Rocky Marciano vs. mid-to-late 1940s Heavyweights

He was shot because shortly thereafter symptoms of his disease started manifesting.

 

Absolutely it’s a nice run, but it wasn’t exactly cleaning out the division. And it could well be that there were efforts to fight more contenders and they wanted no part of Elmer.

To paraphrase an old trainer I used to know, ‘I don’t care if he’s fighting his grandmother 50 times, winning 50 fights in a row isn’t easy’ — too many things can go wrong to spoil a streak like that.

 

Ray was good possibly better then Ezzard and Walcott but if you look at the level of competition he was knocking out to compile that streak and get the 70 KOs it was just terrible. Rays reputation as a puncher was almost totally manufactured. He knocked out Savold. Theres nothing else there.

I'm usually on the other side of these "he fought no one" arguments. Rays competition was a lot worse then what people normally complain about. Ray could have been the best HW in 1946 but the resume is what it is. Everyone ducking Ray is an excuse for him not fighting guys in the top 10 not a absence of top 50, 100 and maybe top 500 wins.

 

It would have been a bit harder. He’d be facing younger versions of Walcott, Louis and Charles.

 

While this might be true many fighters who overly rely on speed start declining at 30 and are totally washed by 35. Jimmy Youngs another one. They were relying on traits that men in their 30s just don't have.

Its like Ali you really can't tell where the wear and tear of his long reign ended and the Parkinsons began because any signs you see can be either one.

Its hard to pinpoint when Charles or Young type was totally shot because they were declining a lot every few months. In 1954(Marciano fights) Charles was a lot better then he'd be in 1955 or 1956 but was much worse then he'd have been in 1952 or 1953.

 

He literally about a year after the second Marciano fight started complaining about how his foot wasn't working for him. That was the start of the symptoms coming.

 

Said it might be true but its hard to tell. Brought up Jimmy Young because he was a similar kind of fighter followed pretty much the same path without that horrid disease. By late 1955 Charles was done as a top fighter but he fought 4 years after that and per wikipedia Ezzard Charles was diagnosed 10 years after that.

Either way whatever the cause the point was that Charles decline had started before the Marciano fights. The 54-55 drop is more noticeable as thats when he was no longer capable of being competitive with top fighters. But Charles in 1954 was not nearly as good as Charles in his late 20s.

 

It's really not hard to tell at all. Shortly after the second Marciano fight, he began to lose feeling in his foot. That was the start of his symptoms. There is no controversy here at all.

We have discussed his state before the Marciano fights already.