Who ranks higher on the Heavyweight list - Evander Holyfield or Rocky Marciano?

My pick is Holyfield. But Rocky earned his spot among the greats, no doubt about it:

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFniePBuLqs[/ame]

www.youtube.com/eslubin

 

chinny for geting knocked out by 2 atg punchers???? Abe simon was a blip, many good fighters can aford one blip early on, tyson and lewis had "blips" as world champions!! TYson was no spring chicken against holyfeild - he was the one who gassed out in his later career NOT walcott.

So am I. the two of them were conn men as 90's contenders using their names to bag big fights they couldnt win. Holmes messed guys around and went into survival mode,hoping to steal rounds and foreman never won clearly over the distance - and that was chosing his own opponents!

so did a lot of guys. Lewis was so big he never could dominate clearly over the distance. harold johnson would school all the guys who won 3 rounds or more against either lewis or holyfeild.

Moorer "grew", I like that. If charles and moore stoped training like the 1950s heavyweights they were they would be as big and just as fat as moorer.

 

It is. As long as it isn´t done by my favourite fighters.

 

Rocky all the way. Head to head I think Holyfield would probably beat him, but to compare Marciano's perfect record against the now rather ugly one of Evander, it would be criminal to slight Rocky in this way.

 

Based on longevity and betting better prime opponets I have to go with Holyfield hgere.

 

longevity goes along way, I respect that, infact this is why I have no qualms about putting fighters like joe louis and ali above marciano but holyeild did not get all the biggest names into the "win list" of his record within a simular timeline. His best wins were against guys who were below par and/or also beat him.

 

I'm well aware of who he fought, who was better than Moorer/Mercer at HW? I notice your not keen on commiting to that 1

 

If you are asking which of these heavyweights that archie Moore beat were beter than moorer and mercer I think the fighters underlined would have a fair to even chance of beating either of them.

remember mercer only got a SD against an aging ossie ocasio and only 21 of his 44 opponents even won their last fight and 5 of the 8 rated ones beat him. the 2 other guys that beat him lost their last fight as well. damiani and morrison were his only wins of any note, at that time there was a lot of contenders who could have matched those results anyway.

A peak moorer had SD's and MD's against axel schulz and vaughn bean and outside of a poorly holyfeild his best win at heavyweight was beating old bonecrusher -on points, something even marvis frazier was capable of when bonecrusher was still good.

Won 10 Curtis Sheppard 1947
Won 10 Henry Hall 1948
Won KO 3 Bob Satterfield 1949
WTKO9 Abel Cestac
Won KO 9 Jimmy Bivins 1951
Won KO 1 Embrell Davison
Won 10 Clarence Henry 1952
Won KO 4 Toxie Hall 1953
Won 10 Nino Valdes 1953
WTKO 9 Bob Baker 1954
Won KO 3 George Parmentier 233lbs
WTKO 5 Willie Bean
Won TKO 9 James J Parker 1956
Won KO 10 Bert Whitehurst 1958
WKO 10vs Willi Besmanoff 1960
WKO 6 Pete Rademacher 1961
WKO 10 Alejandro Lavorante 1962
WKO 1 Howard King 1962

 

To be a 4-time HW champ, you need to lose 3 times. You can't hold Marciano's "0" against him.

And the history of boxing proves over and over again that the smaller men are better than the bigger men.

Have you noticed that the best heavyweights are all relatively small? Most of them were Light Heavies before they became HW. See Marciano, Ali, Charles, Holyfield, Tunney, Dempsey. Even Louis and Tyson weighed little more than 200 lbs at their prime.

 

absolutly! Layne was champion material until rocky got to him. Laynes war with satterfeild also proved what character he had.

Exactly, Mathews earned his high rating, he is dismissed now as a fighter with a padded record only because of what rocky did to him but untill then he kept winning and won fights that landed him that high rating. Only a good fighter could string that manny together without slipping up.

Marciano- mathews is actualy a good fight if you watch it. matthews won the first round, he was a class act and fighting to win.

 

Ali weighed 201 against cooper for the title in 1966. Proving big men CAN naturaly weigh in under 225 if they train. Ali was 188lb against alex miteff, the same weight rocky marciano was.

Mike tyson was as natural as the frankenstien monster. an experiment taken upon by rich eccentric fight fans clayton and jacobs who (from arms reach) had cus adopt an abused child and ensured he got what ever it took for him to develop into what they wanted. As a child of 11 years of age tyson was groomed to be a heavyweigt, they decided on it. Tyson was not natural. he was less than 190lb when he came out of prison.