Marciano vs Baer

Marciano was disciplined and dedicated. Baer was not. Baer has a puncher's chance, but that's about it.

 

Who's Rudy?

 

Little-known member of the Marciano family who was a weak, un-athletic toughman competitor. Rudy mostly just absorbed punches with his face.

For whatever reason, Rudy gets mentioned a lot in threads about his world champion relative, Rocky Marciano, whose only similarity to Rudy Marciano was the last name.

 

I don’t rate him.
Simple really.

 

You can't not rate Baer. He was HW champion.

 

There is some logic in that.

 

Perhaps Baer is unrated in the sense that he's simply [UNDEFINED.]

He just hovers completely outside heavyweight rankings, unknown and unknowable.

 

There is some truth in that as well.

Baer does not fit the mold of a weak lineal heavyweight champion, but he doesn't fit the mold of a strong lineal heavyweight champion either.

He was just Baer.

 

Well I don’t want to appear unkind because I respect all fighters.
I recognise Max’s charisma and personality I just don’t think he was that good.
Sure he was tough had a good chin and a big right hand, but that’s about it for me.
His skill set wasn’t very good and he just didn’t seem to use the physical assets that he had at hand.
I’m no expert though most on here have probably forgotten more than what I know and maybe there are nuances to his game which I’m simply not seeing.

 

I don't think there are subtleties to Baer's skillset that you're not seeing.

It's just being big and strong (relative to the era), an explosive and huge puncher, allied with having a decent chin, can take you far. Especially at HW. Which is why Max went relatively far.

There are fighters who did not make my top 20 at HW that I rate above Baer, but if I stretched my list to 30, I suspect he would be in it, and if he wasn't, at the very worst he'd be knocking on the door.

 

His biggest limitations imo were his form (he practically fell halfway to the floor when throwing uppercuts) and zero use of the jab.

 

Yes, he was technically limited and scores poorly in the mentality (discipline, focus and drive) stakes.

He was a physical specimen, though.