I Underate Rocky Marciano!

Yeah, I find it's best to make vague statements like "he's probably top 10" or "he's probably top 20" and tell people where they're going wrong without telling them what I think is right. Never produce lists, or only produced caricature lists, ones that are deliberately different to everyone elses, a refreshing outlook, with a caveat that "this list will likely change by tomorrow".

I found Gilbert Odd's list absolutely inspiring though. The guy is a HOF boxing historian, rated Patterson 19 places above Liston, with Braddock ahead of Marciano ! Superb list. LOL ! I wish he was alive to come debate us on here.
I'm actually inspired to produce a "better" list than Odd's. But the real trick is to actually BELIEVE IN IT TOO !
:good

 

That list was very well humoured. Either he was having a laff, or put all those worse than top 2 in a hat

I actually enjoyed doing a Heavyweight list, some great posters gave some very insightful comments and opinions. If MF would have put Marciano's case forward exactly as above things may have become pear shaped :yep

I won't however be forgetting.

 

Anyone with Marciano's record has a really good case for top 5 and definitely shouldn't be outside top 10. It's not that fruitful to try a head to head with a boxer that was active for 50+ years ago against modern greats like Lewis, Holyfield, Tyson et al. 'cause its' very hard to say how he would have looked if he was active at the same time as them.

 

I am glad to see open minds on this forum....and a reasonable approach to opinions about fighters who gave there lives to boxing, some fighters are more window dressing than others, a lot of flash and that is appealing but lets not forget the brick and mortor fighters and there equal but different skill level using there strengths to overcome. I am Big on Marciano and MF post was on point and spells it out pretty good, that little guy was loaded with talent and really gifted but he had no flash he was all cash

 

Based on what he did in his own time makes Marciano one of the all time great HW champions without question in a relative sense. Comparatively speaking however I think his rating drops a bit. The men Rocky faced while champion were very good fighters. No question about that. The problem is that by modern standards, these men would be considered light heavyweights or cruiserweights at best. And while I agree that size alone does not make a fighter great, size and skill can. Ali, Holmes, Holyfield, Klitschko and Lewis are examples of this point as well as Foreman to a point. Men like Charles, Moore, Matthews, Layne and LaStarza would look puny by comparison. I think Rocky was somewhat fortunate to have come along when he did. Ten years later might have been a bad time. Athletes were becoming bigger and faster in all sports including Boxing and Ali was a prime example of that. Big men who were also fast and mobile. Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul Jabbar( Or Lew Alcindor) were breaking the mold so to speak. Rules were changing to accomodate the influx of the new athlete and there would be no looking back. Could Marciano cope with Ali's speed and reach and find a way to get by that jab? Or Holmes' for that matter. Would Frazier's relentless attack or Big George's sheer power and physicallity be to much for the smaller and slower Marciano? What about behemoths like Lewis and Klitschko? Could Rocky even hope to get close enough to do any real damage? Even if he did would his punches have any effect on such large men. We're not talking about 175-190lb men who are 5'11" 0r 6' tall. We can only speculate of course but the fact that the fighters of the more modern era enjoy substantial size advantages over those from Rocky's era and many are as skilled if not more so as well can't be overlooked either. With that being said I still feel Rocky deserves a spot among the all time greats due to what he accomplished in his own era aginst the best that was available to him at that time which is really the only fair way to judge any fighter from any era when you stop and think about it.

 

Well, I do have him in the top 10. Even though I don't rate him all that highly head to head, and I don't put much stock in his unbeaten record... I don't know. Whatever.

 

It's very hard to knock the Rock since he beat everyone they put in front of him. However, I also can't see him beating at least 10 of the best heavyweights. So...I don't think you have under-rated him.