ALI fought berbick and Holmes for the wrong reasons. This is true. but talking about fantasy fights is another mater. The circumstances are different, there is no need to build a fight, to create a gate, there is no payday to aim for. ALI taking fights when he should have stayed retired should not have any bearing on his personal opinion on former champions. It is true to say ALI was not so dismissive of marciano as he was of other past champions. Only he can answer why that was.
Ali does not have the punching power to get Marciano out of there, at least not easily or quickly. Marciano is not going anywhere. I honestly believe that this would boil down to a fight of wills and attrition since Ali can't stop Marciano through pure force, and Marciano just has that bloody-mindedness to take what he has to, to get his punches in. He can match Ali for workrate and stamina no problem. I do see Ali winning the early rounds big, making Marciano look pedestrian. The fight would be fought at a high pace, and Marciano would be forcing Ali to expend a great deal of energy. I think that as the fight enters the middle rounds, the fight starts for real. From there, it's up to who wants it more I feel. Ali has the class to make Marciano look almost clownish, but the funny thing is Marciano would always catch up sooner or later and even against someone as good as Ali, I think Marciano would be able to somewhat shift the balance from the mid-point on. The problems for Rocky though is that there is the likelihood, especially against a sharp puncher like Ali, of cuts. A big factor? I think it would influence the fight, yeah. I have to go for Ali here. So fast, so elusive, so tough, a wonderful sense of timing and distance...and also a will to win as strong as Marciano's. For all that, I think it's certainly no cakewalk for Ali...Marciano just had that knack of grinding out results, irrespective of circumstances. For me, Ali by decision (unanimous but reasonably close) or a winner due to cuts late.
chuvalo faced both ali... prime ali and 70s ali.. and he said .... " this one was not the same guy that i faced in the 60s" it is for the ****ing ******s who are trying to insinuate que ali was close to his prime in the 70s, or mentioning the fight with frazier to argue against ali(by the way frazier was better than marciano, bigger, faster and stronger)
I think this is a fair assessment. Certainly no cake walk and like you say Rocky is not going anywhere. Whoever beats Rocky has to come through hell. Even if cut I doubt Marciano would get stopped. Apart from that freak nose injury Rocky was no more in danger of being stopped on cuts than any other champion cut in a title fight. I don't think a defending heavyweight champion ever was stopped on cuts.
He was close to being stopped against Simmons before he won the title. The possibility of a tko loss for him exists it is nonsense to say it doesn't.
The Simmons fight was a non title fight. In title fights referees are less likely to stop a champion on a cut. Besides, the Simmons fight was on Rockys turf in the Rhode Island auditorium where he was based for much of his grooming as the "house fighter". For all it makes a nice story that Rocky was close to losing I doubt the Italian referee would really have stopped marciano in front of his largely Italian fans on a cut in the main event. I have seen a photo of the cut Marciano received in the Simmons fight, it was not that bad. Blood running down the side of his face rather than into the eye. Certainly No worse than the cut Walcott got from Rocky and Rex Layne or the cut Larry Holmes got against Bonecrusher Smith. Or even the cut Holyfeild got against old Larry too. http://boxrec.com/media/index.php/File:Simmons_vs_Rocky.jpg
Ali was the best heavy of all time, Marciano the best cruiser of all time, before there were cruisers. Ali easily by unanimous decision or mid round stoppage. Too big, too fast.
What you think does not jive with the referees own opinion."I could have stopped it anytime after the 2nd rd but I wanted to give Rocky every chance." You've done what you always do ,dismiss out of hand inconvenient facts that do not suit your agenda.If you don't think Marciano was in grave danger of losing his title against Charles you are wrong again.
I have the same book and the rest of the quote was "He did not want to (stop it) because Rocky was undefeated and a big attraction in providence. He did not want to stop it unless it was absolutely necessary" obviously it was not necessary to stop the fight as is often the case. Keene Simmons himself said at that time Rocky was on his level but that later Rocky went on to a much higher level. So yes Rocky could get cut and still win fights. I suppose Rocky would get cut against Ali but it would be a lot harder to cut him with 8oz gloves that Ali used and it would have to be an appalling cut, worse than anything Rocky came back from in real life. I would not mind knowing what the percentage of fighters cut in a fight actually get stopped because of it? Even the ones who are close to being stopped, I think it is a small percentage. For Rocky to get alarmingly cut wide open is just not something you could count on when you factor all the other things that cannot be proved like Ali achieving some extra special prime we never saw, Ali not having a problem with high paced pressure fighters and Rocky punching too slow.