Did Marciano train down to the 180s?

What do you make of 5’9” Orlin Norris? When he wanted to be a heavyweight Norris was in line with Tua. He turned pro at 199lb aged 20. Grew to 227lb contender (who beat Greg Page, Renaldo snipes and Tony Tucker) all within four years as an exclusive heavyweight then aged 25 Norris dropped to 189 on a whim to become a cruiserweight.


From that point Norris was a 187-190 cruiser for as long as it suited him but in 1992 aged 27 he fought David Sewell at 190 then under three months later did some Charles atlas programe and weighed 20lb more knocking out Troy Jefferson whilst weighing 211. Two months later Orlin was 190 again!


After four years of being mostly a cruiserweight Norris again leaped from 188 to 220 to campaign as a 220-246 heavyweight. After another few years of that Orlin incredibly dropped down to cruiser in his late 30s. Amazingly Norris was 196lb for his very last fight aged 40. That’s four pounds lighter than his debut 20 years earlier. Astonishing for a 5’9” guy who was as high as 246lb.


Now don’t tell me this was not all down to Norris benefiting from the era Tua puffed himself up in.

 

Why would anybody try and tell you anything?

 

Everyone seems to think Tua is something unique.


Altogether Orlin Norris was close to Tua when he wanted to be a heavyweight and close to Marciano when he wanted to be a “cruiser”. He started as a growing heavyweight dropped to “cruiser,” won the title. Grew back up to SHW then dropped to “CW” again.

 

Honestly I don't think a heavier Marciano would be better. There comes a trade off between strength and stamina. I think Marciano was as strong as he could get while remaining a stamina monster. Otherwise you get the modern trend of getting these muscular dudes with shattering power who are gasping like a fish by round 4. See: Tommy Morrison for example. They trade workrate for power. See: Canelo. I think Marciano was special because he had a freaking train locomotive as an engine, and adapted himself to having a style where he could accumulate damage relentlessly until the other guy was a pulp. If he hit a bit harder and gassed earlier I'm not sure he'd be the same guy any more. THEN AGAIN I am not a PEDs specialist or a weight training specialist. Maybe it's possible to have the best of both worlds. See: Holyfield.

 

Stop that talk. I got heckled by the Marcianistas for suggesting this.

Used to live near a Poly enclave south of Seattle. I guess I only saw the refrigerator looking ones. I'm sure there were waifish guys all over the place that I never saw.

 

The possibility of a divisions worth of 220-230 lb athletes in boxing had not arrived by then. So it’s irrelevant making the comparison.

Elite fighters had a ceiling to how big or heavy they could be before the 1960s.

All this talk about how Marciano couldn’t be so big today is irrelevant. The talk of him making an even lower weight class is also irrelevant.

Outside of very rare exceptions, Rocky fought in a time zone where the physical possibilities literally still had a ceiling. He was as big and as strong as he could be at that height and bone structure …For that time. In that sport. As it was then.

The division couldn’t break the 200lb barrier as a whole until the 1960s. The 215lb barrier in the 1980s. Sports science enabled it to break each barrier. They were there to be broken. It just got higher and higher with each generation because of advances in sports science.

If he was around now Marciano would have more options. If the fighters around now were around when Marciano was fighting.. they would have to live with the physical restrictions of that time in this sport for taller athletes that existed then.

 

I didn’t say he would be. But they would be damn close. They were both the same height and reach basically give or take an inch or two on reach. He would be below 200 without a doubt eating what Rocky ate and not using weights. If u don’t believe me just look at nba players. The same height and reach nba players today weigh a 20-30 pounds more then the men of the past: this isn’t genetics people it’s modern work out methods and worse diets. Idk why ur even arguing this it’s absurd to not know HWs weigh more today because they work out w weights and take supplements which allows them to lose a little in terms of stamina and gain in explosiveness and strength. This isn’t a a state secret and idk why u r arguing about it. I never even said Marciano would be as affective weighing 210. We just don’t know. The only thing that’s known is that Marciano DID train down from a natural 210 plus to his desired weight of 185-188.

 

Maybe weight drained…maybe he felt extremely weak at under 180 and didn’t like fighting there. I think 175 is easy nowadays to sweat off. Then again he was an absolute nut obsessed with money and glory. I think he would aim for heavyweight for better or worse

 

Everything is possible now. He could be bigger. And if he wanted to, He could be smaller. There is a diet, strength and PED program for whatever Rocky wanted to do.

 

Well we knew Orlin Norris would make an appearance at some point.I suppose we should be thankful,Sonny Liston,George Foreman and Cleveland Williams haven't,but maybe he is keeping them in reserve?

 

Salient points! The dynamics have totally changed!