Could Holmes carry Marciano's jockstrap? I think not.

The battle of the might have beens!

 

On the implied thesis that as generations get bigger and become the dominant average at HW, at what size do you think the optimum HW will be reached?

As someone who has sparred and fought in various forms of contact sport with people of various size and skills, I have always argued that once a man reached 185 - 200 lbs, with great co-ordination, natural ability and serious skill, they can knock out anybody.

Dempsey, Mike Tyson, Joe Louis and Marciano hit hard enough to knock out anybody fighting today. Ali and Holmes box well enough to outpoint any of these so-called super-heavies. I'm not quite so sure what is so great about the modern boxers - defence, agility, punch output, setting traps, ring generalship, adaptation and overall skills, I see a real lack of skills overall compared to before.

 

If that was actually the case than some smaller guys would have become champion in the past 2+ decades. Many of them tried and they all failed. If this keeps happening over and over and over and over and over and over and over at some point it can't be coincidence.

 

The last lineal champion weighing under 190 pounds was in the 1960s and the last one under 200 pounds was in 1985.

 

This is correct

 

Getting back to answering the question. I can't see anything Rocky can do to get around or past Holmes jab that's just for starters. Holmes was a superb ring general threw a very fast hard rt hand behind the jab and had a vicious uppercut. But back to the jab it's the way Holmes used it. Not just offensively but defensively also.
Holmes keeps that jab in Rockys face all night. It sets up the rest of his offense and Rocky just can't find an answer for it. Holmes by UD

 

Before I read the comments I must point out some large gaps in knowledge & biases

The frequent denigration of balding men is childish & uninformed
You do not understand that some guys lose hair early & in itself it means nothing re: ability?
So I guess Michael Jordan stopped being the best & was not the GOAT or even decent because he shaved his head in a preemptive strike against his balding?

You somehow did not know that Leon Spinks lost to Ali<not his brother Michael?

You are unaware that the scoring that had it even very close before Holmes stopped Cooney is considered very biased? And given the climate of the times likely racist

There is no possibility that any fight that goes the distance let alone fifteen rounds approaches the worst mismatch in history
That kind of claim heavily erodes credibility

You do not know Bonecrusher"s history you should have looked it up
He was not only active in his prime: but he fought seven times(!) during the year he turned forty
[url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Smith_(boxer)[/url]

Holmes did put combos together & was a fairly high volume HW puncher
He moved pretty well & quickly during his prime

There is truth to some of what you say: but it is like listing Ali"s many technical deficiencies *& claiming he was a club fighter

You severely cherry pick information (even when you get it correct) & you should know that some fighters who have only some_teen fights like Witherspoon can be world class

Please try to be more dedicated to truth & fairness

 

same as all similar matchups, Holmes gives him a boxing lesson, easy dec. win, or TKO, UNLESS Rocky lands a big one. Might b similar to the Cobb fight, with Holmes hopefully being a little more cautious

 

Butttt you’ve had plenty of guys gain weight to fight the heavies and have success. Holyfield, Byrd, James Tony Roy Jones come to mind.

 

Damn this is a good one. And other fighters description

 

I'm pleased to note that this 24 carat **** who called himself by several aliases ,the last one being Dago Wop , is no longer with us.Wherever this arrogant, ignorant ***** is, I hope its somewhere very grim!

 

Joined the military and is doing a three month boot camp, according to his posts in another forum. Hopefully he’ll gain some perspective and become less disrespectful and combative. Disagreed with him a lot and didn’t like the way he carried himself but he was clearly passionate about the sport and I always thought he had potential to do better.

 

The smaller guys aren't as ambitious as guys from the past. Povetkin had the skill to become champion, but was lazy, so he underachieved as did Bert Cooper, who also wasn't lacking in either skill or the ability to become champion, but was also lazy, so he always underachieved when he got title shots. Stiverne also had the ability to become champion, but was another guy, who just wasn't willing to push himself to the limit and also underachieved as a pro. Mike Tyson achieved great things when he was ambitious, willing to work, and willing to listen, but once he started going through the motions he was still an excellent fighter, but lost the edge that made him championship material.

 

I wanna know what you've got against bald guys..

 

Maybe he will mature ,but I dont miss him.