Heavyweight Tourney: Rd 3: Gene Tunney .Vs. Rocky Marciano

Is the 10 round distance really a problem ?

 

Never hurt in 49 pro fights and you extrapolate that Marciano gets KOed cold by Gene Tunney? :-(

George Foreman or Earnie Shavers doing it is plausible, but not Gene Tunney.

Tunney would try to box to a victory but IMO over 15 rounds the accumulation would be too much. Late KO to Marciano.

 

By that logic, if Marciano couldn't catch the fleet-footed Tunney legally, he could resort to alternative tactics, which proved successful in the past, against LaStarza for example.

 

You have to draw the line somewhere and I am at 200 pounds. Louis fought most of his career over 200. Joe Frazier was right on the border. In addition, Jack Johnson was 193 when he won the title. I m also rating him at heavyweight.

 

I have a hard time taking a "championship fight" serious when it's contested over only 10 rounds. Don't you? Even title eliminators aren't 10 rounds.

Of course, Tunney would still easily have won and perhaps scored a stoppage, but my point stands.

 

That's what I have a problem with. As if these 5-10 pounds make someone substantially more legit at HW. As if a guy like Frazier can take on Lennox Lewis and be successful, but someone like Dempsey or Marciano are overwhelmed by size disadvantages. Drawing the line in the sand has its problems. A Heavyweight is a heavyweight, and giving some a bypass because they're merely a few pounds over that line doesn't justify them as substantially more signfiicant nor better Heavyweights. Not to me, anyway.

 

Well, I prefer 15 to 12, but I wouldn't say a 12 rounder shouldn't be taken seriously, although there's an argument for that, I guess. I mean, do we downmark the likes of Tyson and Lewis for failing to contest a championship over 15 ?
Do we automatically hold Jeffries, Johnson, Corbett in higher esteem for contesting over 20, or 25 rounds, or finish fights ? I dont know, but ..
Yes, maybe we should.

I think 10 rounds is the distance of a seasoned solid pro, and 15 is a championship distance. But in the 1920s there was no set distance, it differed from fight to fight, and limited by the particular state.

10 is the minimum that sits alright with me though, and I like 15, but alas, we seem to be stuck with 12.

 

Heavyweight is actually, traditionally, the OPEN weight class. If you're good enough you're big enough.

 

Really? I seen believe he was hurt by Walcott, Charles and Moore.

 

Marciano is quoted as saying he was hurt by Charles,Walcott and Moore .
ps I was having a bit of fun with that post ,it never crossed my mind that anyone would take it seriously.atsch

 

I cannot believe some of the answers I am hearing. I have serious doubts if Gene Tunney would even have beaten Archie Moore, let alone Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles. Archie Moore, afterall, cleaned out the heavyweight division in the early 1950s more efficiently than tunney did in his own era....

Gene Tunney is very unproven at heavyeight. Two wins over a badly faded champion does not translate to him beating an ATG prime champion in Marciano. Tunneys Heavyweight career reminds me of Michael Spinx. Both twice beat long reighing past there prime champions, and both had very few fights at heavyweght.

Lastly,

When we look deeper into styles, we see Marciano matches up better than most think. Harry Greb a 162lb Swarmer, twice beat Gene Tunney by applying effective aggression. Marciano was 25lb bigger, stronger, and more powerful than Greb. Gene Tunney is very unproven against a heavyweight punch. The only heavyweight punch that ever landed on him, put him down for 13 seconds. Tunney will land his best stuff early, with sharp straight punches landing on an aggresive Marciano. But marciano will begin to trap tunney on the ropes, began to figure out how to get inside, and his countless bombardment of punches will began to takes its toll on Tunneys whole body. Tunneys inability to fight effectively on the inside, and poor habit of keeping his gaurd low when fending off the ropes will spell doom for him in this match. I like Rocky to end things somewhere in round 14 after the bridge had been slowly crumbling around tunney for the preceding rounds.

Will this be a close fight? Absolutley. Does Marciano deserve the nod over tunney in a mythical matchup? Yes he does. I really think people who pick Tunney in this matchup are going against logistics, statistics, and history. Marciano is a popular choice for criticicism out there. I mean how can a 5'11 185lb man with T-Rex arms and two left feet beat all those talented hall of fame champions? Must be a conspiracy! I just hope fans in this thread vote with their head rather than their heart.



I will be shocked, dissapointmented, and disturbed if Rocky Marciano does not advance to the next round in this tournament.

 

Hegrant never ceases to amaze me.

"Tunney is by far better than anyone Marciano fought"

This is highly debatable considering you will have make some serious arguements if you want to convince me Gene would have been able to whup the heavyweight championship version of Jersey Joe Walcott . I would venture to say a Prime Rocky Marciano is by far a better heavyweight than any Tunney ever tangled with.

 

Jeez Louis does this guy even watch fights before spouting off results? Its common knowledge the Layne fight was a hometown robbery rigged by Jack Dempsey himself, The Walcott fight was very controversial amongst the ringsiders at press row, and many of us here including myself had Ezzard Charles BEATING Harold Johnson on points(NO easy feat, johnson is a hall of famer who very well may have beaten tunney).

Its not as if Ezzard Charles was getting smoke by these guys...with better luck he could/should have gone 3-1 in these fights. Might I add, you failed to leave out the two spectacular knockouts charles registered over Satterfield and Wallace(both TOP TEN contenders by RING magazine) in 1954 prior to the Marciano fight. Ezz showed up a very trim 185lb vs Marciano, he was in his best shape in 3 years. Ezz brought the best he could to the rocco fight, and rocco still beat him clearly. Ezz would have unseated many champions that night. Tunney would have stuggled tremendously with the june 6 1954 version of Ezz Charles.

Who did Tunney beat at heavyweight that compared to June 6 1954 Ezz Charles? Dempsey wasn't even 75% of his prime when he fought Tunney. Dempsey had partied and softened up big time. He needed a dirty double hook in the balls to beat Sharkey(who was kicking his arse), and had not fought in 3 years prior to that. Charles was certainly sharper.