Tokyo Douglas vs Rocky Marciano

It was entertaining for sure.

The weak eras can be the most entertaining sometimes.

My point is that anybody who is holding this up as some sort of golden age, or era of progress, should have severe misgivings.

 

Yes I agree. Evolution is one thing, entertainment is another ..... and progress is in the eye of the beholder.

 

People seem to forget Douglas was a natural and athletically gifted fighter, but had a lackadaisical approach to training. In another words, Douglas might of been a true atg and actually fought like one in Tokyo, tho it was against a non-motivated Tyson. Still, imagine Tokyo Douglas fighting that way vs Holyfield, Bowe, etc he was the complete package for that one fight. I think Walcott and Charles were 2 of the best technical heavyweights to lace them up and should have had no problem beating Marciano, but that wasn't the case. Marciano had the best stamina of any heavyweight his conditioning is something that gets overlooked and overshadowed by his power. He did telegraph many of his power punches, but he still managed to land most of them against better skilled fighters. He's one of the few fighters who I'd pick to win over higher skilled fighters, where ungodly conditioning triumphs over fine tuned, world class skills. Calzaghe is another with freakish conditioning.

 

This on both counts. Douglas was a waste but he possessed more than a few very stand out traits that night. Although i'm not sure Holy had the mental gameplan and certainty in his mind at this stage to deal with Mike even if he did roughhouse it and dictate tempo. He would probably end up in the mid range more and not tie up so quickly.

 

Larry also schooled Ray Mercer in the 1990s when he was riding pretty high. Mercer gave Lennox Lewis a tough time too so it may be that result shows Holmes could live in the 1990s? Larry was a tough opponent for anyone as a veteran. He should not have been relevant by rights. I don't think Holmes was exactly a non event in the 1990s even if He was obliterated in 1988 by Tyson.

 

Bowe was pretty tough as well .. at his best or near best he is a nasty match up for much of history ..

 

Foreman and Holmes were matched carefully, they didn't have too many ring wars in their careersto age them and didn't really have any great wins in the 90s either. Moorer and Mercer really were fringe contenders in the natural order of things. Foreman said he didn't want to go anywhere near Lennox calling him the GOAT and aside from his title fights avoided top opposition. Schulz was robbed against Foreman too.

Johnson could have scalped similar fringe wins in the 20s. Lennox certainly could come back and beat many fringe contenders or decent ones. I wouldn't be surprised if Lennox could beat most HWs today with 12 weeks training. ALi/Frazier couldn't as they were shot. Liston if he lived could have beat a few guys in the 70s if he wasnt into his 40s in the 60s anyway

 

Fair.

Tokyo ****irds will surely have their knickers in a twist but that is more than fair right there, without unrealistically glorifying or diminishing either man.

 

**** sake. Boo-birds.

 

I'm not sure he is, the Moorer win slightly trumps the Mercer win, but not by much and the manner is less impressive. I think Holmes probably would have beat Morrison.

Generally Holmes performed slightly better in the 90s although I love some of Foreman's KO's of gatekeeper/past it opponents.

I like the fact my dad got a buzz off a fatter bloke his age winning boxings biggest prize (well it used to be)

Both are 2 ATGs SHWs who match up well against certain fringe contenders. Neither discredit the the greatest HW boxing era ever in the 90s, which was ridiculed by some for it's lack of elite match ups, events that disgraced the sport and the oldest ever HW Champ