Marciano's Power?

I think Louis actually aged very badly .He never regained his pre war ability.

 

Walcott was world champion and in great shape at 38 though. His career best (title winning) win occurred when he was 37.
It's not as if we're talking about a noticeably diminished fighter from age 34.
Certainly he wasn't diminished to the point where he couldn't percieve the power of a contender's punches accurately enough.

In the same way, I doubt 41 year old Klitschko's durability was greatly diminished when he faced Joshua (although his overall abilities might well have been). I doubt he was a lot less durable or resilient at 41 than he was at 4 years earlier against Wach, Pianeta or Povetkin.

Anyway, all evidence points towards Marciano being a massive puncher, so I'm surprised by the amount of arguing on these threads.
We should all agree he was a huge puncher.

 

I agree.
.... and Holyfield aged pretty badly too, due to so many hard fights.
Most of the elite great heavyweights were way way past it at that age, barring a few exceptions.
It doesn't usually follow that they were ripe for being blown out in 1 or 2 rounds by anyone though, as some have suggested about Louis.

 

Its very debateable which was Walcott's career best fight.Some might say it was the first Louis bout.
I think the premise that the Walcott of that fight was better than the one that fought Marciano is eminently probable.
I don't happen to believe a fighter is ever prime at the age of 38/39.

 

I don't believe he was prime at 38 or 39 or 33 or 34 either ...... but in his prime he was KO'd by Abe Simon and Tiger Jack Fox, so that probably skews the arguments on all sides.

 

This. Holyfield definitely wasn’t naturally bigger than Louis was. Louis had to train like an animal and watch his diet in his prime to come in around 203-207. Holyfield on the other hand needed supplements and an extremely high calorie diet to keep his weight over 200 lbs.

 

I got dizzy just reading this! It must be an adventure everyday to live inside of your head

 

I think Mark might be one of those mis-programmed AI bots.

 

Rocky was a grinder, a swarmer. Despite his average opponent being under 200 lbs most of his KO's took several rounds and dozens of punches to pull off. Despite saying that, for men his size, his power speaks for itself. It wasnt pretty and it may have taken more grinding than other clean 1 shot hitters or combination punchers, but it got the job done. Id place him top 10 if not top 5 for anyone within 10-15 lbs of him in terms of just pure power.

His record is great p4p, but it's obvious his power wouldn't translate well in an era of men with 40 lbs of functional weight over him. Im not suggesting that he'd fare as poorly as other men under 200 like Bob Foster, but what i am saying is that his lack of size and a style that pretty much requires being the aggressor and offense oriented is like oil and fire when you have such a huge size discrepancy. If we were discussing bums or low tier c level heavies such as scott ledoux or bert cooper id favor marciano in a heart beat. But combine size with skill, athleticism, and a good or even average chin and its obvious Marciano's power would in all likelyhood not translate well. Its simple laws of physics and common sense honestly.

We've seen plenty of guys in the lighter classes fail to deliver their power when moving up against significantly larger men, let alone against ATG's who have a huge size and/or skill advantage. Why would Marciano be any different? All the heart in the world isnt going to suddenly make you puncher 2x harder like some video game power up. Look at mikey garcia who had an impressive 77% ko ratio in tbe lower weights. For some reason he just couldnt produce ko's at 147. And against Errol Spenxe he coukdnt produce a single convincing round and lost by shutout. There was only a 3 inch difference in height and 4 inch difference in reach and he looked like an amateur. But what's mind boggling is some people will look at this example of Mikey Garcia and dozens of others yet they'll ignore Rocky's lack of reach and weight and even acknowledge that he is less skilled than some modern heavies yet they'll emphatically pick him to win!

Anyways im getting a little off topic.

P4P under 200 lbs Rocky is top 5 in power.

Over 200+ id rate his power a 7.5-8 out of 10 at best. He simply doesnt have the style/size nor the on screen results against men this size to suppprt the notion he'd be knocking out Samuel Peter or Hasim Rahman level guys let alone ATG's. Could he KO them if he got a free shot to the jaw? Sure, but so could an out of shape 50 year old bouncer, that doesnt prove anything. Rocky would be bringing a pistol to a shotgun fight.

 

Great post!

 

Great post and I fully agree, this also rings true for other greats of the past.

 

Except he never fought an ATG in his prime .

 

OK name me 5 with better KO records against ATG'S, they don't even have to be in their primes either.

 

Off the top of my head
Ali
Johnson
Louis
Jeffries

 

Is Walcott really an ATG? Is Moore and ATG heavyweight? Was that version of Louis wheeled into the ring what you would consider an ATG?

If you're going to set the bar that low for granting ATG status, then I give you David Tua and his KO's of 4 ATG's....