Marciano

Wrong as hell
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C6xEo-ijH0&feature=related[/ame]

 

Marciano's opponents fought some very excellent punchers and I don't recall any of them saying he was a light hitter in fact they said he hurt you with a tap. Marciano was certainly a hard puncher but he had so many other quality's as well.

I think anyone that saw any Marciano tapes would all agree that he had a high level of power in the heavyweight division despite his weight.

 

Durelle flattened and knocked silly the greatest knockout artist in history with a single massive right hand bomb. Rocky had to beat him down repeatedly until Archie could no longer rise. That was an attrition knockout. Late in their match, you can see Moore's torso heaving with exhaustion while he's on the deck. He was too old to take Marciano's relentlessness, as well as power.

I am not saying Durelle's opening knockdown was a harder right hand than the one Marciano lifted the title from Walcott with, but have no difficulty believing it was harder than anything Rocky succeeded in hitting Moore with.

Had Archie's claim been an ego thing, one might have expected him to credit a Murderers Row fighter, or some other "brother" with this distinction, like the rival and friend who later knitted his trademark caps for him, Hatchetman. (Moore actually did alternatively credit Sheppard as the hardest hitter he fought, but with Durelle, he specified a particular shot, one very well filmed and documented.) Referee Jack Sharkey was more than qualified to evaluate the power in that punch for himself, and said Moore was cross eyed on the deck as a result. Today's more skittish and paranoid referees, who have no experience recovering from such hard knockdowns themselves, would have stopped it then and there, but Sharkey had been a real fighter, and made the right call, as we all know.

Where Lowry is concerned, Tiger Ted had much to gain, and could really have fueled his ego by claiming that a man he completed ten rounds with twice, and never got floored by, as the hardest puncher he ever faced. Instead, he favored Moore in that respect, an endorsement which rings true to me, in part because he did have more to gain by crediting Rocky with that distinction.

Archie's knockout resume against big and tall, well conditioned heavyweights, is actually considerably deeper than Rocky's. Marciano had the 6'4" Vingo, and the 220 pound 6'4" Johnny Skhor on his dossier, but then it gets slim. For Moore, spanning from 1945 to 1962, Nap Mitchell, Cestac, Lovell, Embrell Davidson (in a single round one punch kayo on youtube), Bob Baker, Willie Bean, Parmentier, Parker (also on youtube), Honeyboy King and Lavorante offered plenty of evidence of the Mongoose's ability to lay out modern sized heavyweights. (He competed as high as 206 himself during the midst of his reign at 175. Under that limit, he could be a compete terror, as Durelle found out in their rematch.)

Following up all that though, it's silly to suggest Rock's power was overrated, and of course I voted with the landslide majority on his behalf. Mutual sparring partners of Marciano and Louis said Rocky could hurt more with one punch than Joe could with four. Matthews, Walcott, Vingo and Layne could not have beaten a count of 60 seconds or even more, let alone ten. What Louis did to Braddock is comparable, but that's about it among Joe's filmed ten count wins. Most of his other victims were either getting up, or could have gotten up, when the referee finished his toll. (That actually does contrast with some of Dempsey's filmed knockout wins, where Jack helps his victims to their feet. He did this for Miske, Carp, Firpo and Sharkey. Brennan had just barely gotten up when Dempsey came over.)

 

If all of a fighters oponents say that he was a tremendous puncher then it is a prety fair bet that he was a tremendous puncher.

Joe Louis and Jersey Joe Walcott fought a whole myriad of murderous hitters between them and they obviously saw Marciano as an all time puncher. Every common oponent between Rocky Marciano and Joe Louis that I know of said that Marciano hit harder apart from Rex Layne. Our own John Garfield saw both Rocky Marciano and George Foreman working the heavy bag incidentaly.

For his weight you would be verry hard put to find a more concusive hitter. Put him alongside sombody like Foreman or Liston and it might be closer than you think. What he gave up to them in power he would make up for in volume.

 

Do all you guys also believe the story that his punching power was tested and had the same velocity as an armor piercing shell:roll:

He was one of the greatest fighters ever for sure but his power has taken on a legendary status I think alot of it was more myth then fact

 

That might fly if he was an unfilmed fighter...

 

his ko percentage, regardless of his opponents, says something about his power.. 49 wins, and 42 KOs.

 

43, not 42.

 

Ramon, your outgunned here, besides who would know better about punching power then Dempsey who said the Rock hit harder then either he or Louis.

 

:good i knew it was close to that haha

 

Seomtimes I wonder were Marciano would be rank power wise if he went 49-0 with 49 kos.

 

very very high, don't you think? I think he ranks high at heavyweight anyway, but just look at vitali's record. it certainly boosts him up.

 

That alone isn't a good rationale (though we're in agreement about his record speaking for itself, although for me it has more to do with who he knocked out than the numbers). After all, Vitali Klitschko has the highest "KO" ratio of any HW champion and he clearly does not have the most one-punch power.

 

well the thing is it shows Vitali had/has a heavy shot, even if he's not a one-punch KO Artist. You're right, it has to do with who he knocked out. He did KO some durable fighters though.

 

Jerry Quarry was on the verge of a comeback in the 80s and sparred with Gerry Cooney. He said Cooney hit unbelieviably hard and had never been hit like that. Foreman has also said that no one ever hit him as hard as Cooney did.