How far he could throw baseball? How fast he could sprint 100m? How many pushups and chinups he could do in 1 hour? How much time it took him to run 6-7 miles? What do you know about Rocky Marciano's athletic abilities?
I once read that Marciano kept a bus full of schoolkids from falling over the side of a cliff by lifting it back onto the road with one arm. Fact. It was his left arm too, which is amazing because all the idiots here think he was so right-hand crazy.
Marciano could do 30 chin ups in a row from what I read. I'd be entertained trying to watch the shw's of today do 10.
And do you reckon Marciano could do as much if he had a 60 lbs weight on him? Besides chin up/push up count favours smaller men (higher power to weight ratio) and especially short limbed men (shorter range of motion). Gymnastics are all super short, it doesn't make them heavyweight champions despite crazy power to weight ratio and being able to do constant chin ups. Bodyweight exercises are all going to favour smaller men with short limbs.
30 chinups in a set is fantastic. I think my record was 18 and the 18th one nearly gave me a hernia ...
Marciano was a lethal power puncher . No doubt about it . Joe Louis And Marciano shared some of the same sparring partners . The Sparring partners confessed that Marciano was the superior puncher . Which is unbelievable because Louis was 30 pounds heavier .
Anthony Joshua does plenty of pull ups so I don't buy that **** that it favors lighter weight guys. Perhaps to a certain degree but pull ups/chin ups will always be a great measure of upper body strength and conditioning.
Here we go...around about 1954-55 Rocky Marciano had his punching power evaluated at the US Testing Company in Hoboken N.J....(It's now in NYC)...using what is called a"Ballistic Pendulum"...it's used to measure a bullets momentum. Marciano...wearing 12 oz. gloves....fired punch after punch at the machine. When all was said and done...it was revealed that Marciano's punches had measured 925 foot pounds...meaning he could move 925 pounds 1 foot off the floor with a well placed punch!!!...Boxing Illustrated-December 1963
Although anyone sparring with Rocky in the late 40s/early 50s would probably have got Joe towards the end of his career and he did seem to lose some of the snap and power from his punches. All the same, that's good going even without the weight disparity.
I think this is because Louis was a correct, balanced boxer whereas Marciano had his own unorthodox style and threw the kitchen sink into every shot. I love Marciano but the way Louis fought is the proper way to box.