Prime Joe Louis (38-42) vs Rocky Marciano (52-54)

lol

 

Older fighters in survival mode can hang around longer at times.

 

Good post. I agree, Louis has blazing fast hands, his combinations were as if he invented them. His accuracy and also counterpunching would make it an exhibition of pain.
He would beat Rocky to the punch and then to counterpunch. Marciano would often get sloppy and miss his punches by a foot or more. That would cost him here.

 

Louis by vicious, early stoppage.

 

I'm going with Joe Louis by Unanimous Decision, but I believe the scores would be fairly close. And I wouldn't be at all surprised if both men visited the floor at some point. Marciano would look worse at the end.

 

The fight would go a lot like the second Godoy fight (Godoy had pretty much the same style and was also trained by the greatCharley Goldman). I think Louis would brutalize Marciano (after struggling for a while), butcher him with uppercuts until Goldman throws the towel in. 14th round TKO.

 

After the Marciano fight Louis said he saw every opening and every opportunity but his reflexes were too shot for him to capitalize on them.

 

Louis by late rounds tko.

 

Louis

 

I think looking at the colossal difference that ten years made between Joe Louis in 1941 versus 1951 I’d have to favor him against Rocky. By 1950 Louis was no longer able to finish guys when he had them In trouble whereas years earlier he was putting hall of fame level opponents away with ease. The timing, power, accuracy and hand speed were long gone by the time he met Rocky yet he still made a “ somewhat” decent go at it.

 

Louis chews him up and spits him out. Marciano provided too many opening for Louis to get the ball rolling. And once Joe got the ball rolling, it didn't stop until it was at the bottom of the hill.

 

I don't doubt in the slightest that a prime Joe Louis would beat a prime Rocky Marciano, but I suspect it would be the toughest win of Louis' career. I think both boxers would be knocked down and Louis would win on points.
What a fight that would be. Showdown.

 

Even the Louis who fought Walcott looked like he was throwing punches under water relative to his prime.

Most of the clips in this brilliant video are from his prime. The punches that stopped Walcott in the rematch are from around 1:55. The contrast between them and the explosive speed seen in the rest of the video, is stark, to say the least -

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Agreed. In his prime he was cutting down giants like Baer, Carnera and Simon with ease yet by 1950 he couldn’t put away men like Agramonte or Brion

 

Prime, really prime Joe Louis beats Marciano up badly. Really badly. Marciano would look like one of those old rasslin' magazine covers with Bobby the Brain Heenan on the verge of exsanguination at the end of the fight. He would never quit and would keep trying to punch and keep trying get up but eventually his body would give out or he'd have to be saved from himself to keep him from dying.