He said the Jirov version, I think Marciano’s workrate would be too much and I don’t think Toney hits any harder than Walcott or Moore did. Walcott in particular had success countering Rocky but Rocky also seemed to be more of a volume puncher by 1954-55 and I think that would be the type of style he needs to win here.
Toney like fighters lost to Marciano. Walcott thought Rocky Marciano was a crude brawler until he actually fought him
I'm an enormous JT fan but considering that the Jirov fight was a great fight, and Jirov himself, I don't rate his abilities and physicality in Marciano's league, so I don't know if we should in fact assume he'd get played with. They're talking size, but let me be maybe in the minority, in that I think Toney may have faired better against a huge guy like Vitali than Marciano. And by faired, I mean fared. JT's hand speed and reflexes with his head movement may actually be too much for Marciano to contend with, but I tend to think it's more likely going to be a close match with Marciano pulling away on volume and I do think he would smash James up a little too, if I'm honest. I don't think he does better against Dempsey. I don't think James, stripped of all the bulk is big enough not to get smashed up a bit just by being in there over the distance, as he almost certainly would be. Sure, Marciano was light for a heavyweight, but that's Marciano trained down to the best weight he was going to get. That's actually going to be terrible for Toney. Heavyweight power with a good super middleweight's stamina.
