Rocky Marciano, the undefeated champion..

There is a woman, writing a book about Cus D,mato, I cant think of her name right now but I will post it. She is limited to what she can say but will touch on this subject.

I have heard it from reliable boxing guys but took it with a grain of salt because there are so many agendas in boxing but I recently was at a fight in NY with some knowledgeable boxing people and they were talking about some of this and investigations in regard to this book.

For now I will call it a bad rumor but we will see what surfaces. There were other reasons Cus was shunned and if it holds true, will be revealed in this book but if it is not true it would be a shame to tarnish anyone.

 

Great posts RockyJim =D! I would have to say I agree with what you say. While i wouldn't call Rocky the best heavyweight...I would absolutely say that on his best day i'd give him a good shot at any heavyweight to ever step into the ring. Would he beat all of them? Probably not...would he go out swinging while taking a few of them out with him? You bet your ass he would.

 

Rocky is ranked high in my book. Who else could go undefeated? I'm certain that Tyson, Frazier, Dempsey, Louis and many others would have beaten Rocky's opponents. But each of them had an off night or became a slacker at some point. (Aside from Frazier. George Foreman was just wrong for him stylewise) To actually get in the ring and never lose is a great achievement. But it's hard for me to rank Rocky as my number one heavyweight because I can think of quite a few who would beat him. Rocky certainly deserves praise because of his records, and the fact that he had freakish power for such a little guy. You can't count him out against anyone. That's what made him Rocky Marciano. He always found a way to win and surprise you.

 

:good deal This says it all! best post ever on the subject.

 

With that logic, so is Dempsey defeating Willard

 

I wouldn't put him at #1.
But I think he would have beaten Ali, (who most here have as number 1).

 

yes, that was an excellent post by bodhi.

what i would say, is that while marciano isn't the greatest heavyweight that there has ever been, his undefeated record is very underrated. it shouldn't be dismissed offhandedly. i don't want to repeat what has been said, but...

liston quit on his stool. so did vitali.
holmes lost to a light heavyweight. so did holyfield.
lewis lost to bums. so did tyson. foreman too.

who is left? louis and ali are a lock for numbers one and two on most heavyweight lists, and frazier only ever lost to the best. i'm not saying marciano should be number three or four based on his unbeaten record alone. but marciano did something that no one else could do, and he did it for a good reason (as i've demonstrated by listing those who not only failed to go unbeaten, but lost in less than heroic circumstances). to say that marciano went unbeaten because it was 'a weak era' or 'he fought bums' doesn't cut it. and referring to hypothetical head to head ability doesn't either, as long as we're talking about achievements. it has already been said that his relatively small stature should work in his favour when considering his achievements, if anything.

 

Imo he is one of the true great heavyweights. Only behind louis and ali. Comfortably ahead of johnson, lewis, holyfield, holmes, tyson, foreman, frazier etc.

 

What draws you to this conclusion?

Moore was probably much closer to the peak of his abilities than Charles. Riding a ridiculious win streak Moore was even doing much better against common competition around this time, stopping Johnson and beating Valdez twice. Are you basing your assement completely on age and not boxing ability? In that case, Marciano wasn't prime either as he was just shy of Charles in years.