I do get why some might not. He seemed at times to go out of his way to be abrasive. I'm a fan though.
I respect all boxers in a professional sense. Great respect. Even those who were less than exemplary humans, Valero, Monzon, Jeffries, the list goes on... Rock Newman can take a long walk on a short pier, tho.
https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSN1529042320071121 Holmes always said people took the comment the wrong way. It was clearly meant to be tongue in cheek. You cant literally get "technical" about someone carrying your jock strap. It was locker room talk. Holmes wasnt angry at marciano the person, he was angry at HBO and the unprofessionalism and disrespect they constantly showed him. Just look at the cooney fight or how people actually got mad at him for retiring a washed uo Ali who refused to just go away.
Muhammad Ali - Conned the world into thinking he was a special human being. Ask his wives about that. Also, no fighter ever received more favoritism from the press, fans, referees, and judges. Verbally abusive and laughably narcissistic. Ray Leonard - I like Ray more now after reading his autobiography, in which he is quite contrite. But in his time, he tried to act like he was above boxing, but at the end of the day he was just another pug out for glory and money. Didn't respect his opponents enough to give rematches when they were due. Mike Tyson -- I actually like Mike now. I think he's grown up alot. In his day though, no one ever brought more shame to the sport than Iron Mike and the outrageously vicious things he said and did. Holyfield - Lennox Lewis pegged it when he called him a hypocrite. I hate his whole Spiritual Warrior persona, when really he was just out blowing loads, blowing money, and blowing up his body.
People got mad at Marciano doing that to Louis too but Marciano handled it with class Also he was still inappropriate and sometimes downright gross on TV.
Try to remember though, that Marciano came of age in an era when the press was still something you could control to an extent, and use to your advantage, perhaps as much because it was a smaller group of guys doing the writing and reporting. By Holmes' time ( and certainly even moreso now) there's a lot more "press" out there and they're impossible to control. Back then it would have been poor form to write anything terribly derogatory about the heavyweight champion, and
To quote "Ali: A Life" by Jonathan Eig "Marciano came about in a time when sportswriters would rather create a legend than tear one down"
.........and we heard but a fraction of the things he said to people in moments of candor, as opposed to Holmes who had the media reporting every salacious thing they could get their hands on. Good thing for Marciano no one wrote about things like dildo collections back then.
First name that came to mind for me was Jorge Luis Gonzalez, the big Cuban heavyweight bust. Enjoyed watching him get taken apart. Never liked Herbie Hide, can’t say I had a reason but always rooted against him. (I guess I have to like Riddick Bowie since he ended both.) Herol Graham and Johnny Nelson, two ‘negative’ fighters just turned me off. It was mostly a game of how can I avoid a fight until the final bell and do so in a way that lets someone raise my hand as the winner ... which, I guess, is something of an art but lord they just bored me to death to the point that I wanted to see them lose.
I hated Salvador Sanchez for many years, because he beat Little Red Lopez. Don't actively hate him anymore, and I just got over it in the last year or so, but I'll never not dislike him. Bobby Chacon, I hated him for years because he beat Little Red Lopez. I started going to the gym 45 years ago in early June so I could learn to fight and beat up Chacon. He won me back to respecting him, but not liking him, in the early 80s. I started to like him when I met him in the 90s. I hated Shig Fukuyama because he beat Little Red Lopez but I let that go when Sean O'Grady beat him up. I don't know why I let go of that so easily.
Michael Moorer comes off as a huge ass. Thinks he's an ATG when he isn't. John Ruiz a guy who needed Greco Roman wrestling to make up for his gatekeeper skill level. Ruiz also said Roy Jones Jr ruined his life.