Rocky Marciano... who did he NOT face?

It wasn't practical for Marciano to defend his title more than twice a year, so given that I don't see anybody missing during his title reign. That said guys like Henry, Baker, Valdez, Bucceroni, Walls, and Satterfield were all guys that at one time or another had chances to get a shot at Marciano, but they completely blew it.

 

I would pick him to be competitive. And so would Ali, so...

 

Competitive yeah but he wouldn't be classed as the best and he would take numerous losses.

 

I think he'd take some and give some. He'd be in the mix.

 

That's how I see it he would be amongst top 5 for sure it all depends when he fights certain fighters aswell. For example Ali was green before 64 and Frazier in the mid 60s was still a work in progress.

 

Yep: facts is facts. You can appreciate and even love Floyd, but Marciano is a bad matchup for him all around. If Ingo could Bingo him, Rocky would do more than rock him.

 

I dunno about that Patterson outpointed tough sluggers like Chuvalo, Bonavena, the latter he beat quite comfortably and both men had a fair dig aswell. The speed difference between Marciano and Patterson would be very apparent.

 

Patterson also had the speed edge over Sonny Liston and Ingo, right?

 

I would like him to beat Baker, Satterfield, Valdes, Johnson and Jackson.
If he beat them plus his record, I would never doubt his greatness perhaps I could rate him p4p with Joe Louis if he beat those guys plus his record.

 

Sonny Liston had an 84 inch and he outweighed Patterson by 20+ pounds Marciano wouldn't exactly fair well vs Liston either.

Johansson wasn't a slugger he had more of a classic boxer style jab right hand and he arguably had better single punch power than Marciano with the right hand.

Patterson was more skilled than Marciano much faster and Marciano would be fighting his first elite Heavyweight thats in their prime. Its not a foregone conclusion that Marciano wins at all and Patterson would probably be the hardest hitting Heavyweight Marciano has ever fought.

I'd make Marciano a slight favourite but I wouldn't say he's a heavy favourite.

 

I didn’t say Rocky was a clone of Liston or Ingo. I said Floyd had a speed advantage over them (which was posited as a reason he’d beat Marciano) and we saw how that turned out.

Ezzard and Walcott were imo absolutely better pure boxers than Floyd and Rocky beat each twice with three stoppages (one in the first round). So Marciano absolutely beat some top-tier pure boxers in his time.

Given that Floyd was knocked down nearly 20 times in his career, more than any other heavyweight champion (and including by an amateur in his first pro fight while Floyd was in his prime as champ), I don’t think we can chalk it up to the particulars of Liston’s or Johansson’s size, build, style or anything else and say ‘well Rocky doesn’t fight like them, so he wouldn’t be able to do what they did.’

Ingo was a mostly unremarkable fighter who happened to have a good right hand — a singular weapon — and yet Floyd couldn’t avoid it. One-dimensional fighters should be the easiest to beat with someone of Floyd’s speed, power and skill, right?

You say Floyd is more skilled and faster than Marciano. Surely that is true for Ingo — he was definitely faster than Sonny. And he was more skilled and faster than most everybody who ever put him on the canvas too, right? Yet they still did it.

One did not have to be a fighter of remarkable skill or wrecking-ball power to put Floyd down. And Rocky was a superior puncher to most. So I figure over 15 rounds, he probably lands solid (Patterson wasn’t a defensive whiz who never got hit; hence, all the knockdowns). Once he does, I don’t think Floyd survives what comes after any better than he did in Ingo I or either Liston fight.

 

What do you guys reckon the percentage of the discussion on classic revolves around Marciano?

 

87.4% at last count

 

I would literally believe that too.

 

Where was Weaver ranked when Holmes beat him?