Rocky Marciano vs Riddick Bowe?

Long live the Rock. Who needs weight divisions and skill and speed and and and **** oh **** it long live the Rock.

 

Sure thing. Short left hook. Ok. But he still never really exchanged with decent fighters at close range. Lewis did

 

40lb advantage? More like 50lb and the literal size difference is enormous. Bowe dwarfed Bert Cooper who weighed at least a good 20 pounds more than Marciano in that fight

 

Marciano never needed to beat a good boxer that size...because guess what,
improved nutrition, training and science and more readily available information, both legal and illegal, had not yet transformed what was physically achievable.

For these two to fight they have to live at the same time.

can you imagine how much lesser of a fighter Bowe might be without the more readily available information that now makes it possible for tall gangly men to make it in boxing?

 

This is very interesting to me. I do wonder about the more recent tech breakthroughs in training, and hope it doesn't consist mostly of more liberal use of PEDs.

 

Lol

 

Guys with Basket ball players builds never used to make it. Then they did.

 

Thats a pretty bold statement. It's also incorrect.

You would think a man with short arms will always be at a disadvantage against a tall man with long arms in the jabbing department. Yet Tyson was able to outjab some taller men with his jab.

If Bowe is a better inside fighter than Rocky he could certainly beat him at that range. Not saying for a 100% fact that Bowe is, just saying it isn't impossible simply because he is the larger fighter with longer arms.

 

Sure, but Marciano is always going to be able to get closer, and crouch lower.

this is not a man that you want to fight on the inside!

 

I don't think that it is quite frankly.

sure, but he was never going to out jab the best jabbers with longer reach.

Marciano is always going to be able to get smaller and closer.

Believe it or not, his abnormally short reach, did give him an advantage in close.

Might be better for Bowe to make this a long range fight!

 

1992 could definitely do this, he had the jab.

 

I struggle to think of what Rocky does better than Bowe except perhaps sheer volume of punches at close range. Maybe you can give him an edge in stamina (although prime Bowe's stamina was no joke trading with Holyfield for 24 rounds).

Jab, cross, hook, upper, mid range, long range, hand speed, finishing ability (Rocky could be very sloppy when he had a man hurt) all go to Bowe.

Inside fighting is honestly debatable and neither man had great defense. Neither had great footwork and preferred getting up close and personal so that would be a non factor.

Even if they weighed the same Bowe would have many clear advantages on paper and in reality. He had a very good chin and was rarely floored so Rocky knocking him out isn't very likely unless Bowe is past his prime or way out of shape.

 

You don't know that.

The best jabber he fought (Holmes) he destroyed. To be fair, Holmes was past his prime but a game plan where he attempts to out jab the legendary Larry Holmes with his own jab when he's 5'10 makes no sense, you pressure the jabber get inside and let him have it.

On the occasions when he did decide to use his jab he did quite well with it and could outjab larger men. The footage doesn't lie.

Lewis had a great jab and kept him at bay but Tyson was completely shot.

Since Tyson looked GREAT jabbing when he bothered to use it you would have to give him the benefit of the doubt and concede it's at least "possible" he could hang with other great jabbers rather than just assuming he would automatically lose a jab war by virtue of his shorter arms. That's not how boxing works, norms are meant to be broken.

Similarly, yes conventional wisdom yells you that you should favor a shorter man on the inside even if they're equal in skill due to physics and stature. But if the big man has better skill on the inside then it would be illogical to automatically assume the shorter man wins that matchup.

Making himself smaller dipping low and crouching means nothing unless you can actually fire back and hit the opponent with something. James Toney learned this the hard way, he did all that cute dipping and ducking against big men like Peter but couldn't mount much of an offense back other than pitter patter shots and counters that lacked power and couldn't completely discourage larger men from advancing or doing what they wanted to do.

Again, unless Rocky can REALLY hurt or stun Bowe while crouching and making himself smaller it wouldn't matter.

And if he insists on getting closer and closer crowding Bowe he might end up eating a nasty uppercut.

 

Then by the same logic, Marciano might have out jabbed Bowe, despite his diminutive size.

Marciano hit a lot harder than either Toney or Holyfield.

That is why he prospered with his style.

 

No, not likely at all.

Bowe is on multiple top 10 jabs at HW lists.

Not even Rocky's opponents or old school writers ever praised Rocky's jab to my knowledge. It just wasn't a major tool in his arsenal.

And I don't recall Rocky ever out jabbing a larger opponent, let alone one as good as Bowe.

Well he tended to need to break guys down with non stop pressure and volume of shots. Walcott took 13 rounds to KO, a shot old Louis managed to survive 8, Moorer survived for 9, Charles went the distance the first fight. Lastarza took 11. All of his elite opponents took many rounds of aggression to break down in the later rounds other than a shot to bits Walcott in the rematch who likely just stayed down.

Bowe is arguably more durable than all these men and would be prime, not in his late 30s and heavily shopworn. Even if Rocky hits harder shot for shot compared to Holyfield, which is honestly debatable, I don't see Rocky being able to break him down like the others outside of a low punchers chance and or Bowe just being lazy out of shape.

The elephant in the room is that to get in range and attempt to break Bowe down in the first place he'd have to get past Bowed powerful jabs, overhand rights, and uppercuts. And then even when he's close, Bowe is no slouch on the inside.