He makes a good point. Ali in his later career too a hell of a lot of punishment. I mean, that's probably WHY we talk about how PROVEN his chin is. He was shipping horrendous punishment from guys like Frazier and Shavers,
I am not going to call Marciano the greatest defensive fighter of all time, but he knew how to slip, bob and weave. If you compare punishment taken with Ali vs Marciano over the course of there runs, Marciano took less punishment than Ali. As said before, as great as Ali was, his 2nd half he was pretty much a punching bag. You can not confuse greatness with defensive ability. When he had his speed, he could get out of the way in a flash, once that left him in his comeback, he did not have the skills to pull a Archie Moore in avoided punishment.
Yes, we can Ali has fought much bigger guys more consistently in his career. Not only that he has fought Legendary punchers from True Heavy's. Liston, Frazier, Foreman, Shavers and Lyle, and only one put him down. I highly doubt Marciano would survive fights with all 5 of them and if he did he goes down quite a few times against a few of them. I see absolutely no way he survives Foreman.
Marciano took less punishment because Marciano fought far less quality opposition, almost singularly old, smaller fighters and featherfisted no-hopers. Facing Norton three times surpasses Marciano's opposition, let alone the addition of Liston, Frazier x3, Foreman, Shavers, Lyle, Foster, Quarry x2, Patterson x2... Even the most generous estimation of Marciano's career has him facing (what in his day was considered) elite opposition for 4 years and 14 fights. Before that, he was strictly a circuit attraction. Ali fought in the elite ranks for 16 years and 45 fights, even considering his lay off.
Ali fought the better fighters, but I think the main reason he took more punishment was what he did in his later years and not the stronger opposition. You can not rope a dope the likes of Foreman and Frazier and not get the punishment you get in a fight like that. I think had Ali been in his 60's prime, he would stick and move and get hit less. No way could I see the Cassius Clay from the first Liston fight or the Ali from the Williams fight just laying on the ropes just taking the punishment that he took. That had more to do with it imo, than the opposition.
Absolutely zero chance Marciano gets through Liston, Frazier, Foreman and Shavers without being stopped.
Very very interesting question, it kinda depends on how you feel about it, Rocky was never knocked out, Ali was, Rocky went down twice in his career Ali went down much more but Ali faced much much harder punchers and for longer than Rocky did, Ali also had a very defensive style earlier on where he didn’t get hit nearly as much as Rocky did earlier on, so I’m not 100 percent, my take is that Ali can probably take a harder one punch than Rocky but Rocky was more Durable than Ali, but that being said They both had unbelievable recuperative abilities, great question.
If by "chins" we mean resistance to being knocked out, I'd favor Ali, but not by much. Neither was actually knocked out, though Ali was stopped (by his own corner, and rightly so). But then again, under the refereeing conditions when Ali fought, Marciano may have been stopped, also. I guess we'll never know for sure.
They both had terrific chins .. Walcott could crack and of course so could Moore .. Ali was tested against much bigger punchers like Frazier, Foreman, Liston, Lyle and Shavers ...
I am pretty sure they would rather die in the ring than take a ten count if the ref was not going to stop it.
