So what exactly is wrong with Nat Fleischer's top 10 heavyweight list?

It was not amateur as you cannot turn amateur again after being a pro, hence no pro's in the Olympics. And Caggiano admitted to paying him for the bout, indeed all his supposed amateur bouts. (Lords of the Ring; The greatest fighters since 1950 pages 44 to 48).

The facts are Marciano made his pro debut in March 1947 and loss a decision in March 1948...

 

It does when you claiming a perfect pro career. Marciano is saying I never loss a fight from March 1947 onwards, that is simply not true.

Sure the likes of Armstrong etc did the same thing, but unlike the Rock their greatness is not based on a statistical abnormality.

 

Well, if a major league baseball player or NBA basketball player plays
in the Olympics, is this part of his major league or NBA record. No. It
is not.

By the way, fighters were often paid for amateur fights in those days,
and Marciano would still have the best record of any fighter ever against
Hall-of-Famers, champions, rated fighters, and ever rated fighters, even
if we counted in all his amateur defeats. All these achievements are more
important than merely avoiding defeats in early preliminary fights.
Marciano is great because of his record against top fighters, not because
of his record when starting out.

 

Pros play in the Olympics all the time in many sports.

 

While I agree with the basic theme of your argument, where's Jack Sharkey on the Dempsey list?

 

But not boxing

 

It was against the rules for Marciano to fight an amateur match after having a professional fight("turning professional" is really pretty misleading, as it was a low-pay club fight which Marciano viewed as pretty much a one-time thing at the time), but that doesn't magically transform an amateur fight into a professional fight. They are two entirely different things. Do you think Boxrec should list Wallace as having made his pro debut against Marciano and add all of Marciano's amateur fights between Epperson and Bilazarian to his record? Of course not. You can't magically transform an amateur match(an unpaid fight fought over three rounds with amateur equipment under amateur rules and an amateur commission in an amateur tournament) into a professional match(a paid fight over more than three rounds with professional equipment, professional rules and professional officiating) because one guy sidestepped the system a little to participate in the amateur match.

Do you think that if, tomorrow, Wladimir Klitschko went to a Casino with a boxing ring one night, got really drunk and participated in an amateur fight with some towny, and was clocked with a wild haymaker and knocked out cold, that the loss should go on his record and the other guy should become the new IBF heavyweight beltholder? Of course not. If it turned out Marciano was secretly fighting and losing in dozens of amateur fights throughout his entire pro career and had made the rackets and lost at least one amateur fight on every Indian Reservation in the United States while he was champion, his 49-0 record would still be authentic.

 

Well i figured he already had the honor of being on Louis' victim list.




Thanks, i edited the post. Dempseys best win, how could i forget.