Rarely-mentioned Marciano ability

Well, besides always coming forward he was always punching, trying to hit his man and nothing to other guy did was gonna stop or discourage him from doing that, but I still think I am missing something...

 

..it doesn't fit with the clues...but...he threw a left jab on rare occasions....which surprised his opponents as much as it did me. he tossed a few in the moore fight, for example. not often because it wasn't really in his style and hard to jab a taller opponent.

can't think of anything else.

 

It is hard to guess what is not among the assets often mentioned--stamina, strength, chin, power, being impossible to discourage, and all have been mentioned here--the two I have noticed on film is that he tends to fight back viciously when hurt, but this not a special observation. The second rarely talked about is his torso movement, which is better than any heavyweight I have seen except for perhaps Ali, and with it a great deal of head movement. With that is a surprising ability to block punches.

 

Those are all very good and true observations Fogey, but JG did say it was something that cannot be taught, and I keep leaning towards something in Rocky`s psychological makeup being wht he is reffering to, I just haven`t figured it out yet.

 

It is supposed to be something obvious if you watch his fights, so abstractions such as "will to win" or "dedication" or a "willingness to follow instructions" or "eagerness to learn" might be deduced but they are not obvious.

Of course, it might be something like Marciano had a "mean streak" but this is common among all successful boxers and there are probably many who have "mean streaks" but don't amount to much.

 

Perhaps you are right, I hadn`t thought of that. Either way, I`m going to bow out at this point and let others give it a shot. One last thing I`ll say though is that while Rocky may have looked clumsy as hell and awkward at first glance, he certainly was effective with his style and made it work for him.

 

It's something about ring intelligence, i'm guessing.

 

I will make one last guess. Are you referring to what the bare-knuckle observers used to call "game"? I guess something we might call fighting heart.

 

Marciano figured out a way to win...its very hard to win 49 fights without a loss and he did vs the best of his time...2nd gear, he had the best 2nd gear in the business,combined with a will to win...no matter how hard his opponent fought Rocky went into 2nd gear and finished stronger...Mental toughness?...lets see no matter how behind he was or injury he had, he overcame it combining mind,body and soul....

 

I'm starting to get really curious now. My best guess - and it's been mentioned a couple of times i think - would be his natural heavy handedness: despite looking bad in sparring/fights, his opponents all came out a wreck.