Frazier or Marciano?

I might give the edge to Joe Frazier, but no way would I ever put money on it.

 

I see differences.

Rocky had more subtle defnce based, on awkward movments and feints as people have mentioned, perhaps working to narrower margins of error.

Frazier was a more active and dynamic weaving target.

 

It's very subtle. (I don't mean to be condescending when I say that.) If you watch Round 4, in the first minute and the last minute, Frazier blocks an awful lot of the heavy stuff. 1:52 is a good example. Quarry only really gets through with pecking jabs for the most part.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6LEd0UKAII[/ame]

 

Marciano...in my opinion.

 

Frazier is awesome on the inside, and so is his defense when he's in-fighting. Quarry clearly fought a terrible fought. Making it a slugging phone booth contest. While Frazier certainly helped make it this type of fighter, Quarry didn't resist it early on and was even bombing at Frazier. Marciano even comments on this and his wish to have opponents fight him like this. Actually, Marciano says that Frazier reminded him a lot of himself when asked about this fight.

On the outside, though. Frazier is much more hittable. But he's always getting inside so well and quick, which is entirely the problem for many of his opponents. Even in the early goings of that fight Quarry hurt Joe briefly, though.

 

I put this question to many of the top boxing historians a while back, and most of them had Frazier as having the better defense because of his constant movement. Monte Cox stated Frazier's defense is pretty good, especially against boxer types as his slip and duck rate is the highest I have encountered.

He also stated that Frazier and Dempsey both have the highest slip and duck rates amongst heavyweights. There constant bob and weave could make them difficult targets to hit cleanly. This is especially so against fancy boxing styles.

 

Truth be told, Marciano's style is much more difficult, especially when looking at older b&w footage to see that his defense evades punches. But upon further review, the reality is his defense is actually good. I'm not saying it's wrong to think Frazier has better defense. The slip duck ratio is interesting. I've heard that before regarding Frazier. I always felt Tyson bob & weave had him evading more punches.

 

Well I'm not sure Quarry could have fought any other fight, really. That's the great thing about Frazier. You can't not fight his fight. You can beat him at his own game if you're good enough, but that's it.

 

Quarry got a little Irish. I don't think he could've done anything about it at a certain point, but I do believe he accepted a phone booth slug-fest way to easily. What a great fight though.