If Marciano had lived ?

Keep dreaming.

Holmes would have beaten the living **** outta tiny Marciano prime-for-prime.

 

I have Holmes borderline 10-11 in my rating, he never unified the titles, ducked at least 6 of the best fighters of his era & never rematched a tough fight. It would be speculation to rate him higher based of his close win over Norton, beating Shavers and an 8 fight Gerry Cooney.

He had heart and a great jab but Holmes could be hit with right hands Spinks beat him (M Spinks was the least risky fight for him then) Tyson destroyed him. I think the only reson it didnt happen to Holmes earlier is because he avoided the big right hand punchers when young.

Snipes & Shavers almost had him but Shavers gassed gassed & Snipes 22 fights didn't know what to do. Sorry I think at least one of the better heavyweights of the day Pinklon Thomas, Page, Dokes, an improved Weaver, Tate, or Coetzee may have been able to do it earlier in Holmes career than Tyson did but Holmes was not fighting the better men of his division, in fact he was worse than Dempsey because Holmes was fighting 10-13,14,15,16, fight guys

By the way if Marciano was alive he would have handled the 49-0 thing with class, he was confident, gracious & intellegent & articulate & I dont believe there would have been an issue

 

Marciano would beat the crap of holmes.styles. sorry for you

 

Joe would kick the ass of holmes

 

People keep bringing up Marciano's size but there were plenty of big guys in his era and earlier eras. Some of whom were bigger than Larry Holmes. Obviously big guys improved over time and in the 90s and onwards Marciano's lack of size would be a huge problem. But I think its silly to say Marciano couldn't compete with Holmes due to lack of size.

Michael Spinks won a belt in Holmes era despite weighing only 199 pounds which isn't much above Marciano's prime weight.

 

I pick "other"

 

As far as legacy goes, I'd rate Rocky highly. You can't get any better than undefeated, if you attain that fighting the best your era has to offer. I don't believe in penalizing a fighter for things he can't control, such as what era he comes along in. Would it have been better for Marciano to have been born in 1943, instead of 1923 and went from say 1968-1975 undefeated while fighting the best available? Sure, you can say that, but Marciano couldn't control that. Just like Ali couldn't control the date of his birth and subsequently the era he fought in. What if Ali had been born in 1912 instead of 1942 and fought in the 1930s, 1940s era? Or what if he were born in 1982 and fighting in the 2000s-current heavyweight era?

He wouldn't have all of those ATG wins. But it wouldn't have been his fault.

 

I wonder what his response would have been after Tyson/Holmes?

 

There were a few guys Holmes size,how many of any quality did Rocky fight?

 

The guys of Holmes size lost to smaller guys so Rocky fought them instead. But given they lost to guys Rocky beat I think its reasonable to assume Marciano would have beaten them had the fights taken place.

 

I actually think Rocky would have been gracious and classy from the beginning. This was would have never happened. He was the Alpha so it would have been a more positive situation. They would of had Holmes and Marciano on TV on radio and just hanging out. Probably become friends. Maybe gone into business together. Rock and Larry’s Italian joint.
Larry Holmes was pushed to say that or lash out because Peter had been rooting against him in the lead up to the fight. Peter was emotional but it was a bad look.

 

Interesting view. If A long reigning undefeated champion wants respect he needs to fight 3 guys that had none.

Holmes had respect. He wanted to be popular and rich like Ali. At least be recognized as one of the top heavyweights in history. Ali cast a large shadow.

If you saw Larry Holmes fight in his prime and didnt respect him? I would ask where you get your weed from.

 

Ali faced the best competition available and didn't duck anyone. That's pretty different from Holmes who missed out on fighting a lot of opponents

 

I don't disagree, you can only fight who is there in your era and broadly speaking Rocky did that.
However, I put a lot of store in head to head and I don't think Rocky does well against those I rank higher than him.He made my top ten for many years ,but ,with the arrival of Holyfield,Tyson,Lewis ,Wlad, he has dropped to top15.

 

There is substance to this argument, but H2H Holmes would run Ali very close imo,that's why he makes my ten comfortably