at his worse marciano can stay with anyone. I love holmes jab and long rights, when he got hurt he could brawl with the best of them by shortening his right hand that he would double up in uppercuts and overhands, the trouble is marciano would be on him. his right over the top would come instictivly as soon as holmes brawled with him close up. usualy holmes was a danger when hurt but this would play into marcianos strengths. rockys rythem breaking awkwardness would neutralise holmes's longrange edge and inside holmes is in trouble.
the guy in your avatar for one... What is this, a Marciano Inquisition? Do I have to prove my faith in the myth and the legend of the greatest ****** who ever laced up the gloves?
Shavers was not a good finisher, Marciano was, Shavers failed to seal the deal against Lyle,Cobb,Mercado,Holmes,Ali, so its not like he was a finisher. As far as his Jab it was Holmes best tool but he left it low and could be countered. Marciano threw the right from many different angles but he also had a left hand. I remeber Holmes getting KO'd twice in the amatuers by awkward 5"10 shorty Wells and 5"11 Tyson in the pro's which leads me to believe short awkward punchers troubled him.
All you have to prove is your deep devout faith to Dino Dennis This content is protected otherwise, we are no longer on speaking terms :bart
Holmes late rds TKO over Marciano........ Holmes, like Ali, was too fast, skilled and elusive with his legs for Marciano to win any more than a few rds when Holmes was merely taking a breather in the dream-fight.... Holmes' jab was THE BEST ever at heavyweight...... By rd 13, Marciano is cut, bruised and battered into a TKO defeat.... Come the aftermath and post-fight hoopla, Marciano see's the doctor at the local hospital for a blood transfusion....... There he receives a pint or two....... Cheers..... Of course I'm talking about the Holmes of 1980 versus the Marciano of 1953 pitted in a time machine....... MR.BILL
Note: While Holmes had been decked with rights by "Shavers & Snipes" in 1979 and '81, you gotta take into consideration that Shavers and Snipes were BOTH taller by a couple to a few inches and had a much longer reach then the 68 inches that Marciano had. So therefore, I must add that I am not so sure Marciano would be able to land a right hand bomb / bombs in the manner of what Shavers and Snipes actually pulled-off against Larry Holmes in title fights........ WORD! MR.BILL
sure he was smaller but marcianos tale pf the tape was negligable with walcott's. I have seen rocky listed as high as 5'11' in the ring record book. marcianos reach was 69, so what? did the height of a fighter ever win him the fight? did anyone keep marciano away with a jab? did holmes ever get tagged by shorter guys? holmes operated at a close range when he used the upercut. there was a seqence of blows he would always use: right hook, right upercut right hook. short punches all of them. rocky would respond after the first right hand and land his right over the top as holmes was midway into leting go with his upercut. lights out.
Those are some good points in favor of Rocky..............still, I gotta go with Larry's jab busting Rock up for a late stoppage.
A Prime Holmes would show Marciano more movement and speed than any opponent Rocky ever faced. Combine that with Larry's considerable edge in height and reach and Rocky has too big a handicap to overcome. If Larry was a flatfooted fighter then I would give him more of a chance but a prime Holmes was a mover. Rocky's opponents were there to be hit. Some may have have been a little tricky and shifty but still were right in front of Rocky. Larry wouldn't be. Rocky's biggest drawback especially against a HW Larry's size and mobility was his ridiculously short reach. Yes Larry was dropped by right hands but the men that landed them had longer reaches, somewhere in the range of 8-10" inches. And in the case of Renaldo Snipes was about 4-5 inches taller as well. That makes a big difference if your winging a right hand at someone Larry's size. The simple fact remains that Larry would be able to land his shots from afar while Rocky would continuously have to avoid them while trying to get close enough to land his. Even if Rocky should land a good right I feel that Larry could withstand it and get out of range before Rocky could follow up with more bombs. Rocky was good at whipping a quick powerful right but generally speaking he wasn't fast of hand. Fast combinations was not his strong point. Neither were fast feet. If you stayed in front of him you were asking for trouble. Larry wouldn't. At least not a prime Larry and that would seal the deal.