The Quality of Marciano's Opponents

The evidence seems to point otherwise though. Usyk is the smallest guy to make it to the top in the last quarter century and he's still bigger than Liston and more skilled.

Do you see anyone in the coming years changing that trend?

 

The mob had connections with the promoters and managers but did not control every aspect of the sport - modern times Don King controlled the sanctioning bodies and benefitted by his champions not having to fight the best of their eras like he did with Holmes while controlling Dokes as well (and never unified the titles) - and to this day many promoters control CERTAIN judges.

Marciano may have been admired but he could not be controlled in the ring. Being White did not stop him from fighting the best most skilled fighters of his era regardless of race - heavyweight champions before him did not follow that rule. Marciano fought the best black fighters of his division 5 #1 contenders and one #2 contender and beat them all.
Marciano admired Joe Louis and despite being white helped Joe Louis with money and he and Frank Sinatra got him a high-status job in Las Vegas Nevada as a greater.

Marciano did not have easy defenses - dropped vs Walcott and elbow split nose against Charles and dropped vs Moore and probably a good thing because people would be saying his fights were fixed. one decision vs Charles was a legitimate UD, and the rest were Marciano ko's - 49-0 despite being white.

He is probably hated (by some because of his race or ethnicity) some because he dominated the era but still one of the greatest in that division and possibly top 10 lb4lb

 

The second rate of Holmes era would have destroyed the elite of Marciano's, without a single fiber of a doubt.

And Holmes fought small dudes? Like 6-2, 216, 78" reach Berbick, the same sized Snipes? 6-6, 226, 81" reach Cooney, 6-3, 235 Cobb? 6-4, 227, 82" reach Smith? 6-3, 233 Bey?

How would those dudes stack up to the shoemakers and garbagemen that Marciano fought?

 

Immaterial. The fact is that Holmes opponents were much larger (and better) than Marciano's. If Rocky didn't want to face some (barely) bigger opponents he should have trained harder, napped less, and made 175

 

Holmes opponents were not better
Walcott Charles Moore Louis Layne is better than any five from Holmes

 

Evander Holyfield
Mike Tyson
Ray Mercer
Tim Witherspoon
Ken Norton

 

He lost to Tyson and Holyfield. Given he was old but I mean men he beat

 

You said opponents

 

The IBC ,not only controlled many of the champions and,contenders,and had promotional; contracts with
.Walcott,Charles,Lesnevich Robinson,Cerdan,Layne etc , they also had the exclusive rights to promote in most of the big arenas such as MSG,the Polo Grounds Yankee Stadium and St Nicks.So , if you didn't play ball with them you didn't fight in those venues.
Nobody suggested Marciano's fights were fixed
Nobody suggested Marciano's defences were easy.
Nobody suggested Marciano was in any way racially prejudiced.
I'm White,I don't hate Marciano,I just try to view him in the proper perspective.
Where you or I rate Marciano all time is irrelevant to the facts of his career .
King's influence was with the WBC that's all.
I have 4 books on Marciano and 6 on Louis, none of them mention Marciano financially assisting Louis. Neither Marciano or Sinatra had anything to do with Louis getting a greeters job at Caesar's Palace in1970.
Sinatra along with Schmeling helped pay for Louis' funeral.

 

Holmes fought many fighters who were 10 fight guys give or take. Most of his opponents went on losing paths and none of them could have survived the vast experience, skill and natural ability that existed in the Louis/Marciano era. Walcott -Charles- Moore etc. Gerry Cooney had a great left hook, no right hand, I watched him in the amateurs get stopped by light heavyweight Eddie Davis, I seen him win the middleweight golden gloves in NYC, he was 6'6 then.

Holmes lost to Duane Bobick in his peak amateur career (right hands) made him hold on until DQ and he was totally obliterated 2X by the 5'11 Nick Wells
Holmes had some great tools and great sparring experience with Ali but navigated around the best of his era, while Champ and then lost to the perceived easiest light heavyweight Champ Michael Spinks (right hands) in Spinks first fight as a heavyweight.

King corrupted the sport to unprecedented levels (smart) he controlled the agencies. Holmes era had some decent young talent but mostly wasted talent and drug users- Holmes still avoided the best of his era Tate - Page - Thomas - Dokes - Coetzee - Weaver (rematch) and Holmes never unified and gave up a title not to fight Greg Page.

As a boxing fan I saw fighters with potential but King and that era was bad for boxing - the best was not fighting the best. Tyson corrected the situation because he set a gauge to the division with the way he walked through Berbick, Thomas, Spinks, Holmes etc.
You have rose colored glasses on when it comes to that era and are picking hairs on the era's you were not alive for.

I realize some eras are not hard to duplicate as the world turns - different methods of training - more muscle gain - less skill and more leaning.

Lennox Louis, Vlad Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua were big, muscled men 6'5 and up but they were all ko'd or beaten by men who were about the size of Joe louis 6'1 - 6"2 - IMO the skill set of the 1940's 1950's were far better skilled and experienced and even in the Ali era fighter were more fit because they trained to be able to fight 15 rds. The Holmes era were boring unfit fighters who leaned on each other for the most part.

 

"Lennox Louis, Vlad Klitschko, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua were big, muscled men 6'5 and up but they were all ko'd or beaten by men who were about the size of Joe louis 6'1 - 6"2 -2
Lewis was ko'd twice by
McCall 6'2" 2311/4lbs
Rahman 6' 2 1/2 238lbs"
Vitali retired with an arm injury.
Fury was beaten twce by
Usyk 6'3" 221 1/2 lbsand 223lbs
AJ was ko'd by
Ruiz 6'2" 268lbs
Beaten twice by Usyk 221 and 222lbs
Ko'd by Dubois 6'5" 248 1/2lbs
Louis was 6 ft 1 1/2" and, at his best 200/203lbs.

 

I agree with what you say about opinions and I try and do the same with my opinions, while respecting the era and fighters.

However, I have seen interviews how Marciano was instrumental with his influence to help Joe Louis and Frank Sinatra also used his influence to get Joe a classy, good paying job in Las Vegas - both big fans of Louis. I will send when I find them if I can upload them. There have been some good interviews on tic toc pretty recently. On a separate note, one of Ali's wives (very smart and insightful woman) gave an interview about some behind the scenes with Ali and Sinatra that I never read about or knew about - they were close.