Lennox Lewis v Rocky Marciano

We can def compare the ages. Marcianos are gonna be faR younger on average. Height and weight I’m sure are on Holyfield’s side

 

Agreed .. Rocky was a great fighter without question.

 

I will forever laugh at those punch stats. There's no way Marciano had a better defence than Holyfield.

 

Science denier lol. You’ve been pre programmed to believe the nonsense you’ve read on this site in regards to Marciano. Watch the film closely and it’s obvious he rarely gets hit cleanly let alone hit with combos. And this is compubox the same stat technicians that do everyone’s stats today did there’s. You’re denying it won’t make your argument stronger

 

I don't believe today's either.

I haven't been pre programmed, I just use my eyes objectively. Holyfield has a better defence no matter what the 'stats' say. It's also been explained in detail why stats without context are meaningless.

 

I don't know anyone alive that got hit by both men so you can speculate Rocky was a great fighter Tua was not

 

Ok, Lewis probably has the edge here overall ... but why should marciano have to be given a further handicap of spotting over 45b? Lewis won the title weighing 227lb. So in fairness It could just as easily be as little as 38lb he’s giving away than “45 pounds plus”. Let’s not forget, We have seen titles change hands where that much weight has been given up.

Recently titles changed hands where the lighter fighter gave away 46lb.

This is just getting carried away. What is going on here? Lewis won the title at 227 in his prime. He was 229 for Frank Bruno. Where are you getting 55lb from when it could just as easy be 38lb?

I have thought about it and That’s a different kettle of fish really isn’t it. If you start at light middle the difference between those weight classes to LH represents a higher proportion of that lighter starting weight than it does once you start at 189lb.

Height and reach wise Marciano matches David Tua who went 12 rounds. In relation to Lewis, The difference in weight between Tua and Marciano is really only modern training.

Were Rahman or McCall better punchers than Marciano at world level? Who else did they knockout? It is a very short list of good fighters that those two knocked out isn’t it?

 

1. Lewis fought the vast majority of his prime at 240 and above .. Marciano was 187 .. do the math ..
2. The math is near exact .. do it.

 

Rocky simply faced weak opposition.

 

I wonder how those stats would look if Marciano fought young, skilled, young, fast, powerful, young, ATGs (Oops almost forgot young!) and/or SHWs either at or close to their prime while Holyfield fought primarily old men, club fighters, and washed up has-beens. Me thinks the statistics would look slightly different.

 

I think those stats would've been a wee different if they faced each others opposition.

 

The funniest part was "Defense isn’t even close. Marciano was MUCH harder to hit"

 

Lewis had already won and lost the title without ever weighing more than 238. He had even weighed as low as 221 against Mike Weaver in his first important fight, in an effort to use more speed for a lighter opponent. Which is relevant to this matchup. Lewis was closer to 230 in his prime. He was never better than when he beat Ruddock weighing 227lb. Lewis was well-into his thirties by the time he was drawing with 30 pound lighter Evander Holyfield. If the extra weight made him more prime as he got older why wasn’t he winning by knockout with that kind of weight advantage against a natural cruiserweight?

 

Care to compare the actual average age of opponents? Thought not. Holyfield did fight better all competition and he fought longer so those stats would def be a little better for him if he stopped fighting younger. But I still don’t think they’d be anywhere near Marcianos defensive rating. It isn’t even close.

 

Good point. When Evander fought them, Foreman and Holmes were like a million years old!

So many people want to knock Marcianos dominance but at heavyweight Evander lost to Moorer. Who like the men Marciano beat was also originally a lightheavyweight.

Bowes is only considered a good win for Holyfield because Evander lost to him in the first place. Bowe really has no other decent wins. Evander did beat Tyson, but not really when it counted so much. Even at that moment the mantle of being rated the best in the world at that time was shared with Lewis.

Certainly Holyfield deserves much respect for enduring in fights against fair opposition but there wasn’t really a true world domination from him. There is a good argument his fight with Lewis was the closest thing to a match deciding who the best in the world was..and at the conclusion of the two fights that took, it was far from being “conclusive enough” for celebration for either one of them.