Bottom line Walcott was 37 & 38 years old having his last 2 fights, age detracts from durability and punch resistance and even prime Walcott was not noted for his chin. Charles dropped him and had him on ***** street,anyone think he was a big puncher at heavyweight? Mathews was a protected hype job the bulk of whose career was as a middleweight and a lhvy. He had 103 fights ,34 of them at under 180lbs ,55 of them under 170lbs thats 89 of his fights under or around the lhvy limit. At the age of 33 he still made 177lbs .If you have to dig him out to prove Marciano's one punch power you are in troubleatsch
Because its not a cold one punch knockout. Spinks had just been rocked and dropped from a uppercut/body punch combination. If we are counting that we are going to have to count Marciano's KO of Charles, Louis, and several others. Where he put them down for the count with one punch after having just previously hurt/dropped them.
But difference. Marciano had been fighting with those guys for many rounds. Tyson KO'd Spinks in 91 seconds and the first knockdown was due to a body shot, resulting in Spinks rising without appearing to be hadly hurt. The second shot was a beautiful uppercut with put him flat on his back.. It counts in my book.
And that's all to do with how they both fought, don't you think if Rocky had shot out of the blocks in the 1st round and landed his hard right on Walcott the effect would have been less devastating, it's about the style not the power!
Even than. We still just have a case of Spinks/Botha vs Walcott/Layne/Matthews. I'm not convinced there is a more convincing argument for Tyson. Both guys had one punch power at the end of the day.
His power should not be questioned. Power is only one of a number of components that makes up a knockout artist, and this was the principal one in what he was doing. Compare his filmed knockouts to those of other great heavyweight finishers, he doesn’t just stop them he numbs them. The damage that he was inflicting on his opponents, was as severe as can be seen in any heavyweight champion.
I think it's important to realize just how difficult it is to score a one or two-punch knockout against rated opposition. Who has done it? Off the top of my head: Tyson, 4: Spinks, The Truth Williams, Tubbs, Botha. Very impressive. I refuse to include Seldon. Foreman, 1: Moorer. Louis: I might have to re-check the footage, I'm thinking Braddock but probably there are more. Dempsey: Few of his top fights were filmed. Some say Fulton, others say it was a many-punch combo. Needless to say he finished him early. So at least one. Frazier, 1: Foster. If I recall correctly, Ellis got up but was already severely rattled. Liston: Westphal is the only one I know of, but he wasn't rated I'm sure. Ali, 1: Liston II. Dubious circumstances, though. Holmes, 1: Weaver. Lewis, 3: Botha, Rahman, Tyson. If Weaver was rated (which I doubt), then it's 4. Wlad, 3: Chambers, Brock, Austin. Byrd II arguably. Marciano, 3: Matthews, Walcott, Layne. So, Tyson tops it with 4 one/two punch KOs. Other giant punchers have 3 at most, which includes Marciano. You can rip into the Marciano victims all you want, but this is easy play and can be applied to any of the fellas on the receiving end of the above list KOs. At the end of the day, he has the highest knockout percentage in history against rated opponents, in title defenses, against hall-of-famers and overall (of heavyweight champions). And we see that he's at the top in terms of one- or two-punch KOs as well. I don't really see how one can reasonably not rank him among the very best punchers, especially with respect to his time, against his field - which is no more than fair.
Do you want to look at Louis koing Buddy Baer making him do an involuntary pirouet with one right hand,Louis koing Braddock with one right hand,smashing Paulino's gold bridge to pieces with one shot. Louis was the only man to ko Uzcudun and Braddock ,and only the second man to ko Baer. Marciano bludgeoned his men into submission.Louis surgically took them out.
You can't count Spinks as he was already knocked down and hurt prior to the knockout. I'll give you one back though, Henry Tillman.
This doesn't answer how the likes of ****ell and Lastarza went as long as they did, nor how Moore at his advanced age weathered all those punches before finally succumbing.I'm not suggesting Marciano was not a heavy puncher I'm saying his one punch power maybe overated judging by how long it took him to get rid of old men he had worn down with incessant barrages of punches. How many rounds to you honestly think ****ell would survive against Foreman? How about a 40/42years old Moore? A pitty- pat puncher Lastarza. Do you think Mathews makes it out of the first round?
If you are having to use Joe Louis' power as a means to try discredit Marciano's power you are actually (clearly accidentally!) paying Marciano quite a compliment & imo destroying your own argument at the same time.