Rocky Marciano would be considered the GOAT if he fought today

LMAO. Marciano would destroy Beterbiev. I doubt you have watched many Marciano fights, no light heavyweight in the history of the sport would beat Marciano.

Marciano defeated fighters like Jersey Joe Walcott, Archie Moore and Ezzard Charles who is one of the most skilled fighters ever P4P, imo he is all time top 3 P4P.

Even the faded versions of those guys would make Beterbiev look like an idiot. Educate yourself and watch the fights.

 

WFT is doe?

 

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That "doe" word is Completely overblown. Only one that says that to the most is that ignorant dumb**** @LeftRightDownThePipe aka Todd498 Aka Epic Beard Man ect

 

What a bunch of crap. Marciano was a plodding midget with a 68" dinosaur reach. For perspective, even Floyd Mayweather would have a 4" reach advantage! Michael Spinks 8". Marciano also had a reach disadvantage at the time, in fairness, though he didn't fight a sufficient number of good, prime opponents. Great legacy, obviously, but he's nothing special in a PfP sense.

 

Marciano made it to 49-0, 31 years old.

Joe Louis 23 when he lost to Schmeling in his 25th fight.

Ali was 30 when he lost to Frazier in his 32nd fight.

Tyson was 23 when he lost to Douglas in his 38th fight

Foreman was 25 when he lost to Ali in his 41st fight

Dempsey was 19 when he lost to Jack Downey in his 8th fight

Jack Johnson was 20 when he lost to Klondike Hayes in his fourth fight

And on and on. Some fighters, like Holmes, made it past 31. Others, even some on this list, you can forgive the losses for the quality of competition. Others still fought in an era when guys were expected to lose some. Regardless, there is no talking down his accomplishment.

Deceptive. Marciano was not a classic boxer, and could not have been because of his short reach. Instead, they coached him to come in with a low crouch and throw punches in bunches on the inside. It was a perfect style for him and led to his immortality as the only unbeaten champ with the highest KO percentage. He has a perfect swarmer style, which he talks about in this interview:

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Patterson was mentioned as a potential opponent along with Nino Valdez and Bob Baker. There was also Hurricane Jackson, Harold Johnson, Bob Satterfield, and some other fringy types like Hein Ten Hoff and Dan Bucerroni. A few others.

Bottom line on Maricano: 6 wins against four ATG fighters, 5-6 more against the best contenders of his day, and two of the most important records in heavyweight boxing, 49-0 and 88%.

Anyone can put all the asterixs beside it they want. Marciano buries a lot of the guys that pass for ATGs these days.

 

I agree with both Bomber and you on different points. Marciano's unbeaten streak was a very real accomplishment, which you did a good job of laying out. His resume very underrated. I rank him as #3 among HWs in legacy all time. And his h2h is no more questionable than other past HW greats that routinely get a pass for some reason.

On the other hand, Bomber is right in that the op is wrong on his base point; Marciano would be much less popular nowadays. Because of the internet, social media, multitude of platforms, and other reasons, modern fighters just don't get as much of the credit they deserve as fighters from earlier eras get.

 

It's not Marciano's fault that there were not so many tough guys in the HW Division during his era. But if there were, he would beat them all. Marciano was the real brawler who did not know how to retreat.