Rocky Marciano with Ali's competition: Does he stay undefeated?

And Ken Norton stopped fighting after round 14.

 

Life and death with Snipes? That's like saying Ali went life and death with Cooper. Holmes won nearly every other round, got caught, and beat his ass. Williams was a tall athletic guy with a good jab, something Rocky never encountered (the closest was an ancient Joe Louis who gave Rocky a black eye with his jab).

Holmes fought "little guys" like 6'2 Berbick, 6'3 Norton and Witherspoon, 6'6 Cooney, and 6'4 Smith, all well over 210 lbs. Rocky never beat any elite fighters remotely their size and feasted on old guys mostly under 190.

To suggest a 35 year old Rocky with a bad back is beating a prime Holmes is a funny visual. I barely even give him a punchers chance. The only time Holmes was KOd was when he was old, inactive, coming off 2 losses against a prime Tyson who needed to drop him multiple times.

 

Rocky could only ever fight for seven or eight years. This was proven. So This is the wrong comparison. It’s asking Rocky to continue fighting until 43 years old when he retired at 32! My guess is if you fit another schedule over the next 11 years past anyones actual retirement age most champions would start losing a lot of fights.

 

You are right Chok. Rocky would have had to fight Cleveland Big Cat Williams, Ouch !

 

For those 8 years he fought to the max possible, the guy started boxing at around 22-23 years old and turned pro when he was 24 which additionally shows how dedicated the man was, despite the back problem. So what he did for 8 years, others don't come near for even twice more.

 

To be fair to Rocky, elite heavyweights were rarely getting much bigger than this until advances allowed for bigger heavyweights to compete.

 

No, Frazier would have destroyed him with counter hooks, Liston and Foreman would have stopped him as would Shavers have, Norton wa a good boxer so may have been too stilled for Marciano.

 

This is what Marciano looked like at the end of 1961, 14 years after he turned pro (in 1947).

https://www.alamy.com/jan-01-1962-r...a-tuxedo-guest-at-national-image69396522.html

Fourteen years after Ali turned pro, he was fighting Joe Frazier in their rematch and George Foreman in 1974. Hell, does he even beat Chuck Wepner? Or Ron Lyle? Or Joe Bugner? Or Frazier in Manila?

 

Haha. Don’t even go there!
Even Swag agrees that The “gut-shot Williams” that Ali beat wouldn’t get past Don Cockell.

 

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It’s a good thing Rocky was not in the ring in that kind of shape. It proves Rocky shouldn’t and wouldn’t be fighting in that shape or at that age.

 

Just messing with you Chok. Ha Ha.

 

Marciano isn't throwing a hundred power punches in round 15 at the same age, with the same ring mileage that Ali had when he fought Holmes.

 

Over 100, 000.00 miles.

 

I would walk 500 miles ...

I think Holmes would absolutely thrash whatever version of Marciano that fighter would look like.

I wouldn't expect that version of Marciano to be anything more than a club fighter, let alone elite world class. His dimensions, punishment shipped, fighting style and alleged training intensity means that no matter his will, his body and size would be against him. With a long exile and then to come back and go through Quarry, Bonavena, let alone Frazier, Norton, Foreman, Lyle, Shavers, Holmes etc. at this stage of his journey, I wouldn't want to see him go that way. He would become a caricature of the legend that he was allowed to become in his own era.

 

I like your style