Marciano's Body Frame could easily be Tua and Tyson

Rocky Marciano would have been a cruiser today and no training or nutritional guidelines were going to change that.

 

Jesus Christ, I'd wondered about this, that would put Marciano as being nearly the exact same size as me in every measurement, 'cept a bit shorter. That puts it into perspective. That doesn't tell the whole story, our bodies are quite different in many respects, but Jesus. I would never aspire to be a heavyweight; Rocky really was small for that division.

 

Sorry, this size-ist **** is really bothersome. Marciano is far more analogous to Frazier than Tua or Tyson. He simply did not have the frame for the weight they carried, NOR would he have benefited from further muscle load. He was a great fighter at the weight he was. All-time HW head to head, he does not rank that high. As a HW champ, he ranks quite high. As a LB4LB fighter, he ranks extremely high. Under 200 pounds, the only guys I give a shot at Marciano over 12 rounds are Gene Tunney, Sam Langford and... that's about it.

 

of course with modern nuitreints, physical trainers,dieticions,steroids and so on rocky would have been a ripped 200-210,louis 215-225 ,dempsey210-220 or somewere close if not more,and there work ethic would propel them threw todays rediculous heavys,these men were awsome then i could not imagene if they fought today.and man can u picture a 6;2 225 jeffries a hundred and 5 years after his prime-maybe 245-255 with the athletisisem only imagined by todays heavies and a chin of iron just like rocky

 

it's absolute bull**** this "with today's modern nutrients, training methods...rocky would be more ripped, faster, more powerful, blah blah blah"

if rocky was fighting today, he would be a short, powerful, but LAZY heavyweight. yes.

and the reason is simple, he more likely than not would have grown up in reasonable if not affluent circumstances, even if his parents were recent immigrants. it is well documented that rocky's maniacal training habits were rooted in a psyche influenced greatly by hard times.

 

Marciano was 5 10 1/2in tall,his chest was smaller than mine [I'm 5 8 1/2in] Tysons chest is around 43in and his neck is 19in he is NATURALLY BIGGER than Rocky so is Tua,this is before they started on "other stuff".
Marciano did look like them only smaller.pumping him up with jabs would do zero for his ability, he got his endurance through incredible dedication to hard work and spartan living.These guys like Briggs may look the part but lack stamina,as to Tua he became a fat slob ,he went from a ripped squat powerhouse to a tubby Cockell type,lack of discipline.Tyson was as big as Rocky when he was a teenager!The guy is naturally wide ,Marciano's stats are average, it was the effort he put in during gymtime ,and the sacrifices he made that made him the monster he was,nutrition ,supplements, roids,whatever , will only take you so far. You need the single minded determination and self belief of a monk , the balls of an elephant , and a heart as big as a building . Rocky had them.

 

Marciano was smaller in every way. Prime Tyson & Tua would look like AIDS if they got down to 190's.

 

Really interesting post mate

I'm a bigger built guy than marciano according to those measurements...that's pretty crazy considering if I boxed I'd be nowhere near a heavyweight...more like super-middleweight if I shed some bodyfat and put on a little muscle.

Although somehow I don't weigh as much :? Granted I no doubt have more bodyfat than Rocky though

He would probably be a lightheavyweight in this day and age with the weigh in not being directly before a fight now...imagine how good a lightheavy he'd have been seeing as he was knocking out legitimate heavyweights.

 

excellent post, but on the whole i cant agree. rocky was one of my all time favourite fighters, and as you say, he tended to blow up between fights to 200+ but i trimmed down come fight night to around 180/190. the rock had found the weight he was most effective at, and regardless of modern diets/training routines, i have to agree with some of the other posters and i dont think he would have carried the weight very well. i think the comparison with tua is off, but kind of agree with the tyson comparison, mostly cos of mike's using weights more post prison, and yeah i think marciano may have had a physique resembling tysons had he used weights but its true that this would have slowed him down and tired him quicker, and without his relentless pace he would have been less effective. but this is all simply speculation as none of us know for sure. marciano would have been a light heavy by todays standards anyway, but rocky was hard as iron and had a granite chin and the will to win at all costs, caring little about personal damage as long as he got the job done, and like one of the other posts has already stated, nobody trained as hard as marciano. my guess is, had rocky fought these days he would still have been a champ,with maybe a couple of questionable points defeats or stoppages due to cuts, and probably still at heavyweight, as he would have found a way to beat the big lads, more than likely breaking them down with body shots and tiring them with his non-stop, relentless pressure before knocking them out. lets face it, they made them tougher in rocky's day (in my opinion anyway)

 

They miss the point, I know myself I have had different times of weight and muscle distribution. Marciano had an extreme cardio routine ( more than any Heavyweight ever) and in the days of Louis and before and after the old time trainers made heavys make a weight. One of the reasons was the 15 rd limit, the other was just because heavys did not have a weight limit it does not mean they they did not need one. I lived through the days of the 80's when fighters had man boobs and watched a lot of fat sluggish Big guys leaning on one another after 3 rds...Muscle looks great but is not always effective for boxing and some muscle is just extra baggage...look at Eddie Chamber sand Sam Peters midsection and James Toney ...these guys need a touch of disipline

 

I think Marciano was over 260 in this photo, he looks twice the size of Patterson, shoulders,arms and Legs and could have proberly scaled down to about 230 of muscle with todays training using a bit of weight training or wall weights (like Jack Dempsey used but they called them pullies) Marciano was addicted to cardio...loved to run...and had late power and stamina...but he may have had even more power if he added a bit of bulk without sacraficing cardio with todays 12 rounders he could have ajusted to more muscle and less cardio...I can see him weighing 225 and ripped...certain guys put weight on with muscle, I am one of them, as long as I keep the muscle on if I go strait to cardio, I lose muscle...if I maintain upper body muscle and do less cardio my body changes form...its hard to do this in the lower weights because of weight limits