Sam langford. Could He Defeat Marciano??

Could he? Without any doubts, he had all the tools to make it tough for Marciano.

Would he? That's tougher, Rocky was a very consistent fighter. I might prefer Langford, but it's far from given.

 

Yes. He absolutely could beat Rocky. I genuinely believe if you're guy comes into that ring in less than tip top condition, has an off night, loses his focus or something goes wrong; Sam Langford is the last person you want in the opposite corner.

I wouldn't favour him over Marciano, I think Rocky manages to break him in the late rounds, after a brutal war. But there's a lot that could go wrong for him. He'd be eating a lot of extremely devastating counters; he'd be walking straight into quite possibly the most dangerous wheelhouse in boxing history, and he'd be doing so with open arms, expecting violence. Sam's grappling and instinctual smarts make him tough for virtually anyone. He could potentially construct a plan, similar in idea to the infighting and pull counters Charles used; with the long arm tactics Moore had success with.

Ultimately though, I do think the Rock just outmonsters him down the stretch.

 

Marciano would fit right at home if you sent him back 50 years.

 

Theoretically yes, I wouldn't write Langford off against anybody.

 

He definitely could in Sam's era.

 

Only if he weighed 190, Marciano punched harder than anybody Langford fought, and Marciano used to dip below opponents waist line before coming up with a hook, meaning his body would dip to a position leaving no legal target then he would come up with a powerful hook, difficult to cope with.

 

Langford has weighed 200. I don't think Marciano hits harder than every one Langford fought. Or harder than Langford himself for that matter. But Johnson, McVea, Jeanette, Willis, Flynn are hard heavyweight hitters (several of them harder hitting than Marciano) that Langford faced. I think Marciano's power won't frighten him.

and about dipping below the waist, it's been done for the last several hundred years back into the bare-knuckle era. It's always been a tactic.

 

I would pick Marciano to beat every Heavyweight Champion before him with the exception of maybe Joe Louis at his absolute best

 

Sam's one of the guys Rocky's size I'd pick over him ... Sam was faster, a bigger two handed puncher, had a much longer reach, fought and defeated much better opposition, was craftier and tighter defensively as well. If were talking about a fight that Langford had time to train for (opposed to coming to town off the trails the night before) and had the handcuffs off he stops Rocky .. no knock on Rocky who was a pound for pound beast ..

 

I don't know, does Rocky beat Qawi?

whom I think is the L-HW cum HW most likely to give us an idea what Langford was probably like, though perhaps less of a stalking pressure fighter.

Who knows, my heart says the Rock.

now Langford vs Qawi, would be one of the Ultimate Time Machine Historical L-HW match ups.