Marciano v Valdes

Nino lost 2x to Archie Moore who most felt was the danger but I think they were attemping to remarket Nino for Rocky's 50th fight but Nino lost pretty badly & dropped by the 5"10 erratic Bob Satterfeild who Ezzard & Archie already beat so at that point I think his troubles with Al Weil & lack of money fights on the horizon motorvated Rocky to hang then up. Remember Patterson lost a close one to Maxim & Cus was not moving Floyd up to heavyweight unless Rocky moved on.

I think it was a smart move that guys like Marciano & Lennox & Tunney got out when they had better options or they felt they were on the decline. In Tunneys case he married a rich woman & got tired of the smell of the gym & getting hit (cant blame him)

I Marciano had a few fights left but no real challenges. Lewis had a tough one with Vitali (who gained confidence from there fight) he went out with the win. Tunney I would have liked to see fight Scmeling & Sharkey to cement him in the heavyweights.

I wish Frazier would have gotten out after Manilla even though he had the least fights, he slipped badly

 

Can't argue with any of that ...

 

Bump.

Yes this is a fight that could’ve happened, and would’ve been better than Cockell, but Marciano massacres him.

Valdes was upright and stiff, only had powerful combinations and was strong, he didn’t have great technical ability or speed.

Kind of like an olden day Yunier Dorticos, his Cuban counterpart, Marciano would get under the basic, predictable combinations of Valdes, would catch the stiff Valdes over the top and would eat him alive on the inside with body shots and uppercuts, Valdes has no versatility of defence especially on the inside, it’s just earmuffs and block, he doesn’t change his level and get himself off centre line, which would mean Marciano would be able to eat him alive, he does change level and dip to the side, roll etc to create opportunities and slip to the side and get closer to the intended target, bodyshots, slip to the right then right uppercut down the middle, Valdes would be a sitting duck for it as he just stays in the same position.

 

Marciano was always a loss waiting to happen. But he travelled among an extremely depleted elite class and did so for only a handful of fights, 14 fights over 4 years, filled with long-in-the-tooth types looking for last paydays and overhyped challengers of a crowd pleasing pigment.

Were Valdes inserted into this short run, the loss that Marciano was always bumbling toward was far more likely to occur than fighting some no-hoper like Cockell, Savold and Beshore, or even Lastarza.

 

Valdes was pretty terrible and would get his ass kicked.