Rocky marciano vs the future champions

Not in the fact that he beat him the fact that he knocked a 200+lb ATG HW out cold.....

 

Like LUFCRAZY has mentioned, Orlin Norris did it and remained competitive. Why wouldn't Marciano be able to do the same? Getting a bit silly bringing Leonard and Holmes into the discussion I see....

 

Fact is Marciano couldn't possible face most on his list due to being too light.

 

Bad example. Orlin Norris BEGAN his pro career at right around 200 lbs and with the exception of a brief period spent at cruiser ( where he was still over 185 ) spent most of his career over 200. Additionally, Norris never had any power at heavyweight, was beaten by lesser opponents and never defeated a quality rated man in his prime.

 

Nearly as bad as you talking about Leonard facing Holmes. Norris carried a hell of a lot more muscle than Marciano and showed he could make CW and compete at HW with similar dimensions. Additionally you are making it look better for Marciano as Norris couldn't hold a candle to Rocky and still made a decent HW, just think what a bona-fide ATG could do....

 

Yes I used the Leonard-Holmes scenario to illustrate how insanely absurd it is to assume that just ANYONE can throw on weight and go fight the big boys as you seem to think anyone can.. Orlin Norris and Rocky Marciano had NOTHING in common stylistically. Norris used his smaller dimensions to move and box against bigger men and not try to brawl with them which is the only thing Rocky knew how to do. If you think my criticisms of Norris " make Rocky look good" then explain how. One might expect that you'd actually use an example of a fighter who had a semblance to Rocky both physically and stylistically and who bulked up with great success. Instead you used a man who:

A. Had nothing in common stylistically
B. Was arguably a naturally bigger man anyway given that he was around 200 from the beginning
C. Was a fringe contender at best during the height of his powers and a gate keeper for a pretty good portion of the rest of the time..

 

past prime Norris slugging toe to toe with Golota

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Norris robbed of a win over the rated Tucker in 91

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Not true. Norris slugged it out with Golota and pressured Tucker, loading up on bombs. And though he used more jabs than Marciano would have, younger Norris pressured Page with bobs and weaves and used lots of looping power punches to pile up points. Fact is Norris was 5'9" he couldn't really afford to box against bigger men, he had to get inside and bomb.

 

Marciano is not just ANYONE though is he????

Have you ever thought that he bulldozed people because he could do? He was outweighed quite a bit by Joe Louis yet was clearly the much stronger fighter. He wouldn't have to bulk up much to be the weight of Joe Frazier, look what that man did......

 

Actually he didn't the referee Ruby Goldstein stopped the count,to allow Louis' seconds to get to him. Louis was a relic of the man he had been, it's like saying Tyson ko'd ATG Holmes! Or Holmes stopped Ali! The very fact that you have to bring in a 37years old Louis just illustrates how thin Marciano's winning resume is against big quality prime heavyweights!
It's actually non existant!

 

You don't think a 37 years old Louis had lost some of his strength? Go watch him against Carnera!

 

And look what happened when he met a big hitting heavyweight over 200lbs!

 

If you don't agree/accept the criteria of the thread why comment on it?

 

Two fights against past prime opponents that he STILL lost and still with a dissimilar style... Great stuff but I'm more apt to looking at some of these:

A more or less prime Norris getting battered by a middle of the road cruiser.

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Maybe try this one.

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Nice thing about youtube is anyone can access it and you can pick pretty much anything you want to watch !!!

 

The problem here is that you're using maybe 3 examples in a career of some 70 fights where he briefly opted to change his MO against mostly aging or past prime opponents, and didn't even always win anyway. And this still doesn't address the fact that this man fought at 200 lbs from the time he debuted where as Rocky didn't. Sorry but I don't see how using Orlin Norris is any sort of a gauge for how a totally dissimilar boxer ( who never even cracked 200 ) would fair under those circumstances, let alone against good prime heavyweights.