Marciano stops him. But Bivins befuddles him in the meantime and probably is ahead on the cards when he's stopped.
I could see Bivins’ jab and good distance management troubling Rocky and cutting him up early, Bivins was also an efficient infighter. However I see no evidence he can hurt Rocky let alone hurt him enough to keep him off. I see Rocky overwhelming Jimmy late.
Marciano axes him as he did everyone else, if he could axe down Walcott, Charles and Moore, he certainly would do so to Bivins, who didn’t have anything to trouble him stylistically that the others didn’t.
He would stop him. The problem fighting Rocky is always the same. You have a tank coming at you for 15 rounds and you have to literally fight a perfect fight. He may lose rounds, you might make him look bad at times, but he's not going to stop bringing it. You have to box and move perfectly, hold, tie him up, and try and win a decision that way. No version of Archie, or Ezzard would be able to do it either. Rocky can take their shot, but they aren't going to be able to take his.
Bivins run from June 42 to Feb 46 is not only arguably the most under celebrated in history, but one of the greatest. However, even during this period, I highly doubt he either hit hard enough to keep Rocky off him, or had the durability to endure Marciano, for 15 full rounds. Marciano by stoppage in the 2nd half of the fight would be my guess.
Bivins was 5'9" to Rock's 5'10 1/2". With Rocky fighting out of a crouch, there's not much between them in height. Rock's reach was 67" to Jimmy's unusually long 76". That 9" advantage is how Jimmy is going to get off to an early lead. And Jimmy wasn't all boxer, he had some pop to his shots. This is an area where Rocky would have to be careful not to get caught off-balance because Jimmy could slip one in with his use of the ring. However, as most on here do, I do feel Rocky would catch up to Jimmy late with the deal-breaker, with Jimmy ahead on points at the time.
Only way to defeat the rock is by having a punch big enough and being a person who's also way bigger than him, Bivins did have the reach to catch Rocky early good,but when it comes close to the championship rounds...
It would be an interesting fight for a while but Bivins, as underrated as he is, is well within Marciano's grasp. I just see Rocky chopping him down relentlessly while taking everything Bivens can ship. Bivens best run was in the middleweight /ightheavy range though he certainly had good performances later, tho he was inconsistent.
