how great would marciano be if he wasnt undefeated??

Well yes and that is why I never would argue too strongly against anyone who would put Larry Holmes above Rocky. I personally put Ali and Joe Louis above Rocky. I don’t think you will find any Rocky fan on this board who puts Rocky above everyone.

 

Not for me it dosnt. It might be inarguably true of the masses though. And I would not include myself among them.

Would you drop Rocky from number 3 of your top ten if he was 47-2?

 

Oh dear

 

So it’s amusing that a clown on this thread says “Carnera was not a real boxer and his fights were fixed” and the only thing you find funny is me asking somebody if they would drop Marciano from #3 in their ATG list if he was 47-0?

 

What is funny is that despite McGrains best efforts to make things painstakingly simple you still cannot comprehend his posts.

Unless you are out to rile (troll) him of course.

 

I understood what he wrote. He says the undefeated status enhances Rockys standing. And it does among people who don’t know any better. Mcgrain always says what he believes is inarguable. And it is. I also believe it is inarguably true that a good argument will always be made that Rocky still was one of the top five of all time for a lot of other reasons. Rocky beat a lot of champions by knockout. British champion. World heavyweight champion. World Light heavyweight champion. Former world champion. The former, former champion. Rocky never defended against anyone lower than #2 in the world. It’s got nothing to do with me not understanding.

Now, how about you? Are you going to challenge the notion that Carnera was not a real boxer and that most of his fights were fixed? Or are you ok with that kind of garbage?

 

That’s your prerogative and you are entitled to it. There are an awful lot of champions to consider after all.

 

He was involved with the mob to some extent. I don't know enough about his career to say 'most' of his fights were fixed but I have wondered about the Sharkey fight.

 

If you even remotely understood what he wrote there would have been less than zero need for "Would you drop Rocky from number 3 of your top ten if he was 47-2?"

You did not understand what he wrote.

 

The author of the thread has gone a bit further than he needed to, by making him lose two fights.

Lets take the minimum case scenario, and say that the Lastarza fight was called in favor of Lastarza.

So people are debating whether Larry Holmes's magic 48-0 will be beaten, and asking what if the Lastarza fight had been scored in favor of Marciano, as some ringsiders argued that it should have been.

In that scenario Marciano loses a lot of his glamour in the eyes of the casual fans, but he is still respected by the anoraks, who can pick through the details.

Now if Marciano loses twice, then beating him starts to look rather repeatable, and his consistency argument is severely dented.

In that case he might slip quite a bit.

 

That is just getting into the realm of fantasy.

 

EXCELLENT POST!