I sort of think Rocky doesnt get much/enough credit for this win Yes, Louis was past his prime, but he came off a winning streak, was a top contender and a 37 year old atg is still a very good fighter. I think Rocky would have given a prime Louis a tough fight, he didn't like swarmers. I love Louis as a fighter and he gave it his all, but I think this is always a bad match up for him.
Louis struggling with swarmers is the biggest myth on this board. In truth they were his bread and butter. Louis was second to none at using someone’s forward momentum against them.
Louis being a top contender just points to the lack of depth in the division at that time.imo.The same applies to Cockell. Louis was a one armed, stationary target,whose reflexes were eroded. He had been getting by fighting fringe contenders and old guys like himself,and he had been kept away from punchers. Prime Louis tears up Rocky imo
The same Marciano that hit the mat early against Moore and Walcott would find his rear end on the floor against a prime Brown Bomber. And I promise you he wouldn't survive after getting up. Joe was a merciless finisher.
Louis was nowhere near to being the same fighter he was, average fighters were going the distance with him in his comeback. His right hand was virtually non existence and was relying mostly on his jab, his lightning fast combinations and accuracy wasn't there, his legs were gone, his reflexes were diminished. The version of Louis who fought Marciano is not even recognizable to the ATG he once was.
IMO prime "The Brown Bomber" would win on points, by unanimous decision. I don't believe Joe Louis would knock out Rocky Marciano, which doesn't mean he wouldn't if given the chance.
Rocky’s win is slightly underrated, as Louis was on a decent streak before losing to Marciano. That being said, he definitely wasn’t the Brown Bomber of old
Totally agree, I can't understand why something that is so visually obvious isn't universally agreed upon.
I think Joe Louis, in his absolute prime, which I see roughly as August, 1936 through March, 1942, as the greatest fighter who ever lived. The Joe Louis who fought Rocky Marciano, in 1951, was not that same fighter. That does not mean he was not still a pretty darn good fighter. He was the #1 Contender at the end of 1950. If his name at that time had been Joe Smith, 27 years old, #1 Heavyweight Contender, who started in 1944, with the record 14-1 (7 KO's), and the fighters he had beaten, people at that time would have thought Smith was a pretty darn good fighter. It is not fair to Rocky Marciano to assume otherwise. And Rocky was the betting underdog going into that fight, so, even as an older version of Joe Louis, people still considered him to be better than Rocky Marciano at that time. It is a good win on Rocky's resume.
I think that the opponent being Louis confuses the picture a bit. If this had been a 25 year old fighter, who had been identical to old Louis, and this had represented his absolute peak, then this woudl be regarded as a good win. The fact that it was the ghost of Joe Louis, distorts our perception of the fight a bit. So let's call this 25 year old fighter Loe Jouis, and see how he stacks up on Rocky's resume. He is not as good as Walcott, or Charles, or Moore. He probably isn't quite as good as Layne either. That still leaves Marciano with a good win, over a #1 contender.
Yep,gotta go with the consensus opinion on this thread--- prime Joe Louis brutally destroys Marciano.
Nobody has ever said Louis was the same fighter he was. no longer being what he once was is not the same as no longer being a good fighter. 37 year old Louis was as good as a prime Trevor Berbick.