Christ almighty. Let's please put to rest this notion that Marciano would be better if he added 10, 15, 25 pounds. Marciano relied on stamina and flexibility. His best offense, at the top level, was attrition. His only real defense was an elusive crouch which he was able to maintain for 15 rounds. Add that weight to him and all you get is a stiff, sitting duck who will gas out after 5 rounds. Not to mention, he doesn't even have the frame to carry more weight.
It isn't about what makes him better, it's about what makes him have the best chance of winning a fight. Almost every fighter increases their weight as they enter a new division. They give up some atheltic advantages in the hope they will gain strength and durability. Rocky wouldn't be the first to do this and he wouldn't be the last. It would be stranger if he didn't add weight. If Golovkin moves to LHW I expect him to add 15 pounds as well. Every fighter will have an ideal weight but that ideal weight doesn't mean they have the best chance of victory.
Except he isn't moving up a division per the limits of his own day. He fought in an unlimited division yet he and Goldman thought he performed best around 185. Disregarding that bit of truth, and disregarding the fact that he has nowhere to stack an extra 20 except his long torso... he becomes a stationary, stiff, slower slugger who needs to take breaks, who now resorts to fighting taller (to his detriment) and who devolves into a one-punch home run swinger with no reach. How far is that going to take him?
Lewis was a great fighter so he would be great in any era. Of course he would. You don't become un-great in another era. Lewis would be a champion in another era. An exception perhaps for size but he would not achieve quite the same weight under traditional methods. It was not the weight that made him great after all.
The other bit of truth is knowing that almost everyone of his fights would be fought under today's CW limit. So if he was competing today he either cuts to a big LHW, remains as an average CW or bulks to a small HW. Many many many fighters in history have changed their size as their opponents get bigger. Matching a 180 pound man against a 240 pound man is ridiculous and wouldn't be sanctioned today. He is at his peak at the weight he fought at, that is a truth. You do not know if he could carry the extra weight or not and you do not know what impact that weight would have upon his strategy. Those are not truths.
I believe Seamus is absolutely correct here, added weight on Marciano restricts his pace, movement, and stamina.
That's a fair enough belief, but we'll never know. The only thing we can say with any certainty is that version of Rocky we have seen on film would not fight at HW today were he alive.
My assumption (that 240 in the old days was not as effective as 240 today) is Based on the fact that the way additional artificial weight was added in the old days was not as effectived as it was after the Micheal spinks experiment. After that point bigger men who had never reached such potential with there size were able to be more athletic and functional as boxers than ever before. Therefore Lewis would have topped out at about 226 and would still have been a great fighter.
