Send in your 176-200 pound fighter to beat Anthony Joshua

Marciano and Louis both beat him. They do everything he’s not good at. Great stamina, pacing, power, and they control the distance much better than AJ can.

 

mayorga.

 

Hmm? okay but the reverse is also true,, Dempsey would have Joshua doing a headstand again

 

Great list, one name who's as good as all those you mentioned and has a very unique blend of skill, power, speed and stamina is Schmeling. Beating an athletic version of Louis points to hind being able to consistently hurt and outbox Joshua while being able to defend from incoming power punches.

 

Honestly I'd say Jack Dempsey starches AJ, He's shown a good enough chin to where he could probably take a couple of bombs. After all Willard legitimately killed a man and he did take a couple of punches from him. And Dempsey could PUNCH.

 

He's smaller than he's generally treated as; yeah. There seems to be this tendency to treat heavyweights who sometimes breached the 210 barrier as much bigger than guys who hung around 200. Sort of like the way women think of 6 foot guys as massive compared to 5'11" ones.

Anyway, Louis and perhaps Ali are probably the only old-timey guys who should be in this conversation, IMO. They were at least special for their eras, pound for pound, and Louis had experience fighting big (unimpressive) contenders. So there's at least the chance that they can compete against a "heavyweight" division where most guys are effectively a weightclass or two bigger than them.

 

I`m telling you small guys are knocking out these super heavies I don`t care about some silly amateur fight, AJ is better than Willard was.

 

Usyk completely out-classed AJ.

 

His chin was even weaker than AJ`s, no way could he take AJ`s power, AJ would destroy a prime John Ruiz, he has far more power.

 

When did Marciano have to control distance v a fighter that is 6`6 and has an 82 inch reach? Marciano only had a 69 inch reach.

 

He’s faced 6”4 men 230. He has never faced anyone the size of AJ. That doesn’t matter. At all. When did someone’s size bother Marciano?
The boxing game is about pace and controlling distance it also helps Marciano had a ton of power in both hands along w amazing stamina. Everything AJ does terrible.

 

For his height of 6’2 1/2” to 6’3” Ali was, ultimately, still a very large framed guy.

He carried 214 1/2 lbs (first career high) against Chuvalo no drama and without appearing to carry an excess weight at all - and that’s a guy without aid of peds and one who we know literally didn’t touch any weights during his career.

When he faced up with Liston in Miami many were surprised as to how well Ali measured up in terms of not just his obvious height advantage but overall size as well - despite conceding 7 1/2 lbs to Sonny. Ali also appeared just as broad as Sonny in the shoulders if not broader.

We know Liston worked a bit on a his god given muscles and his arms were somewhat bigger than Ali’s but Muhammad still didn’t appear notably outsized otherwise.

Post Liston 1, though Ali appeared to move into the substantive weight zone of 212 1/2 lbs, Ali did hit some notably lower weights, not least being his 201 lbs or so for the Cooper rematch - which I believe was only 2 months after the Chuvalo fight when, to repeat, Ali weighed 214 1/2 lbs.

 

Again you always miss the point there's a difference between being a big man and a skilled big man.

Marciano beating up big men who were journeyman and who would not be rated in the top 20 of any Heavyweight era in the last 50 years. Is not even remotely the same as taking on Joshua who has been a top 10 ranked Heavyweight for a decade.

Joshua is 6'6 240 pounds with 82 inch reach vs Marciano 5'10 185 pounds with 67 inch reach.

You're living in a dream world if you think Marciano beats elite Super Heavyweights.

You also say "Marciano has never fought anyone the size of Joshua that doesn't matter"

Of course it matters what ? You're talking about two different weightclasses and a totally different era where Marciano wouldn't even be considered a Heavyweight by modern standards like come on have some logic here and stop being nostalgic.

 

So not Joshua then.

 

When did he face some one that size who was any good?