Rocky Marciano versus Evander Holyfield at cruiserweight

That's an absolute load of BS Steve. He never fought Mustafa Muhammad who was a huge player in the era, he never fought Marvin Johnson, a staple, nor Lopez who was quite a solid player. He beat his good share of contenders and Saad but he was far from cleaning house.

 

I do like Qawi alot but in reality his run from when he won the championship from M.Muhammad up and until he lost to Spinks lasted just over a year.

I do rate Qawi highly H2H at Light Heavyweight and for a few years he was an absolute menace with some very devastating 1 sided victories over good notable contenders.

But the only one who actually cleaned out the division during that time was Spinks he beat Qawi, E.Muhammad, Lopez, Johnson.

Who were pretty much all the notable Light Heavyweights during that period.

The only one Spinks missed out on was M.Muhammad pretty much.

But I do remember seeing a post fight interview after Spinks beat Johnson. And Spinks was actually being interviewed with M.Muhammad and they were going to fight pretty soon.

But as we know M.Muhammad's run as a world class Light Heavyweight pretty much ended after the 1st fight with Qawi.

 

Agreed mate. I rate Qawi enormously H2H as well. He's an ATG light heavyweight inside the ropes. Spinks also beat other notable contenders. The Davis brothers were in good form when he beat them and both were rated in the top #5 in 84. He beat a solid share of top 10 fighters including the top dogs excepting Saad, who he was lining up.

 

Holyfield wins by points

 

Completely agree.

 

good, salient point. I still haven't voted in the poll, but I'm taking that bit of info into consideration.

 

Holyfield finally decided to take him out at the start of the fourth round.

But I respect Marciano (unlike some misguided folks here). What a fight that would be: Marciano vs. Holyfield

 

You don't think Holyfield was on roids as a cruiserweight? And nearly everybody he ever fought was using too (cruiser and heavy)?

 

You never know. But he looked too natural at cruiser. And he didn’t need to at that weight. I’m not a personal fan of Holyfield but will say that at cruiser even if he did abuse , which I doubt, he wouldn’t have needed to.

 

Getting a little hysterical there buddy boy.
Lopez was good but he wasn’t beating Qawi. True he didn’t fight M Muhammad but he won the title from Saad then gave him rematch. Then he defended against Spinks the higher ranked fighter. Of course he lost as all LHs did vs Spinks but he did go the distance.
Qawi did KO:
Mike Rossman
Jerry Martin
Saad Muhammad twice
Eddie Davis
Also decisioned the tough James Scott and right after Spinks beat Johnny Davis.
All top ten guys pretty good work to me.

 

I don't doubt it at all. This is high stakes competition. You don't have to look like Arnold Shwarzeneger to use steroids. You might be fat.. you might be skinny. I won't mention any names.. but Holyfield vs. ??? was the battle of the steroids.

I still haven't decided who to vote for in that poll. If it was Holyfield-Fury, I'd pick Holyfield in a second. But Rock is a bit different, with a great mentality for boxing (yes, that means some "questionable tactics" too).

 

Last time I checked the thread was who wins Marciano or Holyfield at cruiserweight. It wasn’t about all the conjecture on what Holyfield was doing illegally. If you want to say who would wins if both took X amount of type X steroid for the same time period OK but then create another thread. That’s not what the question is here unless your conceding Marciano can’t win as is unless he has an improvement.

 

Hysterical? Why would i get hysterical? I'm not racing around after every thread about a heavyweight who reigned three quarters of a century ago (and has been dead for more 50 years) and trying to minimize him every post, to the point of ridiculous assessments about the likes of Moore and Charles from which i could never recover cred. That would be approaching hysterical, and most certainly obsessing

Everyone knows Qawi stopped Saad twice and beat a nice array of contenders in a short period of time. It's a boxing forum, a strong one. "Pretty good work" is not remotely akin to "cleaned up a great light heavyweight division except for M Spinks". It's better than pretty good work, it's excellent, but still not a clean up. Just admit you overstated it.

It's ironic that you are championing a natural light heavyweight, a guy 4" shorter than Marciano (tho with a little more reach) when you have been raving about weight, reach, height and all the rest of the size fixations. Qawi was, in reality, an undersized cruiser. He came in 4 and 3 pounds under the limit while Holyfield was bang on 190 in the second fight and just 1/4 of a pound under in the first.

 

Marciano beats either version in maybe the best mythical matchup you can conjure. Both would be head butting the heck out of each other. I can see Holy losing himself in a war. Marciano was more disciplined and Holy. Eventually he’s gonna get caught and finished by one of the best finishers in HW history. But if he doesn’t finish can see Holy winning by points. What a fight it would be.

 

Marciano would be totally drained at cruiserweight.