Rocky Marciano.

And he never had an easy night against them.:think

 

Very true!
He had that kind of attritional style that was effective but painful to himself and others.

Where would you rate him amongst Heavyweight Champs?

 

What I meant by this was that sometimes a small heavyweight can give even a great fighter trouble. Cooper nearly derailed the young Ali's progress and he was similar in size to some of Rocky's opponents.

 

----it took ali 8 rounds to stop 180lb bob foster!

 

Wrote out a looong reply and my PC crashed. Ain't doing it twice, sorry. But yeah, Marciano was an awesome fighter.

 

The man was the best conditioned fighter who ever lived. He had great power...stamina...
...heart...chin...he feared no man...5'10...189 lbs. He gave you everything he had for 3 minutes of every round...as Foreman said:"The bell would ring...he would be on you...the bell would ring...
...he'd stop...the bell would ring...he'd be on you...".He broke bones...he ruptured
blood vessels...he almost killed Carmine Vingo in 1949...Vingo never fought again...he hurt you no matter where he hit you. Class guy out of the ring. Champ from 1952-1956.
49-0 43 KO's. Died in a plane crash in Iowa on Aug.31, 1969...the day before his 46th
birthday. Marciano can't be judged simply by what you can see. Put him in the ring with ANYONE!!!

 

Yes he was. As savage as he was in the ring, he was a good guy outside of it, placing great emphasis on loyalty to friends and family. (Except to his wife in later years, sadly.)

He comes across in interviews as a thoughtful, intelligent, down-to-earth person and nobody's fool.

He had his personality quirks, like an obsession with money (cash money) and hiding money in light fittings, drain pipes and other weird places because he hated banks so much.
Also not a guy whom you'd want to end up owing money to and a bit of a scrounge, but all in all a good guy.

 

He was also one of the cheapest people who ever lived.
He carried a device with him to get free calls out of pay phones.
He became something of a joke on the celebrity circuit. He demanded free rooms and free meals wherever he went.
He would have a speaking engagement. He would be met at the airport by the host and claim he had lost his luggage. The host would then have to buy Marciano a suit for the lecture. He would, of course, take it with him when he left.

Marciano had grown up during the Depression and his family had next to nothing.
This gave him an obsession with hoarding money.

As far as his fighting goes, Ali said it best- something to the effect of 'It's one thing to talk about fighting Marciano. It's another thing to get in the ring with him.'

 

Number 10.

 

Are you lost?:huh

 

Amazing. What's the chances of two cranks turning up on the same thread!

 

The suitcase of dildos deserves a mention.

 

That sounds like Marciano alright.

 

There was an amusing Sports Illustrated article on that topic by Bill Nack.

After Rocky died, his family couldn't find most of his money. They even called in a CIA codebreaker to try and figure out where he'd hidden it.