They were both hard-hitting pugilists, but was Rocky Marciano also a better boxer than Tyson?

Excellent.

 

Marciano was a more complete fighter than Tyson and was much better at making adjustments. Tyson was a master at his preferred midrange and could do anybody in from there, but if you took away Tyson’s preferred range he had nothing to fall back on and he became very beatable. Tillis showed that Tyson was very uncomfortable fighting on the inside.

 

Tyson was faster, bigger, had a better punch variety,better defence , and a better chin .imo Having his 20th fight Tyson took a unanimous decision from Tillis,flooring him along the way.
Marciano fought Tommy DiGiorgio 9-9- 0 in his 20th bout,fought journeyman
Ted Lowry in his next and many thought he lost it.
Point is we are matching them prime for prime

 

Marciano was far greater between his ears. Rocky was a much more mentally tough fighter who only fought harder in tough situations.

 

Whilst I have heaps of respect for Rocky , a fight between him and Tyson is only going to end one way imo .. Tyson by early ko .

 

What tough situations was he in, Harry and are you saying Tyson wouldn’t have got out of those situations against those same opponents?

 

We will never know that as it never occurred. We do know why Marciano is rated as an ATG. He demonstrated a will to win and never say die fighting mentality in the toughest of situations. We can’t say the same of Tyson. Tyson became a much more tame, much less focused hwt when times were the toughest. It’s why he is not rated as high as he could have been all time. Tyson with Marciano, Frazier, Ali or Dempsey’s fighting heart and you would have a top 2-3 ATG hwt champion

 

Can we all agree that a certain Rocky vs Liston thread is due a bump...

 

The ONLY attributes Marciano had over Tyson was Heart and Determination. Could he defeat Tyson with only those attributes? Doubtful but if it did happen, it wouldn't be the 1st time that happened in boxing history.

 

Ever thought that he was in more tough situations because of his physical and technical limitations?

 

As long as your scared to death of Tyson entering the ring and as long as he is the Frontrunner, he can beat anyone, but as soon as someone like an Ali, Liston< Louis, Marciano, a Prime Holmes, that are not afraid and believe they can beat him steps in with him and hangs with him and some of them out box him like Ali, and hit him back very hard, and much more and harder than Douglas did, tyson clearly gets frustrated and in those situations does not have the heart to dig deep to comeback and take out an ATG once he fails to take them out early, if Frazier can withstand the early rounds and get in his rythm and figure out Tyson's attack, he would out last and KO him jus tlike douglas, Lewis, Bowe, Vlad, any of them could beat him like that, Tyson would be looking for a body part to bite in those situations, Spinks and Frazier were scarred crapless against Tyson, they wanted out as soon as Mike could hit them.

 

Oh yeah, I remember these fearless ATGs who´d expose him to be nothing but a scare-factor

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"Afterward, in a packed press room, there were the ususal post mortems. 'He was charging in,' Spinks said of Tyson, 'and I was trying to catch him in the process. I tried to take a shot at him, and I came up short. That's when he hit me.' Eddie Futch would later say that Spink's failure came when he abandoned his game plan, which had been to jab and move, counterpunch, and make Tyson work, miss punches, and slow down. Futch also said Spinks wasn't scared, no matter what everyone said. But Richie Giachetti, who had been in the corner with Holmes the night Tyson stopped him, said Soinks had the same look on his face that Larry just before the bell, alook he had never seen on Larry's face in any of his fights. It was the look of fear."