The Quality of Marciano's Opponents

You are defending a premise that has not been attacked.
Moore's wins over Maxim and Durelle were at LHvy.
Olson was a middleweight.
Rademacher was never a ranked heavyweight.
Who did Mathews beat at heavyweight,who wasn't already washed up? Lastarza was a protected fighter, he beat a couple of names who were past prime,and avoided all the iron of the division.

 

About 30 of those 43 fights Rocky had were against no-hopers and journeymen because he had a very short amateur career and was very raw and clumsy. Goldman spent a lot of time making sure Rocky got the much needed experience and rounds under his belt before having him step up in class.

This is not the same as the traditional old school route where fighters would have a lengthy amateur career, then gradually increasing the difficulty of the opponent level every 15-20 fights, then remaining at the elite level for half a decade or so. You're right in that Rocky got the hell out of there once his body began to break down, and that's the crucial difference between himself and his best opponents like Charles, Louis, etc who not only had much longer careers, they had even more wear and tear from the amateurs, tons of exhibitions, brutal sparring, and continuing to fight multiple times a year.

 

Hey, this probably isn't worth its own thread since I don't see a source, but I saw this comment on line regarding Nino Valdes, completely unsourced, though...

Issue was Valdez inconsistency. He had a title shot set up with the NYSAC accepting his $5000 bond for the title match with Marciano. Then Valdez had two decision wins where he looked absolutely horrid. The NYSAC returned his bond stating he was not ready for a title shot.

Anybody know if there is any truth to this? I figured I would just dump it in my old thread.

POST SCRIPT:

I was able to verify half of this:

https://www.nytimes.com/1953/12/12/...s-5000-to-ring-board-in-bid-for-marciano.html

POST POST SCRIPT,

Got it:
https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Nino_Valdes_vs._James_J._Parker

This appears to be true.

Now worthy of its own thread, which I have made...

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...thy-challenger-after-the-parker-fight.751520/

 

Rockys a GOAT. No ifs no buts.

 

McVey,

I think you missed what you wanted to say, here.

 

Rocky was a good little fighter. There are a lot of fighters to remember so I hope he is not forgotten yet. Someone should nominate him to the HOF, not that I think he would get in but at least so he would be revived in memory. Good little fighter.

 

And here I was wondering where this thread had gone...

 

Lets add that, as stated in another thread, Floyd was not going to fight Marciano anyway, since Cus considered such bout a high risk bussiness; thus his plan was waiting for Marciano to retire and then moving Floyd to the HW ranks once the "all clear" was sounded.

 

They were the best fighters at the time and Marciano beat all of them.

 

Oddly in Marciano’s first ten fights he wasn’t protected at all. They didn’t have much hope for him and actually set him up to fail. Wasn’t until he beat 8-0 prospect Bobby Quinn where they started paying attention and then even later till they really started to focus on him. Don’t think Goldman was in his corner for some time. He was at his gym but Columbo would work his corner

 

He would have beat Louis when Schmeling did, and Louis would not have dominated a rematch

 

He wasn't protected. He was coddled. 25 of his first 33 fights (up until he faced his first decent opponent) were in the same damn venue in Providence. He was at best a circuit fighter. Definitely an overachiever, but then again, looking at him, anything would have qualified as an overachievement.

 

Please. Every prospect today and the last 40 years is protected like a new born. Everyone wants to keep that 0 on their record. And yes he was managed well after about ten fights. He had zero people looking out for his best interests in training or match making or corner. They only took notice when he was knocking everyone out and even a few they thought would beat him.

 

All a man can do is fight the best of their time and that's what Marciano did.