Rocky Marciano uses his infamous "power" and then Mercer eats his punches and proceeds to beat him down in a lopsided fight for several rounds. The overrated sub 200 pounder has nothing to beat Mercer with. The haters will start flocking in 3-2-1
Mercer has done nothing to suggest to me that he'd keep up with the workrate and pedigree of Marciano. Yes he was tough and had a punch but you need that extra special something to hang with a guy like Rocky. Hell, Marciano even has the better defence here
If only weight won fights. Mercer has a tough chin and could punch, but his body is wide open and Mercer had no cleverness about him. Everytime Rocky ducks under from the side and comes in Mercer’s going to take a shot to the body. As durable as Mercer is Marciano’s bodyshots would wear him down as the rounds progressed and especially if Mercer shows up out of shape. Also, Mercer didn’t like getting hit to the body and would often go defensive when he got hit there too often. Have you seen Mercer’s fights against Ossie Ocassio, Jesse Ferguson, and Marion Wilson? If you haven’t you should watch them, since they literally took the fight right out of Mercer by going straight to the body. Keene Simmons was Mercer’s size, but in better shape and was better at pacing himself and admittedly put up a tough fight, but the body shots from the earlier rounds wore him down against Marciano. Ossie Ocassio, who is around Marciano’s size at about 5’9” 188-190 lbs when in shape and had a crouching style somewhat similar Marciano’s was competitive and went the distance with both Lennox and Mercer when he was older and fat due to his crouching tactics and coming under all the punches from the side and punching from an angle, which is exactly how Marciano attacked his opponents.
Rarely do i disagree with you Florez, but i do here. Mercer wouldn't be able put a beatdown on Marciano ,like he did with Tommy Morrison. Morrison was actually ahead and winning the fight before he ran out of gas. And with the fact that Tommy has a tempered glass jaw, Mercer found a way to win the fight. Yes, Morrison was faster than Marciano and a better boxer fundamentally. But the rock was, however, relentless, highly conditioned, extremely powerful fighter who depended on an iron chin, his conditioning, to keep him firing away as well in the 15th as he was in the first, enormous strength, and a right hand which was as good a punch as boxing has ever seen. Marciano would not punch himself out, he would take mercer's bomb with ease. And then Mercer would come inside and brawl, trying to make it a war. Rocky, the faster man with the better foudamentals and technique would have IMO prevailed Mercer's chin would save him from a KO but not from the judges.. Marciano UD.
I don’t really care for the match up. I can see both sides of the argument. Even if you think Marciano loses, that should by no means make him any less greater than he already is.
You never knew which Mercer would show up, but provided he was focused, I'd pick Mercer, probably by stoppage. It's not a sense of marciano being overrated, he is just from an era of smaller fighters
I would pick Marciano....not sure I can convince you...but since we will never know, I guess it does not really matter.
Based on their respective records, Marciano should at least be installed as favorite. Obviously without holding the fight we can never know!
This was a funny mental image but I'm gonna have to actually side with Rocky. Way more well rounded as a fighter with better stamina and more heart. Mercer could get lackadaisical and just go through the motions at times while Rocky showed up ready for war every time. I do think Mercer would have him badly hurt or down if he goes all out, but probably would not be able to finish him. I think Rocky wins a close decision in a thrilling battle due to outlanding Mercer.
Outside of the dodgy spelling, this is a joke, right? Mercer threw faster, threw harder, was more gifted and had far and away better "foundamentals". Mercer proved this against man-sized, age appropriate heavies who had elite skills, the sort of beasts Marciano never saw.
I believe an in shape 215 pound Ray Mercer that fought Bert Cooper could beat Marciano in a war. Both are tough but Mercer would have 25-30 pounds and could take punches better here which are two things that are going to count for a lot in a slugfest, I could see Mercer knocking Marciano down too. Mercer's stamina and workrate in the later rounds would end up making the fight closer and helping Marciano not lose a wide decision. Although I mention Mercer's up and down stamina/workrate he didn't slow down that much against Cooper and still kept coming forward with a broken jaw.
