No quite frankly. Pressure is most effective/incapacitating on the inside. Why am I even having to explain this?
How many times did Holmes feel emboldened to fight the #1 contender, when he could avoid it without sacrificing his title? You see, you can trash talk any fighter!
I can actually understand stylistic factors other than: height weight reach assumed power assumed chin
Can we just ban these dumbass threads? Because literally every single time we get disingenuous, intellectually dishonest responses. Id rather debate a pacquiao fan than a marciano fanboy. Im done.
In 5 years Holmes fought Evangelista.7 Ocasio. 9 Weaver .4 Zanon. 7 Jones.7 Frank .0 Ali Berbick.8 Spinks.6 Snipes.0 Cooney .2 Cobb.9 Rodriguez.0 Witherspoon.8 Frazier.0 Smith.6 Bey.3 Williams.7 Spinks.0 21 defences In 3 years Marciano defended his title 6 times,3 times against men he had previously beaten.
With all the talk and importance placed on Louis - Marciano and Louis' jab I've gone back and watched the fight and find the whole thing vastly overstated. Louis in no way, shape or form kept Marciano at bay with the jab, kept him at the end of it or controlled much of the fight with it. Not even remotely. Sure Louis landed his share of jabs but no-where near as many as i expected and nor did it have much of an impact on the fight in the overall scheme of things. Did it bust him up? He had a medium sort of mouse under the right eye, a little swelling under the left and a small cut. So he was marked up a bit but he also took his share of punches on the inside which no doubt contributed as well. Marciano got around and past the jab countless times. Sometimes he just walked thru it. He fought inside just about whenever he wanted to and a great deal of this fight was fought at close quarters contrary to a lot of opinion/belief for some reason. You only have to watch one round to see this. Marciano had his head on Joe's chest for large periods of the fight. It's fair to say Marciano got somewhat better post Louis and fought a littler shorter again. Would Marciano get inside on Holmes? Of course he would, plenty of times. With his short arms and big power his entire style was based on getting inside and within range. You don't have his success and career without being at least very good at what you do. He was very adept and fighting low and getting inside. Would Holmes land his share of jabs? Of course he would he jab is one of the best 3 or 4 in heavyweight history. We would have Holmes having his share of success with the jab and Marciano having his share of success getting inside as well. Marciano would have the overall better of the inside exchanges with his short arms and skill and Holmes would have the best of the outside fighting when Marciano was looking to come in. I think it would be a grueling fight. I think there would be some heavy exchanges. Both would know they were in a fight that's for sure. The Holmes jab would bust Marciano up some and Marciano's big punches inside would have Holmes very sore. Holmes slugged it out in various fights at various points and there would be some great action in this, nasty action. It's far from impossible Marciano would hurt him and force him to go to the well. Marciano also finished guys a helluva lot better than a Shavers, Snipes or Weaver. I'd come down on Holmes side mostly for one simple reason - size. Against a fellow great in this weight region i think 27 odd pounds is a little too much to give away given Holmes size is extremely functional even if Marciano did punch miles above his weight. I think it would be a GREAT fight however. I'd go for Holmes by late stoppage or decision. I think Marciano would give post exile Ali a great fight too and maybe he'd push Joe Frazier hard as well. I think he'd find it much harder against massive punchers like Foreman, Tyson and Liston and big punching giants like Lennox Lewis. @Tin_Ribs do you find this account somewhat plausible and/or fair mate? Or am i dreaming LOL
An intelligent, balanced and thought out response such as this has no place in any thread involving Rocky Marciano. I mean you even watched some actual footage to investigate instead of resorting to preconceived opinions based on the tale of the tape and baseless myths (Louis jabbing Marciano's head off being one) as most everyone else on here does?!? Belittling and simplistic "he's only 5'10 with T-Rex reach so can't win any h2h match ups" is more appropriate for a Marciano thread. You're better than this JT.
Cheers Griffo. Marciano is certainly a magnet in here and you can safely say he is easily the biggest drawcard on the Classic Forum. Primo was hot for a while but Marciano's been hot since the dawn of ESB and is just as hot today if not more so.
