Well I had an interesting debate about Rocky on here. I looked at the loss of the fighters he fought in their last ten fights prior to Rocky. Rocky came out as the biggest myth in boxing. He beat Joe Louis who retired from a poor heavyweight division when his skills were clearly in decline. He beat the great light heavy Ezzard Charles after he had started to lose to fighters he used to beat. Walcott was never a great. He could not get passed Joe Louis bum of the month contenders prior to world war 2. He is on the list for beating Ezzard and be robbed in his first fight with Louis in 1947. The other great name on Rocky's record is Archie Moore another light heavy. The combined ages of those four fighters is 148 when they fought rocky (37). Compare Rocky's last 20 fights with any other great heavyweights and you start to laugh. He was rated 6th in 1962 by boxing writers in December in the list of all time great heavyweights. Well we have had a few great fighters since. To many unanswered questions with Rocky. Should have fought Nino Valdes and Floyd Paterson and perhaps Tommy Jackson as well.
Ezzard Charles is an elite 10-5 against top 5 Ring Ranked Heavyweights. Only Louis and Ali have more top 5 wins in the division. He is a former Heavyweight Champion with 8 defenses to his credit. I think he was more than just a great light heavyweight. You could make a strong case for him being a top 10 heavyweight as well. Perhaps past his best by the mid 50s, still a force. Of his 4 loses during his post Championship run prior to Rocky: 3 were controversial decisions. To his credit he also beat 5 top 10 fighters in this time to earn his number one ranking.
It really is a lazy cliche to call charles "old" or a "light heavyweight" when marciano beat him. ezzard charles nearly beat wallcott the last time but there was no way fans would have stood for wallcot charles part5. had charles been in real decline at this point he would simply have been KO'd again by wallcot. faded fighters stop knocking out rated fighters yet charles knocked out 4 of the 7 contenders he beat in the 36 months after losing the title. thats good form.
Just because Rocky fought an old Joe Louis that makes him the biggest myth in boxing?? I suppose Mike Tyson fighting an older and far worse Larry Holmes wipes away any of the great things he did?? And the fact that Holmes in his prime fought an absolutely awful Ali wipes out everything he acheived also?? Practically every top up and coming great had to fight shells of past greats - its an unwritten rule in boxing - you fight the old guys on the way up and the young guys on the way down?? I also take great offense at you saying Walcott was never great - well if he wasn't then we can pretty much wipe out the entire 1950's great fighters because Walcott beat amongst others: Joe Baksi Lee Oma Tommy Gomez Elmer Ray Lee Q Murray Curtis Hatchet Man Sheppard Jimmy Bivins!!! Joey Maxim Harold Johnson!! Joe Louis (in my opinion) Ezzard Charles (how many KO'd Charles?) (If first Marciano fight had've been 12 rounds he would've beat him to!!) If you discount Archie Moore on the grounds of age then I really can't class you as really knowing anything whatsoever about boxing - he is undisputably one of the true greats of boxing history - one of the sports legendary names - whose favourite fight was his battle with the Rock - you can't overlook arguably one of the top 20 fighters P4P in history (who was clearly famous for the fact that he boxed until he was 50/won light heavy title at 38/reigned until he was 47 or whatever/had classic title fight with Durrelle at age 45 - we all know Archie was old - hell his nickname was Anchient Archie for christs sake but he wasn't just any old fighter - he was Archie Moore!!!! One of the greatest fighters ever period - you run down three of the greatest fighters of all time and then you try to make a claim that Marciano's claims to greatness would be better vindicated if he had faced Nino Valdes (who Moore already twice defeated), Floyd Patterson (who came after Rock had retired) and Tommy Jackson???!!!! Tommy Jackson wasn't even world class in his own time - he was not even a blip on the radar as far as historical greatness - that is a joke really atsch PS THIS IS WHAT OUR FRIEND BURT HAD TO SAY ABOUT TIGER JACK FOX (ONE MAN WHO BESTED WALCOTT EARLY IN HIS CAREER) ON AN UNRELATED THREAD: tiger fox beat 4 ex champions..He kod Joe walcott and decisioned Joi also,dec Maxie Rosenbloom, dec Bob Olin, dec. Lou Brouillard..In 1938 Fox was stabbed just below the heart, but two months later fought the southpaw Melio Bettina for the LH title, which Melio won a dec..Tiger Jack Fox kod 98 opponents in his career...a tough bird ... NOT EXACTLY A DISGRACE TO DROP ONE AGAINST AN ATG DEVASTATING PUNCHER LIKE HIM??
How in God's name do Charles & Walcott rate above Lewis @ Heavyweight? Tunney above Frazier? No Wlad? Any of the top 3 above Louis or Ali? Ridiculous.
