Rocky Marciano vs Chris Byrd

The whole point is he wasn't punching" like Joe Louis "any longer. Of his last 10 fights only 3 were inside the distance wins. Beshore was an in and outer who had lost his last 5 fights and would lose his next 2 by ko.
Walker was a journeyman who would lose his next 11 fights, 5 inside the distance then retire.
Savold at 36 was nearly as old as Louis, he would have one more fight be stopped, then retire.

 

Why not?

 

I reckon so yeah.

Rahman doesn't look any better than Louis did at that point in his career.

 

Way exaggerated.
He was a top contender.
Won his last 8 fights.

This version of Louis had a very underrated jab. His power was waning but his jab still pushed heads back. He was basically running through the division with it until stopped by Rocky.

Rocky took a lot out of Louis. But even in the 7th and 8th round Louis looks better than Tua in the Byrd fight. He looks livelier, faster pace, more active punching and ring mobility.

Tua would never wear Louis down like that. Either he scores an early KO with pressure, or a flash KO mid fight, or Louis will outbox him. Rocky is a different beast, constant punching and constant inside pressure.

 

I'd say "his power was waning," is about the most optimistic sentence I've heard for a long time!

NB I'm not denigrating Louis to be negative towards Marciano, though I think it unlikely, it is possible Marciano would have beaten a prime Louis.

 

Bulk Rocky to 205 and I think he can have a chance of beating anyone in history.

 

I don't know. 3 stoppages, 5 decisions. Knee jerk reaction is to expect more KO's from a big puncher, but let's say Ali put up those scores. Would be good right? It's just that we're talking about Louis, god of punching, so it looks bad on him to win decisions. But in actuality it's a very good showing.

I'm surprised to hear you say that. I'm with you on that. I favor Louis, but Rocky could win.

 

It's pretty obvious what Joe Louis was up to and it wasn't padding his knockout record.

He took on 8 bouts in a 9 month period before it was announced he would face Marciano.

Brion x2, Agramonte x2, Bivins.

These three men have been stopped a combined 13 times in 57 losses. They are tough, they are crafty, they can go the distance, only one carried a significant rating. Why take these fights? Are these the type of men you select as opponents to look good or get rounds and experience in against?

Even Andy Walker at the time of the fight had only been stopped three times in his first few fights and had since drew with Layne. Only one of the Brion fights was even filmed I believe, and that's because Brion was a top 10 guy at the time and had just made Layne look bad.

Savold was a top contender and a brawler in a big match. Louis looked great against him and knocked him out cold.

 

Wow. I just remembered that all those fights happened within a year.
Insane.

 

I don't want anyone to get his knickers in a twist, but this was just posted on a thread in the General Forum: "Golovkin has twice the skill level of LaMotta and Basilio, GGG UD's Robinson soundly."

 

If Louis wasn't serious about getting into shape and sharpening up for a serious run at the title, he could have picked easier opponents that would have made him look much better.

The only fight he needed to take that year was Savold really. A filmed knockout over a leading contender to secure his place as a top challenger to Charles.

But as busy fights he could have highlight reel knocked out a Bernie Reynolds, Lee Oma, or picked on some light heavies.

 

Can't deny that.
Two training camps, two fights, two knockouts.
Another great year for the aging bomber.

When you add 6 other fights into the mix...

 

On the other hand he might be appreciably slower and have depleted stamina . I guess he knew what weight he fought best at.

 

Tua produced a perplexing performance against Byrd. Barely threw a head shot for the whole fight and moved his upper body around too much just to avoid Byrd slapping jabs off his forehead. He was expending more energy trying not to get hit than actually hitting back.
Instead of clutching his guard to his chest , he should have brought up a high guard , took the shots on the gloves and attempted to catch Byrd clean on the chin. He basically bobbed forward like a jack in the box for 12 rounds.

Rocky had an all time great ability to close the distance within a certain range and knew how to negate his massive disadvantage in reach. Rocky wasn't just better skilled , but a lot smarter than Tua as well and had far more variety to his punching.
The cork screw upper cut alone would terrorise Byrd.

 

And the other 2 stoppages were tkos.

This supposition is so way off the mark its funny.Louis did not want to fight Marciano, he wanted a return with Champion Charles but Walcott f*cked that up by koing him.Louis then rematched Brion. Louis was talked into fighting Marciano by Jim Norris who knew it would be a big money fight. Joe himself had no interest in a Marciano fight he wanted a title fight for the $$$$ it would give him , he owed the IRS$1000,000 and interest of around $100,000 a year.
Louis claimed he did not make more than $ for any of his fights after Charles and up to Marciano180,000 after paying back taxes and new taxes on those fights he was left with a pittance.

" I needed money .So although I didn't want to fight Marciano,I couldn't turn down the guaranteed $300,000 for one night."Joe Louis.

Source for my claim.Joe Louis page222 &223 of his autobiography "My Life".