Rocky Marciano v.s Andre Ward At 185. Who Wins?

Inrtresting matchup. Ward is a slick fighter so nobody can beat him easily even Marciano. Ward will comeup with a good gameplan in this fight. Staying out of the rope and corners trying to fight outside and holding/hugging his opponent as much as he can to avoid getting hit while they are wrestling each other. Marciano, on the other hand, will fight the same way as he always does. Steping forward, moving his head, throwing his punches, and applying relentlesss pressure. Finally, Ward will get caught with a powerful right hand in the late round. After Ward stands up from that KD Marciano will finish him off quickly with his vicious style. The fight will end up the same way as Marciano/Moore. Marciano will wear him down in the late rounds. Ward can't compete with Marciano's power.

 

Some quotes from Joe Louis after he fought Rocky Marciano, which are worth considering for anyone who thinks Ward would beat him in a hypothetical dream match:

"He doesn't fight by the book, but he hit me with a whole library of bone-crushers."

"I can still feel the body punches he hit me with."

"I had a bad weakness. I hated to be crowded. That was Marciano's thing."

 

I disagree. Anthony Joshua -- who both Andre Ward and Virgil Hunter called out after Kovalev II -- would make easy work of Ward and would violently starch Ward.

 

Marciano against anyone today that isn't a cruiser or heavy is just painful to even think about. These guys just aren't physically strong enough to take Maricano's punishment. Hell, most cruisers and heavies aren't either.

 

Ward with nuts cracking low blow or "hometowndecision"

 

Charles could not beat Rocky, ward sure won't Rocky by KO.

 

IF

 

Philip of Macedon: "If I take my army into Sparta I will destroy everything and make you all my slaves forever."
Spartans: "If."

Love it.

 

Weird how he allowed himself to get cornered that way.

 

Rocky was also blind for three rounds that fight.
Watching it again recently, the outcome looked inevitable.

Walcott spilled everything he had in the first few rounds to give himself a chance to win.
From there it was a gradual breaking down his defense until Rocky could reach him with that iconic punch from hell.

 

No, I am not denying that Rocky had worn him out to the extent of having him start backing up instead of making it a brawl as he had attempted to do during the first few rounds. But even though he was worn out, he was still effectively moving and not posing as he did suddenly in that corner. If you look carefully, Marciano slightly feinted twice prior to throwing that punch and Walcott reacted to the feint twice with slight body movement as if planning to counter.

BTW
I have heard some say that Walcott was attempting to bait Marciano into a trap which he had used successfully during previous fights but didn't work as planned. In any case, being ahead on the scorecards would make such sudden attempt to bait Marciano totally unnecessary. So I consider this something similar to what happened to Billy Conn vs Joe Louis and to Meldric Taylor vs Chavez, a totally unnecessary strategy which cost them the fight.

 

Saw Don Cockell many years ago at a function. Someone asked him about Rocky. Don said " Rocky had very short legs & when he ducked the only target you got was top of his head , I didn't realise that before the fight, You could hit that with a 2 x 4 & not stop him''
Guy asked " If you'd known could you have beaten him" ? Don grinned & said " No he was too bloody good for me"