Prime Riddick Bowe vs prime Rocky Marciano (12 rounds)

You maybe forgetting Holyfield's other HW KO win, 6'3 240lb Buster Douglas, which is a quality KO. Calling Qawi '5'5', 220lb Moorer 'fat', does ignore the fact they were 2 of the best fighters in the sport when Holy beat them. BTW didn't Rocky have a few fights where he went the 12 and came back and scored a brutal KO? Similar to the Qawi fight perhaps? Then there are all those KO wins over contenders/ex titlists on his way to the title fight, some sickening. No punch quite like the Suzie Q though its goto be said but then again against a big man, its a hard punch to land

 

Pete, no offense, but all this talk about Rocky setting higher paces in a fight and being able to show more than Holyfield, doesnt really take into consideration that Bowe's size and skillset had something to do with Holyfield fighting the way he did.
In other words, Bowe was not just big, he was highly skilled, and had many dimensions to his game. That in itself is going to take away some of Marciano's attributes that you keep talking about when he faced smaller guys. When Holyfield fought a guy that was of comparable size to him in a similar type fight, he was explosive and spectacular too. If theres one thing we can take from Holyfield, its that he could be shoved around by bigger heavyweights, and its not only because of his punching power, his size had something to do with it as well.
When you have two fighters that are on what I call the "elite" level as both Bowe and Marciano were, these other physical factors start to play a big part in the fight.
Again Holyfield might have been a better boxer and even infighter to Bowe, but because Bowe was so much bigger, he had a hard time fighting his fight and some of things that worked on comparably sized men didnt work on the larger Bowe. Holyfield was forced to fight a far more controlled fight at range, and it was still a very tough close fight.
To switch it up, look at Hopkins ODLH for example. I dont think there was too much difference in those two fighters skillsets, but the size of Hopkins troubled ODLH big time. Same with Trinidad, he was not superior to ODLH really in any one area besides being a physically bigger and stronger welterweight. Thats two examples of two elite fighters whose weight was a lot closer, but the size factor played a big part in giving one fighter an advantage. Oscar was not a weak puncher either, but he just couldnt do enough to keep those guys off of him.
Now your widening that gap to 40-50 pounds in a slugfest type fight, its going to make a difference. Marciano could have been the better brawler to Bowe, but Bowe might be able to walk through that extra shot to land his bigger shot, or his physical size might create a situation where Rocky wouldnt be able to land a certain shot or operate at a certain pace, because of what he knows would be coming back in return.
Fighters just dont go out and fight the same fight against everyone, they adjust and change tactics as the fight progresses so there is no way to use a fighter thats 20 pounds heavier and three inches taller with a completely different style, as a barometer of how Marciano would fare in a slugfest with a far bigger man.
Im going to leave it at that. Im not really trying to convince you of anything or detract from Marciano, I just dont believe Marciano would have much of a chance here.

 

The point is Holyfield won a lot of his fights by knockout against sub 230 pound men. He did stop Stewart in the first fight. Moorer was not as fat as he became, in fact he was in stellar shape comparably speaking.

 

-Douglas was fat and disinterested, he went down and didn't want to get back up. Cockell was more game.

-lol...that is ironic.

-I listed them. He failed to knock Tillis and Thomas off their feet. And Doakes was coming off a year of coke binging.

 

I would say Douglas became disinterested after he got put on his ass by that nice Holyfield counter. Again the bottom line is Holyfield has a pretty impressive stoppage ratio against sub 230 pound men.

 

I don't see any fighter under 6 feet and 200lbs being any kind of match for a prime Riddick Bowe. We are talking about a large, superbly skilled heavyweight here with speed and KO power in each hand. Marciano would be game, simply because he had tremendous heart but Bowe would be too much for him.

 

1. Both would destroy him.
2. In a match up v.s. Bowe the answer is Holyfield. Twenty pounds of muscle heavier, much faster, a 78" reach to change pace when needed as well as jab his way in without getting his head knocked off and a proven chin against the best power of talented super heavyweights.

I believe that Lewis would blow Marciano out just like he did the White Buffalo ... Marciano nor any other fighter should enter any bout giving away so much size against another great fighter in their own physical prime ... there is a reason weight divisions exist.

 

I would say Douglas wasn't interested in training for this fight. He came in fat. Douglas threw an uppercut from the outside, missed, and was countered. The punch floored him. Then Douglas elected not to get up.

While Holy's counter punch was nice, the stoppage under the circumstances was not.