Its certainly a logical arguement. I cant think of too many fighters in history that were 60 plus pounds less than their opponent and still would be able to successfully apply a swarming style, but maybe someone else can? I think whats overlooked is we're talking about 60 pounds. You cant use fighters like Spoon, or Lewis or Smith, in comparison who were far larger men and didnt box in the same way Marciano did. The only comparable comparison would be Tyson, and Tyson was 30 pounds heavier than Rocky, and probably had a better chin, which is still a massive size advantage when you factor in the power angle. Marciano was a better fighter no doubt, but would he be a Michael Moorer moving up against such a massive man?
Marciano would certainly impose his will, because Bruno was a man who was a bit flakey mentally. He could be imposed upon. I dont see how you think this goes against logic. Marciano was a lot better than people are giving him credit for. Bruno's "sheer strength and size" aren't going to simply win the fight for him, they have to be possessed by some person with sufficient boxing skill and the mind to apply them. Bruno wasn't that man, he couldn't cut it at the elite level and make the most of those natural gifts. He wasn't a natural fighter. Conversely, Marciano could take his more modest dimensions and morph himself into a fighting force of gigantic proportions. Ask someone who saw him fight or spar (such as John Garfield) and they'll tell you he was deceptively good, and the absolute master of imposing his will on the other man. JG tells the story of how Marciano always looked like an awful clubfighter in sparring sessions and seemed to get hit a lot and get through with only the odd glancing blow (often against giant sparring partners) but he just had a solid presence and when the session ended somehow he didn't have a scratch on him and the other man looked like he'd been run over by a bus ! That's just sheer imposition of will. And honestly, Bruno just wasn't good enough to not succumb to it. Boxing isn't a contest between two machines, or a game of top trumps, it's a real fight between human beings, with all the intangible human aspects to it. We should study those intangible qualities as they manifested themselves in real fights. I've been stressing this all along. From what I saw studying his whole career as one of his loyal supporters, Bruno wouldn't cut it in there with a beast with the inner fortitude of Rocky Marciano. At 186 pounds Marciano could hit like a truck. And he had strong legs and a strong stance, coupled with a his iron will. He was one of a select few of special heavyweight champions. He was a natural, with pathological self-belief.
There have been some to do that, or thereabouts. Mickey Walker, "The Toy Bulldog" is a good example. Competed at 165 - 175 (and possibly carrying excess) against heavyweights contenders, some of whom weighed 200 - 225 pounds and could bang. So, he was often giving up about 30 to 50. He beat most of them, KO'd some. Walker was an aggressive fighter, a bulldog. Was Bruno better at 247 than at 220 or 228 ? I mean, I dont care whether he has 60 pounds on Marciano, or 50, 40, 30 ..... but you're stressing sixty pounds so I'm wondering whether you think the extra weight Bruno put on equated to the same percentage of extra "formidabless" ? The first fight Bruno outweighed Tyson by 8 or 10 pounds. The second fight he outweighed him by 27 pounds. I didn't see any difference though. It wasn't long ago Nicolay Valuev was being declared too much size and strength for all and sundry.
I cant believe Marciano is being compared to Tyson, they have little in common. Tyson is 1 of the fastest HW Champs ever while Rocky was 1 of the slowest, Tyson 1 of the most elusive - Marciano not nearly as elusive, Tyson is used to hurting and taking 220-250lb mens punches Marciano hasnt. Bottom line Bruno will be hit less and land more against Marciano and likely be able to hurt him more Marciano has his chances and I wouldnt be suprised to see him pull it off but thats a flawed comparison
I was going to use Valueav as a bad example in another post, because he simply has shown no punching power whatsoever. If Marciano couldnt hurt Bruno quickly, yes I believe the extra weight would allow Bruno to hold more effectively against a 185 pounder.
I only brought it in to illustrate how inept Frank Bruno was at using his reach advantage against some good who's determined to get inside. As a counterpoint to protestations that Witherspoon, Smith, Cummings etc. were guys with reach. Look at the Tyson-Bruno fights and it's clear that Tyson doesn't even need to use his slipping and weaving skills to get inside Bruno. Tyson was noticeably slow-footed in their first fight (not like he'd been against Holmes and Spinks etc.) and easily got inside just by crouching in. To me, that's relevant to how Bruno can cope with any good short aggressive fighter. Marciano was different to Tyson, but Bruno was so obviously clueless with any sort of low-target who didn't play "stand-up boxing" that I think it's worth noting. And, again, Tyson was well-off in the first fight, and the second one was post-prison.
A good big'un beats a good little'un but a great little'un beats an average big'un. Marciano all day.
Even the fit durable Marciano has his strength sapped by Bruno who is much bigger and stronger and has a heavy jab. I think Rocky has no strength left to turn the tide and takes a points loss or late tko
You don't need much strength left to turn the tide against Bruno in a fight that goes into the later rounds. Marciano would just have to shove him and watch him fall over!
Yeah because he proved it beating all those young big heavies didn't he? Actually I think Walcott's chances against Bruno are better.
Bullying 35/40 years old 190pounders around is drastically different to bossing young 240pounders with tremendous power.
Just talking about "Marciano's chances" or "Walcott's chances" sounds vaguely ridiculous, because both were in a different league. It is not so much a question of who Marciano didn't beat, as who Bruno actually did beat?
bruno gets koed late rounds. but if he ate 1000 pies and weighed 400lbs then he wins by ko1, becasue obviously fat gives you skills.