Rocky Marciano vs Evander Holyfield

I see it going the same way as Marciano v Charles. And that is no disrespect to Holyfeild, if you watch the first Marciano v Charles fight Ezzard was very effective. I don't think Holyfeild hit any harder with the extra weight than Charles and if he did that must be measured with Evander being that bit easier to hit than Charles was. An excelent fight.

 

I would pick Holyfield. The man was amazing in a shootout, beat Tyson and Bowe, and wouldn't be that bothered by Marciano's crouch.


That said, I do think he was on steroids and Marciano certainly wasn't with his philosophy of coming in lean, so I considered the match with that in mind, an unlevel playing field essentially.

Take away the peds, who the hell knows.

 

Rocky Marciano in a tough war!!! I'd say he stops him around the 10th.

One thing for sure it be an entertaining fight.

 

At what point do you think Holyfield started to take steroids/PEDs? I agree that at some point he did take them, but I'm not sure he took them his entire career. He did used to lift with Mr. Olympia legend Lee Haney... can't forget about the Evan Fields situation either.

Let's assume he did not take them at CW. Now, let's assume he still moved up to HW. How does an experienced 200 Lb. Holyfield do vs. a prime Marciano?

Holyfield won bronze at 178 and was cutting a good bit of weight at that point. By the time he unified the CW world titles he was comfortable at 200 Lbs. in between fights. Was he juicing at this point? Who knows?

So, Holyfield at 195-200 Lbs. (I think he could have maintained this weight naturally). He was 208 vs. Foreman and fought a very smart fight IMO. How does this version of Holyfield do vs. Marciano (take away the PEDs, I'm not saying he was definitely on them at this point though).

Holy is still at least 3" taller with a reach that is at least 8" longer. He'd be at least 10 Lbs. heavier.

 

I still think Holyfield wins by decision.

 

As for Ezzard Charles? He fought Marciano in his 98th and 99th pro fights. He was 86-10-1 and had lost his 94th and 95th fights... close decisions to Harold Johnson and Nino Valdes. After Marciano he went just 10-13.

He was well prepared and gave Marciano hell in their two fights, L15 and LKOby8. I think a prime Holyfield (even without PEDs) was better than this version of Charles... and I am a huge Charles fan, rank him top 5 all-time P4P.

 

the Bert Cooper-James Toney-Bowe fights show me that Evander can be hurt to the body and drained of stamina. Holy was a great warrior but a fire fight would be right up Marciano's ally and this would be a battle of attrition and exchange and IMO Marciano breaks down EH and stops him in about the 9th -11th rd

 

A war of attrition and Holyfield is a smaller heavyweight so Rocky has a real chance in this. I'd don't know who I'd pick to win for sure, but maybe Holyfield is a logical favourite though.

 

Before someone pulls me up for saying Holyfield was a smaller heavyweight, he's still bigger than Rocky was and nearer Marciano's size. He's just not one of the real super heavy types!



geez...


:hi:

 

A prime Bowe is 6'5" with an 82" reach and 235-245 Lbs. with power, skill, and durability. Cooper hurt him with a left hook to the chin but couldn't keep him hurt. He was 137 years old when he fought Toney.

Prime Holyfield went 28-0 (22) overall, 10-0 (7) in World title fights at CW and HW, and 5-0 (2) vs. Hall of Famers Qawi x2, DeLeon, Foreman, and Holmes. We're not talking about a washed up Holyfield.

 

Without building himself up Evander was no bigger than Ezzard Charles.

Once built up Evander had problems with his pace in some crucial fights I'm thinking the loss to Moorer (another built up guy no bigger naturally than Charles) and the bizarre last fight with Bowe where he stopped working when Bowe was out on his feet begging to be knocked out.

The explanation for the Moorer loss was a heart attack but I don't buy it. There never has been satisfactory explanations for these moments of severe fatigue ....or Evanders rapid hair loss after the Win over Bowe.

 

Toney was no spring chicken either, he was giving away natural size and proberbly had even more rounds and miles on the clock than Evander. Factor that all in and its not such the bad match you might think. Toney lost a lot of wishy washy fights in between titles where he looked washed up and that came before the holyfeild fight.

 

12 or 15 rounds? I would say the longer it goes the more it favours Rocky.

 

I think a prime Holyfield would've been busier than the Charles that fought Marciano. Though still formidable, Charles had close to 100 fights under his belt when he fought Marciano and it showed somewhat. Prime Holyfield would be faster and more aggressive and would throw more punches. I liken this one to Holy's first fight with Quawi tho I can't predict with certainty who would win. If Holyfield doesn't allow himself to be drawn into a slugfest and sticks to boxing from the outside ala Bowe II then I think he takes it. If he loses his composure and chooses to brawl then I wouldn't be surprised if Rocky TKO's him. Whatever the outcome it would be a hell of a fight.