Rating Marciano's low crouch

His awkward style worked for him...he dipped...you didn't know where the punches were coming from...lots of guys thought that he'd be easy...until he hit you and imposed his will upon you...then basically your whole fight plan went out the window...

 

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It worked very well, obviously. His crouch actually made him being only 5'11 an advantage. When he got down so low it force the others to punch downward at him which gave him his own offensive chances. When he was inside it was perfect for letting him rip his own big body punches in and minimize damage he took. He got a lot of leverage when he threw the right hand due to his crouch.

 

I was always told if you are the smaller guy in the ring, then make yourself even smaller... Marciano did this very well.

 

The crouching was more of a lean over to one side, and it drew a fighter into his range. Rocky was defending, transfering weight from one foot to the other and bringing his opponent onto a punch all at the same time. It was a side on crouch.

if you look where rockys feet were his head looked out of range but his feet was in range. naturaly you can hit anyone if your feet are in range. An opponent could think he was safe to step into rocky when realy he could not without getting hit. The side on leaning roll gave the impresion he was too far away when in fact rocky was not.

 

Very good for a heavyweight. As has been noted, his best technique was the way he leant to one side, so his head wasn't in the right line of fire. He wasn't skilled by the standards of his day, but just look at his approach to "brawling" in comparison to, say, Sam Peter or Derek Chisora.

 

:goodeven with his brawling rocky was quite clever because he knew when to brawl. where as a lot of pressure fighters are too keen to brawl and can be picked off Rocky had the knack of knowing when to use it -usually once he had trapped his man at the right distance. brawling was by no means his best weapon. Marciano’s counter punching and rhythm braking punch selection were better assets. Nobody could read his next move.


If ever there was a fighter who made his awkwardness work for him it was Marciano. Even when he missed or over reached his shoulders, head, elbows and forearms would crash in. He would have been a nightmare to fight, you couldn’t make a mistake against him yet his own mistakes all worked for him. Marciano was like a bad snooker player who can put the best player behind the black ball without trying. A freak

 

Solid, but I think LaMotta fought the best using this style. Although Rocky dipped lower.

 

I think it was the best ever at that style which has since evolved and changed. Marciano was suprisingly good defensively and a great timing puncher.

 

Easily one of the best crouches ever. Guys were always saying that he was almost impossible to hit cleanly because of it. And then they had to deal with the openings they had to make in order to hit him. It was quite brilliant.

 

LaMotta was a smoother version, carmine basilio also used the same side on, low rolling stance but I think both could be caught during an exchange and their punch sequence was easier read. Lamotta was always going to treble up on his left and carmine could get picked off when unloading. Rocky was harder to predict.

 

Rocky was also very hard to time. Only Walcott really managed to time him perfectly, and that was when Rocky was still getting warmed up. Being so unpredictable, yet so powerful made people hesitate when they thought they saw an opening. Often times even when they did manage to properly time Rocky the punch would have very little effect and Marciano would clock them with his own shot. It was a lose-lose situation.

The only really issue I've seen with Marciano's crouch is that it limited how quickly he could cut off the ring and caused him to follow people instead. It all worked out for him in the end and that's really the only flaw I've seen with it.

 

very good post....Marciano was a freak and one of the best at rhythm breaking...a lot smarter than given credit for, the crouch made it hard for fighters to land with force without being countered with something awkward and hard, he had an odd assortment of punches coming out of the crouch

 

Lefthook, would you say the style has evolved for the better...or worse using Marciano as the standard? Marciano's style looks so awkward to get a read on then add to that the physicality of it. Moore and Charles had seen everything in a ring, and they were both very susceptible to Marciano sylistically. Alot of the things Charles did against boxers like clutching then backing out firing, or dipping lower to take away an opponents leverage to get shots off were negated by Marciano's weaving and dipping.