All things considered, who had the better losing performance? Conn vs. Louis Charles vs. Marciano 1 Some might say Charles because he made it the distance, while Conn didn't. Some might feel like Louis was simply better than Maricano, and thus had more of a mountain to climb that night. Some may feel since Conn was giving up more weight, thus it's more impressive how well he did. What say you...
I'd go for Conn just because I think there was a bit between Louis and Marciano. Plus, some of what Conn did was crazy beautiful.
Charles. That was one of the gutsiest performances I've ever seen. How he took that punishment that Marciano unleashed at the end, I don't know. That was sheer fighting pride keeping him up. His face was all beaten out of shape, he was 14 years and about 100 fights into his career, he'd never had a huge fan base or much acclaim when he was champion but he fought like hell to regain the title.
Charles was also past his very best when he turned in that performance, whereas Conn was bang in his prime.
Charles may have been the gutsier performance, but, I give the nod to Conn on who had the "better" performance.