If Rocky Marciano is so overrated, why has nobody else done what he did?

Is marciano slick?

I don't think so!!! I never saw him run in any fight.

Therefore, we can safely conclude Marciano is overrated because he is not slick.

 

Liston Got his jaw broken, so what? Ali who had one of the greatest chins of all time got his jaw broken by Norton who was not the hardest puncher by any stretch of the imagination, anyone can get a broken jaw with a well placed punch, and Liston was already a scary boxer, the guy was almost killing boxers in the ring with his power. Yeah Patterson when he first started was not a 200 pound monster(its obvious) BUT the reason I put him there was because Marciano made a career out of fighting light heavyweights Marciano ran from them at 32 years old. Why not fight them? I know why, he only made 6 title defenses against an average of 35 year old opponents, don't give me the 32 years old was not young in that era BS. Moore and Walcott faced him as 39 and 41 year olds! Walcott was even the champion who lost the title against Marciano at 39 years old. 32 ain't old and theres your proof, Walcott and Moore made 32 years old look like 20 years old. At 32 though young you certainly have to worry about loosing in the near future to younger opposition and that just why Marciano avoided Liston and Patterson. Marciano was even thinking to come back and challenge Ingemar when he beat Patterson and then Patterson destroys Ingemar twice and Rocky all of a sudden decides not to come back. Its obvious Marciano wanted his record intact and retired at just the right age, he knew he would lose eventually against guys like Liston and Patterson. Ironically if they had beaten him say maybe when Marciano was 35, Marciano would have been victim of what he had done most of his career, beat old fighters.

 

Walcott defended the title against Marciano at 39 years old and Moore faced Marciano at 41 years old. Don't give us the 32 years old was not young at that era BS. Marciano beat old fighters for the most part. His best career opposition averaged an age of 37 years old.

Moore- 41
Walcott- 39
Louis- 38
Charles- 33

All 4 of them were older than when marciano fought them. His best ever opposition were past their prime old fighters but these fighters were still fighting which is the point here. 32 is young in whatever era you look at. He didn't want to relish his time as champion because he knew he was going to lose to guys such as Liston and Patterson in the near future. Why not relish it? Anyone can make up back problems as en excuse, if his back was not good why did he want to make a come back years later against Ingemar? Then Patterson rematches against Ingemar and destroys him twice and suddenly Marciano wants no come back anymore.

 

True, Ali's knockout of George Foreman easily and by far eclipses everything Marciano ever did. Hell even beating a much younger 26 year old Spinks in the rematch to win the title at 37 years old does it to be honest.

 

Let's at least get the facts correct.

Moore - 39
Walcott - 38
Louis - 37
Charles - 32

 

LOL! Funny comment bro. But the computer actually generated different results for the fight though. One other result had Ali winning by TKO but that result was given to European theaters and the marciano winning result was given to american theaters. Some people feel that result was given to american theaters because of "white america" and how it was strongly racial still. Maybe there is some residual there somewhere.

The computer fight is barely taken serious though, but people in america forget that the computer generated more results. They think that the only result is Marciano winning when in fact Ali also won on another generated result but only one result was presented in america and in europe.

 

Moore was 41 not 39. Born in 1913 and the fight took place in 1955. Do the math.

Walcott was 38 for the first bout and 39 for the second bout and he was only 3 months away from 39 in the first bout, reason I said he was 39 altogether.

Charles was 33 not 32. In fact he had just turned 33 before the first fight.

Joe Louis was 37 I already knew that but he was also near (about 5-6 months) 38 years old at the time of the fight.

Moore- 41
Walcott- 39 he 38 years old in first fight but only 3 months away from 39
Charles- 33
Louis- 37 or 38 whatever you feel is best, doesn't really help you defend Marciano.

And that was his best ever opposition, an average of 37 year old fighters.

 

This :deal

 

There are also two other stories why Marciano simply retired early and that he decided against a comeback...more than just stories though...more like the reasons he retired and did not make his come back. Those two reasons are as follows:

1. Liston

2. Patterson

 

Without wanting to be too hard on Rocky, a few reasons come to mind:

1) Ted Lowry, Eldridge Eatman, Harold Mitchell, Art Henri and Red Applegate to name a few. If there guys were the best that were around at the time, how come they had such awful records? Rocky fought more guys with out and out losing records than any other champion I can think of. In all seriousness, we're talking guys you'd expect Audley Harrison to beat.
2) Getting awarded fights he might well have lost (almost certainly the first La Starza fight and possibly the first with Charles).
3) Fighting genuine fighters that were either completely shot (Louis), well over the hill (Walcott) or light heavyweights (Charles).

This seemed to be well understood at the time. During the period when Rocky was champion and the decade after he was not seen as anything that special. Top 10 ATG maybe, but not one serious boxing writer of the time saw him as top 5. By definition, Rocky can only go down this list, yet he seems to have been elevated by posterity to some sort of godlike status that he was never accorded by anyone with who saw him fight.

In short, a very well managed fighter in a very weak era.