Did Rocky Marciano ever meet Joe Frazier?

Well ,Ali is 67 now and was at Windsor Park ,pictured being reunited with Henry Cooper

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So don't you bad mouth my man.

 

Did Frazier or Marciano ever say who they basesd their styles off of?

 

Frazier based it off Henry Armstrong. Archie Moore said Frazier was only the one to duplicate that smother overwhelm you style.

 

Good points. Frazier loved Marciano and held him right up there...and I agree that Ali wouldn't have been able to RAD Rocky. Marciano would have targeted everything - especially Ali's upper arms, hips and even his knees.....in a fashion that would have resembeled cruise control.

 

Frazier attended Rocky's funeral and was apperentely asked if he ever thought he would of beaten him and he responded quite angrily at the reporter, he was offended they had to bring that up at the same day as his funeral. I read that from a book called 'Marciano' I think.

 

Undefeated: The Fighter Who Refused To Lose

Yes, I remember that in the book too. Frazier got upset about someone bringing it up on that day. He said if they wanted to know they could stop by in Phili and ask him there. Peter Marciano thought that was incredibly respectful of him.

 

To be honest it is easier to find coments by Dempsey on Frazier.

 

It was also detailed in Everett Skehan's 'Rocky Marciano: Biography of a First Son' on page 351.


Anyways, for those wondering if Marciano ever commented on Frazier, I did find this interview he had with Jim Murray of the LA Times which took place a few days after the first Frazier-Quarry fight and here's a little portion of what Marciano may have thought of the fight and Frazier;


'So I rang up Rocky Marciano.

"Frazier remind you of anyone, Rock?" I asked him.

"It was like I was in the ring," the Rock said, delightedly. "I made every move with him."

"Like to see that other fellow come out winging the way Quarry did, would you?" I asked.

"Yes," said Rock. "Usually, I had to chase them. They were playing to my strength when they made a phone booth out of the ring."

"Quarry made a mistake then? He should have engineered the fight?"

""Well," said Rock. " You have to remember, Jim, that you can hurt a guy very quickly when you can punch as hard as Jerry can. I don't think he made a mistake. I think he went out there and bet the whole pot on one roll, one card. When Frazier didn't fold and then came up with the stronger hand, Quarry's gamble had failed. I think that's when he should have changed styles. You know, Archie Moore could change styles in the middle of a round. When he saw one thing wasn't going to work, he would shuffle the cards again. Jerry stuck to his plan even though it showed he was playing to Frazier's strength. Quarry should have gone back to his old style of fighting in flurries and stalling. He stuck to the ground game."

"Would it have changed the outcome?"

"Only to the extent Jerry would have lost the decision, not the knockout, I think. Frazier's style had to tell on Jerry sooner or later. This way, it was sooner."

"You say 'Frazier's style', Rocky? Isn't his 'style' the same as yours? You just fight the other guy as if you were trying to get out of a burning building and he was in your way?"

"It looks that way, Jim. But my style - our style - takes so much away from the other fellow, takes away so much of his ability. It is more effective than it looks. You see, when I started to fight, Al Weill would never have bothered with me if the ring weren't only 16 to 20 feet square. Of course, Frazier has to stay in absolutely first class condition. Chasing somebody is hard work - harder than fighting him."

"So you think Jimmy Ellis will have gone to school on this fight? Frazier-Ellis will be part pugilism, part track meet!"

"Ellis can make Frazier look very bad, very amateurish at some stages of the fight. But you can't worry about clumsiness. You slow the fellow down any way you can, awkward, missing a lot, getting tied up. Ellis has to be slowed down. When he does, he's beat"'


Not a whole lot of info provided by Marciano into what he thought of Frazier, but the first question and answer does allude to how he saw his old self in Frazier, as does later comments.

 

Thanks for bringing that up. I remember that more clearly now.

By the way, Biography of a First Son is just the 77 edition. Rocky Marciano: Undefeated is the updated 2005 version. Same author.

 

I don't thoink Marciano ever put any fighter down. He was classy guy. Frazier was too. If Marciano had not died, they would have met of course, both having been champs. I'm assuming origional poster was looking for photos of them together, for collection, or to see how they compared in size.