky's opponents said he was deceptively hard to hit. I've posted the quotes in the forum half a dozen times. I can find them again if you like.

 

he is completely disrespecting him as a fighter according to the article in everything but courage. I’ve never heard or read Dempsey ever say anything like that about Marciano and doubt the legitimacy of the article.

 

Yeah look, Marciano's crudeness is greatly exaggerated. People make out he's a caveman. But he does lots of little things that made him a deceptively difficult fighter to take on. I remember particularly that little dip and sway he consistently did after throwing a hard shot - just enough to get his head out of the way so that he couldn;t get tagged easily by counterfire. This is long hours of gym drills to get his style locked in.

 

I’m not joking, not a little bit when I say he had an excellent defence and you’d learn more about pure boxing from him then you would Ali, Foteman and Frazier.

 

Rocky faced alot of criticism at the time he was a contender/champion. Some of it had merit but he also was suffering in comparison to a Joe Louis who was a classic textbook puncher. Basically he was being compared to perfection so when he did get sloppy and miss by a punch by 3 feet the press showed no mercy.

Maricano had certain moves he made that were effective and no opponent was able to stop him from finding the target.

Freddie Brown said it best " this ain't football, because Rocky never gives you the baĺl".

 

The irony is that Rocco was an infinitely better champ than Dempsey and they shared very similar stylistic tendencies in some of their defensive and punching mechanics.

 

Really good post. One of the few to take a pro-Rocky stance that doesn't descend into ridiculous hyperbole but just lets the man's achievements do the talking.