Biggest myth in Boxing

Great point!

 

That Willie Pep won a round without throwing a single punch.

 

Not a dictionary standard though

Old man History will look back and may in due course decide an obscure meaning of the word designed only for certain sports, does not hold up over time, thus Marciano was not undefeated as a professional boxer.

 

You sure about that?

 

Sure about what? It's a long post. I'll guess you meant to ask if I was sure about the Black Muslims not having the clout to intimidate cosa nostra or connected guys. I'm sure.

 

But they wouldn't probably try to muscle in on Clay either, I have a feeling.

 

That Meldrick Taylor was wrongfully stopped in the first Chavez fight.

 

To be honest I've seen some bad posts on this site but I think this guy takes the biscuit!

 

He used to post on boxing scene forums as TommyHearns804, BigGForeman, gforeman1949, and lmnorw, and got banned all 4 times. If he's banned here, he will no doubt come back as someone else.

 

damn

 

I think he had a passable chin, but didn't respond well psychologically to being hit hard. When he was hurt, he froze. (I'll never forget the look on Ken's face, slumped in the corner after Coonet finished him, when his cornerman turned his head up, and the expression of blank, shellshocked fear on his visage.)

LaMotta himself might not completely disagree with you on this point. He has discussed the form of "self-hypnosis" he used to convince himself of his imperviousness to hard punches, but also how he'd imperceptibly give a fraction of an inch when he saw he was about to be hit, muffling the full impact of the blow. (A knack which SRL apparently confirmed Jake had.) But this hardly constitutes evidence that he did not have a great chin.

Actually, I was rather impressed that Foreman pounded on Ali for as long as he did, with as much power as he sustained. It was not a close fight as I saw it, but George really didn't fight the stupid match he's been described as having been duped into. He wailed away at the exposed left side of Muhammad's body with massive right hand slider bombs, and it wouldn't have been rational to expect that the older and less mobile Ali could have sustained that abuse and still have the energy to floor the granite chinned Foreman for the full count. Against Jimmy Young, that may have been nothing more than a matter of him foolishly disregarding Gil Clancy's insistence that he be in the heat and humidity of Puerto Rico for at least three weeks to get acclimated to the environment there. (Perhaps Jimmy would have beaten George anyways, but we later saw what happened to Dokes when he made the same error before the first meeting with Ocasio.)

Rocky may have been more crudely unrefined nearer the outset of his career, but his ten round performances against Lowry and LaStarza were credible showings against skilled and experienced veterans. His double hook knockout of Kid Mathews was a marquee display of sudden lightning swiftness, and he was the only one to ever take Mathews out in Harry's long and productive career. Rocky's vastly superior handspeed overwhelmed Rex Layne, and his left hook was also good enough to secure his first knockdown of Joe Louis. (And Rocky's development of his hook was the thing that surprised and impressed Louis most about his performance.)

As you describe Tyson as a cowardly ******, Rocky can hardly be described as being cowardly about anything. Marciano never had his bell rung, and simply trained too hard to ever give up. The Rock should have been utterly demoralized going into the thirteenth and final round, having experienced Walcott taking his best shots to that point, after being floored early, and having the **** getting beat out of him. It was expected that Walcott had it won on the scorecards, but Marciano never gave up, never stopped coming, and never stopped succeeding. Tyson had nothing like the ticker in Rocky's torso. Tyson would have had to render unconsious an opponent who never even had his bell rung. Marciano proved against Charles in their first go that he never gave up, never got discouraged or frustrated, and couldn't be demoralized when somebody did stand up to the best he had to offer.

Tyson ultimately proved to be an easily frustrated quitter. So far as Marciano taking more rounds to finish off particular opponents faster than others were able to, I do believe that his punching power has been somewhat overrated. Nor did he put punches together as well as a Joe Louis. But he was a physically powerful and persistent swarmer with a low center of gravity who generated punching force coming up,
never stopped attacking, and never stopped winning. The only two unavenged losses Archie Moore sustained through the remainder of his career were against Patterson and Ali. (And Ali was not able to land him for the count.)

As far as Marciano's ethicity is concerned, this is one fiery Latino I would definitely not sell short. He was absolutely irrepressible.

 

So you actually agree with what he says?

 

If you read my post carefully, you'll pick out that I do not. However, I don't think it's the worst post I've seen either. (At least not typed by someone other than me.)

It takes a good level of skill to execute the sort of double hook Marciano flattened Mathews with, and while Norton didn't have the greatest chin, he wasn't exactly Floyd Patterson either.

The things I said about Marciano hardly equate to calling him an overrated pile of crap, and Foreman did look comfortable going ten rounds with Peralta.

Regarding LaMotta, I would not classify opponents like Robinson, Bob Satterfield, Bob Murphy or Billy Fox as powderpuff punchers, and none of them was ever able to floor Jake.

 

I'm surpised that no one talks about the liniment in Ali's eyes in the first fight when this subjects comes up. It is said (in the book "King of the World" for example) that one of Liston's cornermen claimed Liston rubbed the liniment in Ali's eyes to blind him, and that he had done so also with Machen and Williams. I would say this is stronger evidence against Liston throwing the fight than any evidence I've heard supporting it.

For me it's simple. Liston was exhausted after the sixth round and knew that Ali probably would knock him out as predicted in rd 8. To avoid the humilation he quit. Not that mysterious, really.