Marciano

Early on he looked for the Big punch, later on he mixed it up with a multitude of rhythm breaking set up shots but you got to remember Marciano was fighting ring experienced guys Like Charles, Walcott and Moore, even Lastarza had good ring skills. I think Rocky's one-punch power would have excelled over the Big slugger type like the 6"4 Carmine Vingo and Rex Layne type who came to fight and exchange. Charles fought inside but was still an excellent defensive fighter same as Walcott and Moore. Rocky had to change up his rhythm and beat them to the punch and depend on attrition.. I think Fighters like Valdez and Baker would have resulted in the one punch KO's for Rocky, they were slower and easier to hit and not as slick or experienced.

 

:good

 

I think his power is probably underrated p4p as he was pretty smallish by modern HW standards but his punches probably felt like they came from someone 40 lbs heavier. With that said, his power is likely overrated h2h as many of his KO's can be attributed to fatigue or attrition rather than raw punching power alone.

 

Cooney floored friggin Lyle with a body shot. That's not bad.

 

Not as many as people seem to say/think came from fatigue or attrition. The Archie Moore and Roland LaStarza KOs were definitely attrition KOs, but KOs such as Vingo, Layne, Mathews, Walcott were simply raw power knocking people out.

 

This :deal

I think some of the best one punch knock outs in heavyweight history are maybe Marciano-Walcott I, Walcott-Charles III, Jack Johnson-Ketchel, Hasim Rahman-Lennox Lewis I, Lennox Lewis-Hasim Rahman II, Floyd Patterson-Ingemar Johannson II but I don't necersarily think any of these guys were necersarily any of the hardest punchers of of them all as it were - but then a lot of the guys I think are the hardest punchers of them all did have a lot of fights where they drop guys again and again and guys managed to absorb a lot from them - I definately don't think Rocky's punching power is overrated though for sure - most guys he fought raved about his punching - funny too because I'd personally thought maybe someone like Joe Louis was probably the best puncher (pound for pound) of the heavyweights - yet Walcott said Marciano was a harder puncher?? So who know's - I guess the fighters know best?

 

not to dismiss the fighters opinions, but isnt something like that a llitle subjective, maybe more than a little.

 

yeah you're right on that for sure - I never really know what to beleive with some guys - i suppose on a particular day so and so might have produced a million to one shot type punch that he might not normally be able to summon up ever again?? I don't know?? I remember an ESB interview with (i think it was) former heavyweight Phil Jackson who fought amongst others Lennox Lewis - he was asked if Lennox was the hardest puncher he was ever in a ring with and he replied something along the lines of "Hell no!! Dennis Andries hit like a motherbleeper!! and that was with 16oz gloves!!" so who knows - some of the shots that, say, Yvon Durrelle floored Archie Moore with in there classic looked more devastating than anything Marciano hit Archie with to me - and he was just a light heavyweight??

 

Walcott was ko by both fighters now.

Walcott try to get up from Louis, but made no effort to rise from the knockdown Marciano gave him lol.

 

punching power was not overrated no....

just his ability as a ATG heavyweight...and the opposition he faced (even the big names, well past it when he faced them).... VERY OVERRATED in that sense

 

probably been quoted before but found this quote from JacK Dempsey:

"I've scored my share of knockouts along the way, but more often than not my opponents got up after being knocked down and had to be knocked down repeatedly. The same is true of Joe Louis. But Marciano needs only one solid smash and it's all over.
That's why I say Rocky Marciano is the hardest-hitting heavyweight champion I have seen."

 

It's funny aswell - just on the subject whenever I watch that first Walcott-Marciano match I'm always thinking there's not a great deal between them as far as punching power goes - Walcott in my eyes is a very much underrated puncher - very underrated when say Marciano is always renowned for his punching and I don't sense a great difference when they're slugging it out - just my thoughts though really

 

Here's where the subtlety of semantics come into play. A distinction needs to be made between the "hardest," and the "best." Louis had a superior delivery system, where each punch landed knocked an opponent into the next shot. (Buddy Baer provided a lucid description of what it was like to be on the receiving end of this.) Joe was a "better" puncher because of composite impact. He'd stun his prey, then not afford an opportunity for his victims to clear their heads. Marciano and Dempsey were more likely to floor or knock out somebody with a single shot though.

Placement is also crucial. Arguello was a master at it, and the champion of his era most compared to Louis. Ramirez stated in no uncertain terms after his loss to Rosario that El Chapo was a harder puncher, but Alexis had a knack for connecting on vital spots, like the liver (Royal Kobayaski), solar plexus (Ganigan), or hinge of the jaw (Escalera II, where the Snake Man fell three times from that final hook).

Marciano, Foreman and Shavers did not generally practice this degree of precision marksmanship. For his part, Louis had to be advised and reminded by Blackburn to target non scoring areas of the anatomy like the arms to lower an opponent's guard, but he was effective when he did. (Pounding the shoulders and biceps of a rope a doping Ali was also a key for Leon Spinks in upsetting him.)

For me, there's no contradiction between who the "hardest" puncher is, and who is the "best." The difference is clear.

 

Was this really taken after the Marciano fight? Archie's hair was permed and slicked during that fight, but was wild and horribly messed up by the time he was KO'd. I don't think this pic was taken after the Marciano bout, unless someone took the time to comb his hair, and comb it good.

 

Marciano on a scale to one to ten in my mind end up at a 8.5-8.8 or so power wise.

He has brutal one punch knockouts (Mathews, Walcott) on his resume and sustained beatings (Moore, Charles, Cockell) so there's an ebb and a flow there.

He never cracked an undentable chin, but he has an extremely high KO ratio.

And yes, he did **** his opponents up. That's what a very hard hitting, high volume fighter whom fights in the trenches with elbows and rough fighting will do to you.

So yes, his power evens out to be a 8.5 to right under a 9 for me. Awesome power, but not quite up there with Shaver's.