Is Rocky Marciano the best Cruiserweight in history?

All time Cruiserweight tournament:

Rocky Marciano
Evander Holyfield
Roy Jones Jr.
Jack Dempsey
Floyd Patterson
Jerry Quarry
Gene Tunney
Michael Spinks

(perhaps add Oleksandr Usyk)

 

Untill he gets hit, then it's good night Irene.

 

A lot of fighters gave Rocky problems.....the problem was Rocky was relentless and was able to absorb an insane amount of punishment while still maintaining his composure. Mentally and physically he'd wear down his opponents. A lot of the times Rocky would be behind on the score cards before He was able to land a clean, crushing one punch KO or would inflict so much punishment down the stretch his opponents folded.

 

That's assuming every fighter can adapt perfectly to their new environment. That's never the case. There's always an element of luck involved in any fighter's success, and Marciano was no exception. Had he fought in a stronger era, or an era where the average fighter was a lot bigger than he customarily fought against, or where the best fighters in the era weren't past their best, or where referees were less lenient on cuts, then there's no reason to expect he'd have had the same level of success.

Rocky was a relatively one dimensional fighter who was fortunate enough to fight in exactly the right era for his unique combination of guts and come forward aggression to find him success. That's not a knock on him, but it's silly and naïve to expect him to transfer that same level of success to another era without any issues.

Wlad's got more of a chance in past eras because he's freaking huge and overall a lot more skilled and athletic than Rocky ever was. But if he was forced to fight in the 90s say, I suspect he wouldn't have had nearly the same success as he did.

 

Fighting the rock must of been very unpleasant.total nutter!

 

Rocky was very one dimensional....but that one dimension was great. He came forward, threw a lot of hard hooks, uppercuts and over hand rights. He was unrelenting in his attacks and even the best defensive fighters found it extremely difficult to maintain being able to evade the onslaught that never seemed to end.

Archie Moore is one of the best boxers of all time from a skills perspective, he created the shoulder roll and the philly shell. Rocky missed most of his punches and was countered a LOT...but he had a granite chin, an unbreakable will and power in both hands. Eventually the shots just began breaking Archie down the same way he did against Jersey Joe Walcot, Ezzard Charles and Joe Louis.

Rocky wouldn't have had problems being s force in any era. He had qualities that transcends eras of the sweet science. The only problem he would have had was against the super heavyweights. But light heavyweights or cruiserweights would have all be in a lot of trouble

 

I'm not claiming that one dimension was a poor one. I'm saying that it would make it hard for him to transition to a different era since he would have problems adapting. Against guys his own size he was a beast and a nightmare, I don't deny that. But in the modern heavyweight division and even cruiserweight division he'd be fighting men substantially bigger than himself with corresponding or superior athleticism and/or skills and in many cases superior punching power. He'd also be fighting in an era where fights are stopped on minor cuts, brief wobbles and other such nonsense, which means the possibility of him losing via one of those methods is high.

Rocky's defensive abilities were underrated but he was still no defensive wizard, and against men packing the type of power many modern cruiserweights do he'd be getting hit hard and often. Maybe he guts it through against all odds for a few fights, but sooner or later the accumulative damage is going to do him in. Look at Lebedev for a corresponding real world example.

 

I don't think there's been any one in any era at 175 or 190 lbs who had the kind of ability or skill set that would be able to make it 15 rounds with Rocky. Eventually they would succumb to his power and unrelenting style. His offense was devastating and brutal. He might have been stopped on cuts, but he never went down or even wobbled from flush shots from men who had 20 or 30 lbs on him.

Rocky got hit hard and often throughout his career against men who were a lot bigger. He very well could have the best chin in boxing. His face didn't always hold up, but that never stopped Rocky from finding a way to knockout his opponents. Lebedev was no where near the kind of offensive force that Marciano was. A lot of the guys Rocky faced had big power and over 210 lbs....so a light heavyweight it cruiserweight today, wouldn't have been able to hurt him or knock him out

 

He would have got hit By far harder punchers in other eras, by better sound taller guys. Marciano was prone to cut and looked great if someone just stood in front of him.

Sure he could grind someone down let's also bring into real life he fought about 40 guys who weighed under 200 pounds......

What does this mean? Well I know guys got a lot tougher than Lastarza and older guys he fought like Moore and Ezzard so we have to take into account if he could decimate other eras surely he would have done that in his own era where no one gave him a challenge when he fought them at least....and that's not the case.

 

Louis, Walcott, Charles and Moore were all OLE men. Holyfield's wins over Bowe and Tyson trump anything on Marciano's resume...

 

That's because YDKSAB. Prime Louis mops the floor with Marciano. So does a prime Jack Johnson and a long list of others...

 

Marciano never lands clean on Jones' chin. Marciano is too slow and clumsy. Roy is WAY too fast...

 

Lol! It would look even worse than the Lebedev KO