Who had the better chin Rocky Marciano or Tom Sharkey?

This thread shows what a great debater Old Fogey is ,it's a shame he appears to have forsaken us.


This wrongly captioned as a sparring session , in fact, it is two photos cobbled together

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I think Sharkey's lack of defence is clearly illustrated by his appearance.

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Roco never more than briefly stunned? The light hitting Ted Lowry did that. Some anti Jeffries fans ( You ) say Jeffries did not finish a prime Sharkey. Ok, Jeffries was was green in one fight, and injured in the other. Sharkey paid dearly in both matches. Now please explain to me why Maricnao could not KO Lowry in 2 matches, or why it took him forever to put away Cockell, with several low blows mixed in?

Marciano was floored by the two best punchers he fought in Walcott and Moore, and let's be honest here, neither would rate as top 40 punchers at heavyweight. So Rocky never fought the great heavyweight punchers. Chins are best tested when they are hit, and Sharkey was most certainly tested by more power hitters, and with lighter gloves and no mouth pieces. Hard to say who had the better chin. Most of the KO defeats by Sharkey happened when he was past his prime. Rocky never fought past his prime.

 

Why do you keep citing Lowry as having rocked Rocky without actually seeing the fight

If Rocky hasn't fought a top40 HW puncher in Archie Moore/Charles/Louis/Walcott, than neither has Sharkey/Jeffries in the 167lb Fitz

 

Doesn't seem to have much of a defense in the Jeffries film either. Upright and aggressive, never a good combination to have. I can easily see Fitzsimmons's vaunted counter punches doing a job on him, and you'd have to worry about Sharkey's defense against Walcott and Archie Moore as well.

 

Impossible to argue with Mendoza when it comes to Jeffries. He's rather "emotionally invested", looking to boost Jeffries's achievements and pick apart anyone who is compared to him.

 

Just about everybody knows how Ernst Roeber screwed up Jeff's left arm with a foolishly spontaneous bit of horseplay, when Jim raised it to deflect a medicine ball unexpectedly heaved at him late in training for the rematch with Sharkey. All the considerably damage Jeff inflicted on Sailor Tom at Coney Island was with his less heralded right hand on the left side of Sharkey's head and body. Watch what the Jeffries hook does to Ruhlin in their title rematch. (Even with power only able to be carried in the right alone, Jeff reportedly put Tom on the deck.) Without that Roeber inflicted injury on Jeff, does this thread even come into being?

 

Anthing wrong with Jeffries arm in the first fight with the 6 inches shorter ,25lbs lighter Sharkey?

 

" Emotionally invested ".I like that, and must remember it.

 

Quite so ,two sharpshooters like those could easily dent the wide open Sailor Tom's chin.
In passing ,imo, it is by no means a given that Jeffries hit any harder than Walcott ,or Moore for that matter.

 

Jeffries may have had the "heavier" hands, although it's tough to say without extensive footage on the man. But he was not as sharp a puncher it seems. On footage he does land several uppercuts on the tough Tom Sharkey without stunning him.

The thing with tough guys like Tom Sharkey is that they can take the punches that they see coming, but most often it's the punches they don't see that end up putting them on their back. I imagine that's what Fitzsimmons's KO ability was mainly based on, as I don't believe he was some physical freak that shook up opponents with glancing blows. More probably he just knew how and where to place his punches. With a guy like Sharkey for an opponent there were plenty of openings and Fitzsimmons went to work like a surgeon.

 

Excellent appraisal:good

 

Exactly. And that's why Kid McCoy dropped Sharkey as well. And why Jimmy Ellis was able to twice drop iron man Oscar Bonavena but Joe Frazier never even came close.

Good post

 

Jess Willard weighed around 235. Abe Simon and Primo Carnera were around 250.

Were they harder punchers than Rocky Marciano?