Was Louis a top 10 contender when he fought Marciano?

I get the sense that he was a comparable win to the Holmes that Tyson beat. A shadow of his prime self, but still a pretty good fighter and a good win.

 

Using this cutoff and date, with a loose interpretatino of todays rules, we see the following comments:

This is the National Boxing Association ratings released October 9, 1951. Louis and Marciano fought on October 26.

Champion-----Jersey Joe Walcott
1-----Ezzard Charles - had wins over Joe Baksi, Johnny Haynes and Joe Louis in the 200+ category. The Louis fight today would have had him at no 1 contender or champion. it was the equivalent of the win over an old Klitschko that Fury had. His size might have still had him in the cruiser division, he was undisputed champ, only just beaten by Walcott, and he was about to fight Rex Layne. Definitely a top 10 ranking on todays rating, but even if you take away the championship side of it, the win over an old louis makes him a guaranteed top 10 rating today.
2-----Joe Louis - He was a dominant world champion for so long and beat everyone. Although all his opponents were technically only cruisers, it is still enough to earn a top 10 ranking today. If Wlad (or any ex heavyweight contender or even 200+ heavy)were to come back and clean the cruisers today like Louis did, they would make the
3-----Rocky Marciano - in todays environment was an undefeated cruiserweight champ or star with victories over Eatman, Shckor, and Simmons and was about to fight Louis. i think this gets him in
4-----Bob Baker - Was a young undefeated 210 to 220lb heavyweight, who had defeated many 200+ lb heavys. He looks exactly like a number 1 contender (or at least top 5 contender) usually looks today or even alphabet champs.
5-----Clarence Henry - Defeated 210lb Turkey Thompson and Pacific Coast champion Willie Bean (209.5). Turkey had a good career and at one stage was a solid top 10 contender, but was on a bit of a losing streak. this compares to maybe a win against Povetkin. I think it would be enough to sneak someone into todays toop 10 maybe even higher in at least one of todays organisation belts. He was at least 1 month away from beating Baker in a bout that would have almost certainly been an alphabet title bout today, maybe even a unification superfight.
6-----Rex Layne - had wins over 210 lb Turkey thompson, 200lb JOe Walcott (Current Champ), bill Roberts and Bill paterson (210 + lbs), but he had just lost to Rocky Marciano and was about to lose 1 day later to Ezzard Charles. I think he is a legitimate top 10 today with that record.

These are the only men listed on the reprinted ratings.[/QUOTE]

 

It's a little bit like Ali and Tyson, at their back end days. People actually still having faith in them to beat the young lions coming up.

 

Heavyweights today are terrible. But they don’t have the tools to make a career at HW. If steroids were properly banned

jeez kind of in love w today’s terrible heavies huh? Hate to break it to you they suck other then Fury AJ and old Povetkin the rest are mediocre to down right terrible. They are big because PEDS allow them to be but that’s it.

 

What happened to Whyte last time? Imagine a prime Povetkin. Sheesh. Needed him to catch a case of COVID to get a win. I don’t necessarily mean Povetkin as is. But legacy wise.