Contemporary Evaluations of Marciano

I don’t consider him top two either. Although Ali did say Marciano would have the best shot of anyone to beat him in his prime. His words. Marciano lacked the resume despite some very good wins.

 

Idk man, I looked at his Boxrec once. Greatest fighter of all time imo

 

Not exactly what he said,and in private, talking to Frazier he agreed with him the top two all time[up to1970]leaving himself and Frazier out, were Johnson and Louis. And all the spin and BS some fan boys here put on quotes won't ****ing change that!

 

On Louis and Schmeling. I don't see the distinction you are making. I didn't say Schmeling was unconcerned about being hit back. I said he was loading up and throwing right hands and generally getting them home. I have never personally tried to count them, but have read that there were 56 of those overhand right hands. Louis did not have a defense against them. My only point is no one ever hit the bob and roll Marciano that often.

"You open up and unleash a string of punches on a slugger like Marciano and you might be opening up your eyes in a hospital room."
Well, that is exactly what happened to Dempsey in the Sharkey and Firpo fights. In the first round Sharkey drives Dempsey back to the ropes with a whole series of punches. I count ten. Firpo crudely unleashes a series of punches which drives Dempsey to the ropes, Dempsey avoids some but there are no counters until Firpo gets home a right which knocks Dempsey through the ropes. Two things I notice. Dempsey carries his hands much lower than Marciano generally so they are not in position to help him by blocking punches when he is forced onto the defensive. And when forced on the defensive he backs to the ropes. With all the film of Marciano, I can't remember him ever being forced backward against the ropes and being in a purely defensive posture with his back to the ropes.

If it happened on film, I can't recall it.

There were observers in his own day who opined that Dempsey was effective moving forward, but if attacked and forced onto the defensive, he was far less agile. The films show this at times. Put another way, Marciano might have been the more effective counter-puncher, able to go quickly from defense to offense.

Tunney pounding away on Dempsey is more iffy as Dempsey was pretty worn down by the late rounds when Tunney opened up on him. I concede that point. As for Dempsey laying off, it is part of a boxer's profession to be at the top of his game. If he isn't because he is into women or booze or just puddling around, it is a fact of life and doesn't earn him any extra credit from me.

 

Great fight that would be

 

I have only seen a brief clip of the last round with Beshore going down on his back for the KO.

 

Do you think rocky could stop a prime ali

 

The same writers who rated Jefferies highly acknowledged that he was a crude brawler who used offense as defense and wore guys down with his hulking fighting style. They tended to overlook his embarrassing comeback attempt the same way we overlook Ali's fight with Berbick.

There's a difference between top 10 rankings and assessing the skill and boxing ability of a fighter. I don't think anyone, not even old school writers, pretended like Jefferies was more "skilled" than Louis. In addition, they likely felt Jefferies would win head 2 head despite the gap in skill because of his power and endurance. In his prime he was never floored and stopped several ranked opponents down while Louis had been floored multiple times.

No one is cherry picking anything.

Similarly, even the people praising Rocky often used adjectives like "guts, heart, power, determination, pressure, wild, reckless," etc. By all means if you have some writings from his time period that emphasized these underrated subtle skills, defense or technique you may post them.

 

Well, regardless of how he may have looked doing it, he still beat everyone put in front of him and he certainly has the capacity to potentially beat any 200 pound or under fighter ever to put on gloves.

 

Charles and Marciano would have curb stomped most of the fighters of the 1920's.

 

Fifty years from now, we will be singing the praises of Deontay Wilder and Andy Ruiz.

 

Regardless of how he may have looked while winning, I still say that he, on his best night, could potentially beat any 200 pound and under fighter. That includes a 1987 cruiser weight Holyfield, Oleksander Usyk, Floyd Patterson, Michael Spinks, Michael Moorer, you name 'em.

 

That was the perception at the time. Do you think some of that could have been a 'Louis hangover' The Brown Bomber had declined and been knocked off but do you think some kd the criticism could have been from comparing him to Joe Louis? Even subconsciously. Louis was the closest thing to perfection as a puncher. Marciano wasn't

 

I made no claim of Marcianos skill set one way or another other then his defense is severely underrated which can be proven by looking at the numbers. No writers opinion necessary. I’ve stated multiple times he was unorthodox but not without his own skill set.

 

I think prime Ali beats him by decision in a tough fight and I don’t think anyone stops a prime Ali unless they get really lucky.