The Quality of Marciano's Opponents

That's where Matt rated him when he did his list so you're in some sizable company. His was based on resume but with a bit of H2H. He wouldn't make my top 4 personally but from #5 on i'd have him well in mind.

 

This. Valdes had himself to blame for not getting a title shot, since fighting Moore in 1955 made absolutely no sense. Valdes risked and lost his logical contender ranking for a quick payday.

Also, as for Shkor a lot of people in this forum clearly haven't seen him fight. I've seen some of Shkor's fights and he was a very physical and dirty fighter like Wlad, but even dirtier than Wlad. He cracked the top rankings for a short while and even had a title shot planned with Joe Louis scheduled for 1948 provided he stayed unbeaten following his win over Mauriello, but like a lot of fighters back in those days he continued fighting instead on sitting on his ranking and quickly fell out the rankings.

 

I don't understand what's so unreasonable about it? McGrain ranks him the same iirc.

Aside from being the only heavyweight champion to have retired undefeated, he defended against his number one contender in all but one of his defenses which is absolutely unprecedented. Holmes is frequently named number 3 on lists like these, even though he only defended against his number one contender ONCE, and flat out admitted to avoiding top competition in the latter half of his reign.

He only fought Spoon because nobody really knew who he was back then. It was a cherry pick that nearly backfired.

Then of course, there was the cherry pick that DID backfire.

Him or Foreman are interchangeable on my list, I go back and forth between them.

You could also easily put Lewis above them so his ranking on my list could go from 3 to 5.

 

Let me guess, he would've beaten Wlad, Fury, and Usyk on the same night?

 

With that, I will concede the point.

 

Hhascup wouldn't be wrong. We are all about getting to the bottom of things (most lol) and it looks like he did indeed sneak in at some point.

 

There is no scenario where I see Rocky beating prime Liston.
He's gonna come up short whatever he does.
Rocky had heart of a king and would go in and try to hurt sonny, and that's right there where he gets battered.

 

Terrible match for The Rock.

 

Joyce is a slow caveman with zero defense and isn't impossible to stop. Anything could happen if Foreman and Joyce slugged it out because Foreman is the far more skilled and experienced fighter. Joyce is simply big, he isn't a very good fighter.

Rocky is not more skilled than Liston. In fact, Liston has literally every advantage except stamina, and Liston stamina wasn't bad for a big hitter.

As for Zhang, his career isn't over. So far he's looked impressive stopping Joyce twice, but he has a very thin resume. If he can handle the punches of Wilder and more importantly, wins, then I'd agree that Zhang should probably be favored to beat Foreman in a slug fest. Although I will add that in addition to having far more experience, Foreman is arguably more skilled and definitely faster too. I'd need to think about that one.

Foreman didn't fight any of these guys and their eras are like 20+ years apart. Just because some posters think he'd beat them isn't "evidence" a boxer with a 30 pound weight disadvantage can out slug a bigger boxer whose even more skilled and hits harder. It's never happened.

 

I have been saying just being big is is not enough ever since I have been here,you need to be good too . Where your argument falters,imo is Shkor wasn't good,he was a journeyman who lost over a third of his fights.

If he was ranked at some point that means zilch to me,Im afraid,plenty of men were ranked during Marciano's reign,men whom I would not describe as world class.
Bucceroni
Dunlap
Holman
Sys
Gardner
Williams
Neuhaus
Cockell
Norkus
Young Jack Johnson
Wallace
Slade
If Henry said Shkor was ranked at some point , albeit for possibly 1 month I accept it,but it means little,as the names Ive put up confirm.
Perhaps its all about personal definition of the term,that and the respective era one was ranked in?

 

But Valdes was end of year Ring ranked no 1 in 53 and 54,

 

After beating Mauriello on cuts Shkor lost 7 of his next 9 fights.

Thanks for the description of Shkor I've never seen him in action.

 

I've never said Shkor was good. I said he was a fringe contender who was big.

 

His era was so poor, he should have an asterisk by his name.

I have him at #37.

 

Foreman is 6 ft 3 1/2in 224lbs and an all time ko puncher,in other words he was big enough and powerful enough to beat anybody.
Marciano,imo was not.