Prime Joe Louis vs Prime Rocky Marciano

Louis lights his ass up like a firecracker

 

Rocky would always be a tough fight for even the best version of Joe Louis . But I think Joe proved he could figure out pretty much anyone and got himself out of a bind more than once. The punches Rocky tasted from Louis in 1951 were nothing like the lightening fast combinations of 1941

 

Louis.

 

Prime Louis outboxes Rocky to a lopsided decision win. He was boxing Rocky well for half the fight at age 38 until getting tired and caught.

 

Remember not so long ago when this topic was ten pages long & utterly vicious? Now it’s just a baby again, but will history repeat?

 

We'll find out on the next Louis vs Marciano thread five minutes from now

 

Tough fight, but Louis has got it.

 

I believe Marciano wouldn’t give Louis any room, because I believe he’d get him against the ropes and suffocate him, yes Louis was great on the inside as well, but Marciano was better because he was much better at manipulating opponents positions using clinch work to get punches off, whilst keeping them in positions of weakness, of course Louis could knock him out, he’s a devastating puncher, but in most cases, I don’t see this fight not being fought on the inside for the vast majority of the fight, as Louis wasn’t slick and wasn’t hard to get inside on, and at mid range Marciano wasn’t easy to time, so the fight will be on the inside, where I believe he’s better.
Louis in their actual fight was on an 8 fight winning streak and had just beat Jimmy Bivins who people say Marciano ducked.

 

We have Louis on film keeping Marciano on the outside and busting up his face with left hands, what makes you think the prime version won't be able to stay on the outside? And Louis was already getting openings on the inside, he was landing he just didn't have the thumping power to deal with Rocky.
Compare the slapping punches in his last fight with the short right that made Buddy spin in a circle while falling down, or just look the Nathan Mann knockout. Mann had Louis right against the ropes, the punch was thrown at point blank range and Mann was propelled to the floor. Notice how Louis guides Mann's left arm upwards and leaves his head vulnerable to the finishing blow (14:52)

This content is protected

He does something very similar against Marciano, he just lacks the power to deliver a similar punch he did 14 years before against Mann (6:20)

This content is protected

Compare the two clips and tell me Marciano bullies Louis into the ropes while coping punches that send him flying in either direction.

 

Always a good discussion, however frequent. For me, to face the Marciano of Charles II (which is where I think Rocky looked his best behind his hooks off his jabs and leans away from Ezzard's right) would require the Louis after Godoy II with Blackburn in his corner.

Charley Goldman said Marciano would've beaten prime Louis faster because, "You don't come at Rocky Marciano!" But that is not what the Bomber did in the Godoy rematch, and the Rock could bloody up pretty readily. The hardest punch Louis ever uncoiled was the shot which decked Uzcudun, and that was from a right uppercut. Joe would be ripping up with it as Marciano bored in.

 

In reality not all that different from their actual fight imo, prime gets hugely overstated for fighters when they have a less than preferred performance and being past it gets used as an excuse, there are some exceptions like Walcott's second fight with Marciano, but there are more than likely much more strongly correlated variables such as the number of fights Walcott had throughout his career, the fantasy/fallacy of Ali's prime is another one, he wouldn't have beat anyone that he didn't end up beating anyway

 

lol

 

The number of fights Louis had at that point was likely a more contributing factor than his age, like how much he left in the ring after some of the fights, people always say Ali and Frazier were never the same after the thrilla even FOTC, it's more like that than so and so was over 35

 

Louis 2 of 3 in a great series.

 

What…the hell…!?