Marciano would beat him. Norton was an excellent contender, and would give some ATG Heavyweights trouble, but this is his fight to lose. He wasn't that good on the backfoot, and that is where Marciano would make him fight, much more frequently than the same happening with reversed roles, and I heavily doubt he could take a clean one from the rock, one that would surely land at one point or another. I doubt the cross guard would help him here. If it didn't help Moore, it wouldn't help Norton. Yeah, Norton was bigger, stronger and more explosive than Moore at that age, he also wasn't half the operator that Moore was even at that point.
Why the fantasy matchups with Rocky against bigger men who were all over 200 lbs when Rocky was a 184 lbs and a cruiserweight by modern standards?
Like for example who? In particular a big, strong, powerful and most importantly ATHLETIC BIG guy. Not just someone who’s well over 6ft and 200.
Marciano only weighed 185 lbs and was 5'10". Almost everyone he fought was significantly bigger. He won every fight. Therefore, he demonstrated the ability to beat significantly bigger fighters. I think the notion that he could beat someone like Norton is far from ridiculous.
Nearly all of his opponents may have been bigger. But they weren’t as strong and powerful overall as Norton who was very athletic. Even old Joe Louis had his moments from sheer memory before his age got too much.
Norton was an elite heavyweight who I believe beat Ali 2 out of 3. He was obviously much bigger than Marciano. Maybe Marciano would lose to Norton but I have to tell you that Marciano had incredible strength and power for his size. Marciano was always in superb condition and had great mental strength. Norton seemed to have some issues with big punchers.
