Evander Holyfield '87 vs. Rocky Marciano 52' @ 185lbs

I pick Holyfield without hesitation. He's as strong as the rock, hits as hard as anybody he faced, will have no problems finding him, can easily match his workrate, and can take his punch. Add to that an edge in speed and Holy's brilliant counterpunching and I see a UD.

 

This would make the first Qawi fight look like Disney Land. Relentless brutal action that increasingly becomes more and more one sided with Marciano eventually overwhelming and stopping a brave Evander late.

 

Marciano also much larger than Qwai, who gave up anywhere between 7-8 inches of height against Evander. The Rock is only giving up a more managable 2-3 inches.

At any rate, two competely different types of pressure, but that's what it boils down to, relentless effective pressure. Marciano is going to be all over Evander, and while he could fight Qwai off in spurts and stop him in their rematch, I don't think he'll be be able to force Rocky back at all.

 

Very good match up. Evander certainly was always the much better boxer then Marciano but Marciano was stronger and more comfortable and confident in wars especially at this stage of Evander's career. Qawi who was a beast himself gave Evander absolute hell in their championship fight but Evander was able to with stand it and win one of the best fights of all time. I'd expect a fight with Marciano to be very similar in the sense of it being a non stop action war.I'd even expect Evander to carry the action more then in the Qawi fight I'd expect Evander to win at least 10 of the rounds against Marciano should he make the distance. But I don't know if Evander at this stage of his career would be able to survive 15 rounds with The Rock. Marciano lived for fights like the fight he'd have with Evander and specialized in breaking guys down it wouldn't surprise me if a young Evander would break down against The Rock anywhere from the 7th-15th and Marciano would be able to finish him off. So my verdict is if Evander can dig even a bit deeper then he did against Qawi and go the distance I think he'd win on points by landing lots of combo's on Marciano throughout but I think it is likely that The Rock would be able to eventually wear out Evander at this stage in his career and knock him out. A more seasoned Holyfield and a bigger Holyfield would pace himself better and beat Marciano IMO.

 

The fans.

 

Tough match to call, in 87 Holy was pretty green, and would have to box and fight a near perfect fight to pull it off, any mistakes and he might end up on the canvas with some broken ribs, in a long 15 round fight there's always the chance the rock could be stopped on cuts?
I think the rock would pull it out in a close decision, in a very close duel.

 

Rocky wins by late TKO, the machine that Rocky was breaks Evander late after a terrific fight

 

Snoozefest...

 

Agree he doesn't overpower Rocky but he has the precision and skills to box Rockies ears off if he wanted, but.........Evander could get sucked into a fight and that would have been in Rocks favor. Evander had the same warrior qualities that made Marciano great but surpassed Rocky in boxing ability.

 

No version of EH beats RM.

Rocky wins by late stoppage.

 

The Rock by late ko against any holyfield,Rocks era late ko holy era tko.Iknow Rock cut easy but I think he would bust E.H up

 

LOL, of course the Rock never looses a fight.in the classic section,he just hit the deck against arguebly one of the weakest Hwt era period against balding, , trench war fared beanstick grandpas........\so naturally he walks thru everybody that walks and breaths, no problem.

His fans are on the same level as Pac fans, dense to the max.

 

If it was the prime stamina suffering EH prior to the heart correction it would be a Marciano break down in war with a stoppage coming about the 9th round

If it was the older, smarter and wiser EH it would be a Marciano stoppage around the 10-11th round

One thing the 5'9 James Toney (Toney KO EH) showed me about EH is that few actually put pressure on the body on EH, Marciano would positively go to the body and this would pay dividends