Fair question regarding Don and Rex . I should have added, again in my own opinion, comparable in size to the Liston era and up and of a higher caliber... in addition, Cockell being bigger is a bit debatable ...
Re Marciano and skin colour. I once read that prior to his fight with Joe Louis,somebody made a racial remark about Louis,and Marciano went ape**** at him. And good for Rocky....!
Marciano was known to be very respectful of his opponents ... he idolized Louis as a teenager .. he was friendly or on good terms with just about anyone he ever fought ... he was too smart and too classy to get dragged into b.s.
Rex Layne wasn't high enough caliber for you? He beat Jersey Joe Walcott and Ezzard Charles. At the time he fought marciano, he was 34-1 with 25 knockouts.
I don't know that much about Rex Layne, but boxrec shows that he had draws with Andy Walker and Dale Hall.. Both men were around 16-7, and unless I missed it, didn't chalk up wins over those guys at any other point.
Your right. I forgot about the draws. Thanks for the correction. Between you and I, Layne was lucky to escape with a draw against Andy Walker. Perhaps that's why he went into the Walcott fight as a 4 to 1 underdog. Joe Louis went on to slaughter Andy Walker in 10 one sided rounds. Old Joe was still a tough cookie.
Don Cockell was a gooftrooper, but Rex Layne was a serious fighter. Check this out [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKUlBPErrn0[/ame]
Layne was an erratic trainer. He was simply not in shape for some fights against second raters. That explains bad performances against a Walker or Hall while being able to defeat Walcott, Charles, Satterfield, and Thompson.
Layne was a tough , decent fighter. I do not view him as anything more. The fact he decisioned Charles and Walcott , to me, says just as much about Charles and Walcott at their point in their careers as it does about Layne. How many have Layne in their top thirty all time heavyweight non-champions ? I do not feel defeating Layne demonstates how Rocky would have done against a Mercer, a Witherspoon, ect.
I actually thought that was perhaps Monte's worst article he has ever written. Monte is actually very bias(imo) for a well known historian. He has been a Marciano detractor for years (I don't think he has Rocky in his top 10) while being a huge Jack Dempsey fan. Monte has some great youtube videos. I once asked him if he could make on on Marciano, like he did with Liston and Frazier. He replied to me "No, there are too many out their already." He tears down Marciano's opposition, yet in his Jack Dempsey article, he talks up Dempsey's opponents as if they were special fighters. I think it's clear Marciano beat better opposition than Dempsey. I never understood that. If he was going to bash Marciano's oppostion, why then try to talk up dempsey's opposition who was clearly inferior to marciano's?
Are you claiming Walcott and Charles were past their primes when Layne beat them? Here is the version of Charles that Rex Layne beat [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2PutDflPYo[/ame] Please tell me from this 1952 Ezzard Charles what makes you think he doesn't have it anymore? I see blazing fast hands/reflexes from charles here. Here is a 1950 version of Jersey Joe Walcott [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTmNZZXLMng[/ame] Please tell me from this 1950 Jersey Joe Walcott what makes you think he doesn't have it anymore? Here is Walcott one year LATER in 1951 [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GmojnJNIyA8[/ame] Tough? Decent? thats all you have to say about him? What about Powerful Right Hand, Stiff left jab, human workhorse, Very Durable, Aggresiveness, High Volume of punches? What none of this applies to you? Name me 5 heavyweight contenders in history who beat TWO consensus top 20 heavyweights of all time near their primes, the way Layne did? I do not rate Layne in my top 50 heavyweight of all time list, but he has a case for being in there. He certainly classify's as a world class fighter.
Old Louis probably was still the best hw outside of active atgs. Quite some longevity right there. Amazing.