Deontay Wilder versus Rocky Marciano

Glass Jawed Wilder would get KILLED. Wilder was KO'd in the amatuers by a Russian CW, Now I belong to the group of people who think that Rocky would have a really tough time with the skilled super HW's of the last 25-30 years but he would still run through someone like glass jawed windmilling Wilder with ease.

 

Cableaddict was obviously one of the two people who voted for Wilder

 

It was not the best louis but it was still a good fighter. Louis was a genuine contender in his own right. Active, winning and beating all other rated fighters at that time. With two hands.

Louis upped his workrate against marciano just to stay out of the way and over expended himself. He was ground down by a smaller, younger man fighting out of a style that was always a bad match for him.. Not because he had only one hand or was a shambling wreck but because Louis had no room and was outworked and beat up. He was stilla good fighter.

 

In any other era Old Louis still would have been a force. Yourr only as good as your last fight in this sport and in his last fight Louis beat the great jimmy Bivins.

Fighters always look better winning than losing and thats to do with how good their opponent lets them look. How good was patterson against Liston? How good did Joe Louis allow all the former champions he beat look? and were they all still beating rated fighters when he beat them?

Marciano beat a former champion who was still beating rated fighters in a good era.

 

No Louis decisioned a fighter who was considered one of the best heavyweights at that time. Bivins was not being handled or knocked out by anything less than championship material. The division was full of very seasoned, very experienced and very active fighters. contenders fought each other over and over swapping wins and losses over each other but bivins was still winning more than he was losing for years after Louis beat him. In fact Bivins upset both hotshots coley Wallace and Mike Dejohn Years later. He had plenty left when louis beat him, so much so he was quite avoided.

It looks that way now and there was a lot of sentiment about the truly special fighter Joe Louis had been at his zenith but that overshadows what he was still capable of ...beating rated fighters. Louis was knocking out nino valdes in exhibitions and was beating comon opponents of top fighters as well as anyone else was. Louis was not dug up for Marciano like Holmes and Jeffries were for Johnson and Tyson! Louis was paying his dues within the rankings. A potential banana skin for any contender in any era.

 

This is what you cant understand. The division traded on speed and workrate at that time. The training was developed to focus more on that and it suited smaller heavyweights. They all could have weighed more than 200lb but they would have been too slow to compete against the elite at that time. Size was not an issue. The competition was so great that speed and pace gave the edge.

Once the training changed and the slower pace became in vouge superheavyweights had more of a chance. When the pace was high the weights were low. Look at the great white hope era. big guys, Pace was slow. Dempsey era? fast. 1980s? 1990s? Get the picture?

They were not cruiserweights. They were heavyweight athletes who trained for high workrate. Bigger guys weighed less. Today smaller weigh more. There was no interval training, weight programs All fighters trained for high workrate. They weighed less.

 

You do not even realize why your post reveals the deficiency of your argument. You are in fat implying boxing is only about size and that a totally unproven big guy can beat an undefeated ATG. If not, what is the point of your post?

 

-Eh, there are too many divisions today and I know I'm not the only critic. The system has been corrupted by greedy promoters who have disected the talent landscape several times over to produce as many champions and divisions as possible. And the cruiser division has in large part been a failure, it doesn't draw, the talent isn't there, and the more successful fighters always make the inevitable move to Heavy. Hell, even a great deal of the average ones.


-You are forgetting James Toney camped out in the HW top 5 for a few years in the 00s. And the Current HW #3 and #5 is a former Cruiser and a former LHW as you know.

 

Today. A crucial component TODAY.

Size and strength only became relevent once the pace of the division slowed down, age became less of a factor and once it took less experience to reach contender status. It was not relevant before. size just meant slow and more target to aim at.

I am not saying we dont have good fighters today. we do! But todays fighters are not training for 15 rounds, they are not compeating against fast box punchers in six ounce gloves. They can carry more weight because training is different now. There is no need to outspeed anyone because most boxers will rest for part of the round. The gloves are bigger so a fighter can cover up more effectively rather than slip and move all the damn time. Combinations are less popular. etc etc.

Why would a good heavyweight want to be 180lb Today when he dosnt need to? Wouldnt he rather fight at a slower pace? Wouldnt he rather sheild one punch at a time? Wouldnt he rather face slower fighters who will stand their ground? Wouldnt he rather fight older fighters with less experience and bigger gloves than speedy guys who combined youth, experience, combination punching and smaller gloves over more rounds?

 

Ive heard the latter, and I have answered it. Size only became a factor when the pace slowed, the training changed, all heavyweights put on weight, the gloves got bigger, the contenders were less experienced, skill was less a factor...