Is Rocky Marciano The Most Overated Heavyweight Of All Time?

No I don't think so. His legacy is solid and there are champions who have gotten more undue appraisal. I just don't think he does very well head to head against many of his future successors but that's speculative on my part and can't be proven.




Of course I realize this thread wasn't written to get MY attention.

 

I would say that in terms of his resume, he is rated about right.

Head to head he has become a bit under rated, because of the current obsession with size, but that is a generational thing.

People tend to rate great fighters of the past, based on the attributes of the current dominant champion, so the wheel could yet come full circle.

 

No. I think all champions deserve to over rated from time to time. They were all good enough to be the best heavyweight.

With a gun to my head I think most over rated would be a toss up between Rid**** Bowe and the belt holders Michael Dokes and Tony Tubbs. But they were very good fighters.

 

NO.

Definitely not. He was that good.

 

No--it's size and athleticism together, combined with
jabbing, mobility (footwork), and technique.

You are right that there seems to be a generational divide in general though. Folks under 40 like me, who fell in love with the sport in the 80s and 90s watching televised fights of superior athletes have a skepticism toward people who try to diminish the importance of such physical traits.

 

When I knew less I believed that. Today I realize what a special fighter Marciano was. Once in a lifetime talent.

 

I am also under 40, for whatever that is worth, but I somehow ended up on the other side of the generation divide.

It isn't even a generation thing to be honest.

There was an obsession with big heavyweights when Jim Jeffries, and later Jess Willard, held the title.

Rocky Marciano was much more highly regarded when Mike Tyson was champion, than when Lennox Lewis was champion.

 

Yeah, I realized that I was over-generalizing a split second after I hit "submit reply" atsch

 

rocky is one of the true greats.

 

Not overrated. Never was.

 

By far.

 

Lol thankfully most people don't share this view

Marciano did everything you could have asked him to do in his time. Did jack Dempsey?

 

He never agreed to take a dive.... Can the same be said of Dempsey... Or was that just an excuse for being KTFO??

 

No, and that was his personal tragedy!

His abilities would have permitted him to exceed Marciano, in every single career parameter, and go after Louis!

He chose the other path!