Rocky Marciano v Wills, Langford & McVey

Wills chin was mediocre at the top level, so IMO he would be ahead on points until the stoppage where Marciano KO´d him, McVey was a strong puncher but with a shitty defense, so he would also get KO´d IMO, Langford would have the best chances, but IMO he´s too small to beat the pysically much stronger Marciano, who was similar like him, only in everything a bit better than Langford...

 

Langford was certainly far more nimble on his feet than Marciano though that dose not necisarlily mean that he aplied his footwork better to cutting off the ring.

In this match up I see Rocky as being the one to force the fight with Langford using lateral movment to prevent him setting up shots.

 

Luigi, thats just not true. Marciano was not at all better than Langford at everything. Marciano certainly had more power. But Langford had much faster hands, he was a very good defensive fighter, was a masterful boxer of his time and had as much endurance as Marciano maybe more.

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By age 27 Langford was campaigning at heavyweight and weighed 180, which is not much less than Marciano who himself was a fairly small Heavyweight.

 

Forget it, Langford much faster hands, masterful boxer? From where have you that informations? Langford had great stamina, very good chin, great power and a great heart. If he had also great handspeed, was very fast combinated with great defensive skills than he would have been unbeatable...


Langford was delicated for example for counter punches, Rocky wasn´t a great counter boxer, but he could have taken Langford´s best shots and counter with his shots...

 

Sam Langford was not verry much like Rocky Marciano. Jack Dempsey would be a much better comparison.

 

Langford was one of Fleischer's favourite fighters for one simple reason because he was widely regarded the best fighter of his time. If anyone is biased here it is you toward Marciano, in your earlier post you say Marciano was very much like Langford only better in every way?!. I like Marciano, infact I think he is often underrated by many who unfairly dismiss him by saying he was only 49-0 becuase he fought old fighters, didn't have great skills etc - btw I disagree with this.

Many notable critics of the time besides Fleischer (e.g. Herb Goldman and Charley Rose) thought Langford was the best of his era:

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Furthermore some of the best fighters of the time also observed and testified to Langford's greatness including Gans, Wills and Walcott to name but a few.

Luigi, you need to go back to the drawing board and reasssess Langford as your opinion of him is severely flawed.

 

Anyone could be KO"D Willis could punch but I would not put him in with the ELITE punchers, I think the type of guy that could stop Marciano is a guy that could hit like a horse and stop him in his tracks, trouble with that is that most guys with that kind of punching power are usually open to get hit themselves and run out of steam, guys like Foreman,Liston,etc. have a chance but if they got tired, or ran out of gas the last guy you would want to be in there with would be Marciano, remember Tyson after dropping Douglas in the 9th round with his best punch,gave up when he saw Buster get up to fight,Tyson lost his will after that and that was not a thing you would expect from Buster before that fight and after it. It was after that fight that the blueprint on how to beat Tyson was made clear. To get back to the point I dont think Willis could stop Rocky

 

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no probs mate, you're welcome. I'm glad it was useful

 

To tell the tuth, I think McVey is a little overrated as a puncher. In all his 20-some-odd fights with Langford, Jeanette, McVey and Johnson, he managed not a single stoppage win. However, he was tough, strong, swift, aggressive and durable, in addition to having pretty good power. I think McVey would rough Rocky up more than a little, but Marciano stops him late in a grueling match.

Langford, on the other hand, went more than a decade and 100 fights without being stopped once in 1906-1917, despite facing some of the stiffest opposition on the planet, so it seems probable he's lasting the distance. I think Marciano's superior size, strength, durability, power and workrate carries him to a close decision.

As for Wills, I have to confess I've seen barely any footage of him. From what I have, he seems to have been a fairly straight-up guy, a solid infighter for a tall, rangy type, with good power and excellent endurance. Not immensely durable, but with a solid enough chin.

If Marciano fought each of these guys at least five or six times, like they did with each other in their own era, I expect he'd lose at least once to each of them.