Heavyweight Greatness: Wladimir Klitschko vs Rocky Marciano

Marciano would ****, rule and uinify the cruiserweight division today.

 

What is Wladimir's signature win?

 

How many defences of the unified title does Wlad have?

 

I agree there, but in terms of legacy? No contest.

 

Call it a **** era if you want. Marciano was involved in some great fights. Fights people still talk about with enthusiasm today.

If memory serves, he was involved in three fights which were later awarded Fight of the Year. He was also named Fighter of the Year twice.

Now, let me ask you: How many fights of the year has Wlad been involved in?
How many fighter of the year awards has he won? (Not in Germany, but globally speaking.)

 

Marciano filled stadiums in the US in the 50s, that's true. He was a wild slugger, technically not the most skilled but he was a crowd pleaser.

In terms of HW greatness I think you can easily rank Marciano above Wlad as of right now. However, head-to-head Wlad would absolutely kick the living **** out of Marciano. Terrible mismatch.

Also: Let's revisit the 'greatness' debate should Wlad accomlish the feat of staying undefeated for the next 2-3 years and retiring without any further losses.

 

The first two lines you highlighted were about Wlad not being able to hit Marciano that often. Why do you pick up on that? Do you think Marciano was easy to hit? And do you accept the fact that he made much better technicians than Wlad miss? What does Wlad have that Ezzard Charles didn't?

And please don't mention his height. That has no relevance to how well Marciano would be able to avoid the punches.

Secondly, why do you think Wlad wouldn't take a beating on the inside? I'd agree that Wlad has huge advantages on the outside but on the inside, Marciano has as much of an advantage. Wlad has absolutely no inside game whereas Marciano did.

 

Rocky was great for his time but a fight with Wlad would have been much like the Mormeck fight with Rocky perhaps throwing a few more wild swings and lasting slightly longer.

 

And yet despite this, Wlad's best win is over a man who made 190lbs very easily in Chris Byrd. Wlad was knocked out in 2 rounds by a fighter who, if he was in the same excellent shape as Marciano, would likely weigh 10-15lbs more than Marciano. Those 15lbs of excess weight didn't help Sanders knock Wlad out.

And yes, modern nutrition has improved but boxing skills have also declined. There isn't a fighter in the world who is as skilled as Archie Moore or Ezzard Charles was. The heavyweight division is full of guys like Adamek, Povetkin and Helenius, who would get thoroughly schooled by Moore and Charles, despite the size difference.

 

There is a long precedence of small heavyweights being able to compete with, or better, much bigger heavyweights. Whilst it's true that Marciano didn't beat anyone of note who was bigger, what reason is there to assume he couldn't do what Dempsey, Louis, Frazier, Tyson or Holyfield did?

There isn't a single 'small' ATG heavyweight who didn't have success against bigger heavyweights when they fought. Why is Marciano the exception?

 

If there is a referee who will either deduct points or let Marciano work on the inside, Wlad is ****ed. He has no inside game and would get raped on the inside. If there is a modern day, biased referee, the chances are this tactic does work. However, if the referee allows Marciano to work on the inside, he'd rip Wlad to pieces.

 

Marciano didn't retire in his prime either. He was aging and he had a back problem which meant he couldn't train.

 

Lol. Marciano vs Wlad a mismatch? You've got your heads so far up your asses if you think Mormeck or Sanders were on Rocks level. He beat some of the most skilled heavyweights of all time vs Charles and Walcott. Oh sure, Walcotts left hook that put Charles out would only be just a tickle for the Klitschkos. Marciano kod 235lbs fighters and also a 250+lbs fighter. But he's just a lt heavyweight that would give Dawson a run for his money, right? Lol

 

So a fighter who has an inside game vs. a fight who has none will always get raped no matter what right?

Just like a fighter who has no long-distance game always gets raped by a fighter who can fight well from the outside right?

Your logic is obviously flawed.

 

Marciano will be remembered because whether they were past it, over the hill, washed up or whatever. He has ATG's on his resume, ATG's that proved their own greatness in the ring.

Wlad has no one, is that his fault no. It's the state of the HW division today. There are no true tests out there, so he wll continue to fight whoever is put in front of him and win easy.

Marciano fought over the hill ATG's, Wlad is fighting in an over the hill HW division.