Moore's strategy in the Marciano fight

I'm not sure but I think the ref picks up the timekeeper's count which went to four. And Marciano stepped away so the ref went to him. Think Moore claimed the ref gave him an eight-count and yanked his gloves. I agree it was a straight right just thrown downward somewhat. The punch used to puzzle me until I saw him hit Durelle with it.


I noticed Moore got a couple of extra seconds after his first knockdown in the 6th.

As far as strategy, I can't see Moore fighting any differently. Moving to his right would have been a defensive move and he wouldn't have been move all night, Marciano was gonna force him back. On the ropes Moore is a master at rolling and countering problem was he facing a buzzsaw.

 

Moore tried to stay clear of Rocky's Killer right and walked into his underated hook which was equal to the right but it often came in 2's and Moore was also dropped by rocky's Sledgehammer punch the chopping right, other than the flash K.D. in the 2nd, Rocky dominated Moore

 

I'm not positive exactly why he was doing what he was doing, but the man was one of the most experienced fighters in history and had close to 200 pro bouts under his belt with literally dozens against future champs and Hall-of-Famers, and was one of the greatest boxing masters the sport has ever seen, so I expect he knew what he was doing, and I think it would be a little pretentious to think that I know better than him what he should have done.

And no, Moore was not going to win that fight. You're misrepresenting the content of the match- Marciano won nearly every round aside from the second, in which he suffered a balance flash-knockdown, floored Moore four times and was plainly head and shoulders the better man. Moore circling the other way, even if it were a more advisable strategy, isn't going to reverse a gap like that.

 

Actually, Moore claimed to be 38. It was his mother whose timeline had him at 42 at that time.

 

You can't reasonably establish that Moore likely hit harder than Marciano on the basis of only one opponent's opinion/experience- for example, Larry Holmes says Ken Norton and Gerry Cooney hit him harder than Tyson, and(I believe it was) Oliver McCall claimed that Buster Douglas hits harder than Lewis or Tyson. There have been numerous instances in which common opponents have contradicted each other about who hit harder between two given fighters. George Foreman has claimed at various times that Ron Lyle, Gerry Cooney and at least one other opponent hit him the hardest- Marciano also couldn't seem to make up his mind. Based on their careers, I think it's fairly clear Marciano hit harder than Moore.

Kessler didn't give Marciano a standing-eight count(in fact, you can find any number of delays after knockdowns longer than that one from the same era about which no funny business was claimed), and Marciano was in no serious trouble, so yes, this is a bit of tall-tale baloney on Moore's part.

When you've only been decked once in 48 professional fights, of course it's a surprise if you go down.

Personally, I think that, say, a clip or two from his heroic title fight with Johnson would have been better-suited. The Marciano knockdown is famous, but too much is made of it- it was just a flash two-count as a result of an off-balance lunge by Rocky and a powerful, perfectly-timed counter by Moore. Nothing to scoff at, but Moore had far more glorious moments in his career than that.

 

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True, but I'm not basing that on only one opponent's expressed opinion/experience. Moore himself stated immediately after his match with Marciano that, "He's the strongest boxer I ever fought. I don't know that he is the hardest hitter, but he certainly hits hard enough." It's intriguing to me that the Mongoose would express some doubt about the supremacy of punching power from an adversary who he had a warm relationship with, at the time they'd just competed against each other. After his career was over, Archie definitively asserted that the first right hand Yvon Durelle floored him with in their initial meeting was indeed that hardest punch he ever took in his career.

To be sure, Rocky had more than sufficient power for his needs. But two highly qualified and experienced opponents of Rocky have both stated that he was not the man who hit them the hardest. One opinion could perhaps be readily dismissed, but such a confluence of feedback on this subject as Lowry's and Moore's can give one more pause for thought.

Marciano himself indicated that he felt his two knockout punches against Walcott were the hardest punches he ever connected with.

 

The next year, Moore was dreadful against Floyd Patterson. Perhaps the idea of going for the heavyweight title psyched him out. Archie could never get by Ezzard Charles either, so maybe there was some sort of mental block which undermined him in these situations. (There was simply no way he could have ever beaten Marciano though. But I would have expected him to kayo the chinny and inexperienced Patterson.)

 

While I would pick Marciano over Moore, if the fight had happened a few years eariler, Moore would have a real shot for the upset.

 

Is there any particular performance in Archie's long and storied career, where he showed especially good potential to upset Rocky, if Marciano had been Moore's competition for that same match, instead of whoever Archie actually boxed?

 

Funny, D, you clearly feel very strongly about Rocky -- as I do -- but guaranteed, had you seen him spar, you'd have hocked every earthly possession and put it on Moore. Rocky was a horrendous gym fighter.