Consider ignoring scoring blows in vintage bouts sometime, and concentrate on the non scoring shots which make contact He hurt his opponents anywhere he hit them. He's going for knockouts, not decision wins. Sometime in the late 1930's, (I forget against who) Louis complained to Blackburn between rounds that the guard of his opponent gave him nothing to hit. "He's got arms, don't he?," was Chappie's reply. Meanwhile, Marciano, who had a reputation as a bleeder, was effective at defending and protecting himself in overlooked ways. Vito Antuofermo had a reputation as a vastly underrated defensive fighter, but there was one fatal flaw in that defense. He was always complaining about being butted (never mind that he was known to use his own head as a weapon). Well, when one of Don Curry's bouts was also stopped due to a butt he sustained, the Cobra owned up to it and made it clear to the post fight interviewer that, "My head was available to be butted, and I paid for it!" Rocky's head was NOT available to be butted, he didn't lead with his skull, and trainers like Goldman and Blackburn competed in an era when even mouthpieces weren't used in sparring. Self defense is self defense, period. Leon Spinks learned that the hard way when he took up boxing, and had his two front teeth butted out of his mouth in sparring. Tony Galento got frustrated that the elbowing and butting he was sometimes dependent on wasn't something he was able to use on Max Baer. Marciano, who had an excellent follow-through elbow himself, would have driven Two-Ton bonkers with the futility Tony would have had in trying to head butt Rocky, whose mitts would be in the way. Marciano kept his hands up, and had the conditioning to leave them in position. Meanwhile, he might be aiming for your own biceps, shoulders, and other protective body parts. Foreman essentially made Qawi quit by dropping him with an excruciating kidney punch. Well, doesn't matter that George was penalized the round, he was going for the stoppage, and a round or two later made Dwight throw up his arms in surrender and walk away. The end justified the means. Ali would yank on the back of Frazier's head, while Smoke hammered his hips. Best way to try beating Marciano was not to get hit anywhere on the body, or as little as possible. Peak Ali might have been able to minimize this as much as anybody over the championship distance, but he did tend to give away body shots, and did experience the reality of sparring with Rocky in the ring during what would have been his athletic peak.
I've had to check this a few times, but he may actually have been the very first challenger of the HW Championship with an unblemished record during the Queensberry Era. Billy Conn expressed the sensibility which prevailed through the first half of the 20TH Century in stating, "When a fighter's undefeated, there's something wrong." Now, over the last 50 years, it seems increasingly mandatory that a title challenger must not only be undefeated, but preferably never been knocked down in the process of acquiring that perfect record. The movie Rocky may have helped kick that shift into high gear with Stallone's plot that Creed was not just undefeated, but never had anybody go the distance with him, or had even been knocked down.
Ali in 1976 stated"just playing in the ring sparring with Marciano he could hardly raise his arms". Also "he was a greater fighter than Frazier". Let there be no doubt that Marciano had the power to hurt even a fighter as great as Ali. If he could hurt Ali he could hurt anyone.
The two things that made Marciano the great fighter he was were, determination and heart. He was extremely strong minded and fearless.. Here is an example. If you watch a good fighter hit the heavy bag, you immediately say, " How can any human being stand up to that". The answer is that they probably cant. The thing is, that in actual fights, fighters don't commit to punches like they do on the bag. Why?... because if you attempt to throw punches thru your target and miss, you are open for a counter. Result is that in an actual fight, fighters punch at opponents instead of thru them. Marciano had the courage and the fearlessness to punch thru you. He didn't concern himself with your counter. He was determined to beat you and he had the courage to do it.
Amazingly he hit a 300 pound heavy bag like it was nothing. I recently stopped in at a local MMA type gym and they had a 300 pound bag used mostly for leg kicks. At 230 pounds my punches literally bounced off that bag. Could barely move it.
It would be wrong to describe Marciano as a defensive genius. But with his constant foot movement and low stance, we do have to accept he was harder hit than people expected. His conditioning meant he could throw 60 power shots a round for 15 rounds. His anticipation meant you only needed to make one mistake against him. Truly a great fighter.
And you could not tell what punch he hit you with when he came out of a crouch. Right hand or left hook. A fighter could not prepare for which punch. He never gave you the distance to work in. He either drew you into his range or he was already too close.
I've reiterated twice that Marciano cannot be blamed for his era ,or the dearth of big skilled young heavyweights in it. Neither is that the sole reason he was successful, it is however, a contributory factor.imo.
I've given you the press's reaction to his dubious win over Brion and it was a unanimous one amongst them. Layne was popular with the crowd because his style was exciting and he was the right complexion.He wasn't being spoken of as a prospective coming champion after the Brion fight , not by the press , nor that portion of the fans who knew what they were watching. His resume prior to Marciano had ONE really good win on it.
It's a contributory factor that Big skilled heavyweights had not even been invented yet? What if the way big giants were trained then did not allow them to develop into effective superheavyweights? Is that Rocky fault?
AP scored the bout for Layne although they were not enamored with his overall performance. Layne was the 11-5 betting favorite over Rocky.
What a weird question! Have I said any of it was Rocky's fault?:huh It's like asking was it Tysons' fault Holmes was 38 when he beat him?[ I use this example because I've just watched the two of them in a video clip] No it wasn't his fault ,but that does not change the fact that he was does it?
