Joe Frazier vs. Rocky Marciano

HH for a guy who has been around boxing and fighters you surprise me with your observations. Rocky bending his waist, crouched low, used his elbows to block and rolled with a lot of punches. Look at this video composed by ESB boxing expert Chris Pontius

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b0yHvw-vW0[/ame]

 

Pinpoint punchers are different than just punchers, while Moore and Walcott could box and pin-point a punch they could also bang...Marciano was dropped by force, never hurt and up quickly and back in the mix...Frazier was staggered and stunned and put down many times

 

A lot of people who saw Rocky fight in person thought he was too slow, to small, and too easy to hit. Throughout his career I often heard guys predicting Rocky would surely lose his next fight against (insert opponent's name here). But he never did. Nice video. Thanks!

 

I never said his defense was bad but if you look at his face after many of his bouts, someone had to be hitting him.

 

Listen, I think that Rocky was an amazing fighter and I have very high regards for him and his family. He had one of the best right hands in boxing history. He had a heart as big as all outdoors. My good friends Lou Duva and Al Certo rate him as the best ever. I asked Lou why and he said because he was never beaten.

I still rate Rocky in my top 10 so how bad can that be. I wish he stayed around a few more years and fought Patterson, Ingo and maybe Liston. If he beat all them, I would have top rate him a lot higher.

 

Well Henry,

That is wishful thinking, but it is unrealistic expectations to expect a fighter of rocky's style to be defeating greats like those in his mid 30s. when rocky retired near the age of 33 in 1956, he was already in decline. A win over patterson in 56 would have been a challenge for him. Do you hold it against him for not fighting far past his prime and receiving beatings like other old champions?

 

No I don't, BUT if he did stay around and beat these guys he would be rated much higher by many people.

His last bout was in 1955, he just turned 32. He just beat the top contender in Archie Moore. He won almost every round except when he got dropped. I really didn't see any decline at that time.

When do you feel that he was at his best. The 1st Wacott bout he was behind going into the 13th round. The bouts with Charles, Cockell or LaStarza?

 

Rocky himself claimed his best performance was against Rex Layne in 51...but I think his very best was against Joe Louis. . I have never seen him move so fast in a fight. He was young, fresh and hungry. His punches carried speed, snap and one punch power. He looked very sharp. His footwork never looked better or faster, he bobbed and weaved(one of the few times ive seen him do that) and he also ducked and dipped in his crouch. He really systematically took apart a 6'2 214lb old but dangerous contender who still had the capabilities to defeat all the young contenders in the division. He really had steam in his fists that night. That torso roll to land the left hook on louis when he had louis on the ropes followed by that concussing right hand..was a sad but deadly finish.


If we look at his work from 54-55, His defense was excellent and his workrate was never as high, but he lost some zip in his punches and it was very noticable compared to his filmed fights in 51-52. His style changed a bit making him more of a accumalitive punching swarmer rather than the 1 punch knockout slugger(who could still swarm) he was in 51-52. I prefer the former.


So overall, I thought his best work was against Layne, Louis, Walcott, and Matthews. He was a bit younger, faster, and his one punch power looked really really good during these years. I think his style changed a bit after 1953.

 

did you ever see his opponents face, during and after a fight...some of the scariest face twisters and lumped up people...I'm sure Suzie has a few good photo's of Marciano's opponents during and after a fight and very few fighters were ever the same after fighting the Rock

 

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...g.mozilla:en-US:official&channel=s&tbs=isch:1

 

http://media.photobucket.com/image/rocky marciano/Aquilifer/wallcotko.jpg

 

http://coxscorner.tripod.com/Images/tn_rocky_savold.jpg

 

Great Choice. Did you notice Rocky threw 4-5 punch combinations in that fight? He hardly threw combinations like this before or after. Also, Walcott was clearly the best opponent rocky faced. Walcott was really really tough that night. He did not want to let that belt go. He was coming off two wins over a ATG fighter, proving his worth in 1952.

 

http://static.boxrec.com/wiki/thumb/6/6b/EzzardC54b.jpeg/475px-EzzardC54b.jpeg