Was Marciano a one punch KO artist.

He rarely if ever threw combinations therefore he is a 1 punch KO artist

 

It doesn't really work that way...

Every KO ends with a single punch. If you land a bunch over many rounds and pop a guy out without throwing a combo, that's still not a one punch KO.

And by the way, Marciano KOd Walcott with a right and then an illegal left, technically a combo.

 

The knockout was with the right and the left had little power in it. With what you say is a 1 punch ko power then no great fighter in history has 1 punch ko power. Unless you can show me a fight that wasn't between tomato cans that did end in the very first punch of the very first round.

If you're argument was sound you wouldn't have to base it upon a technicality.

 

In my opinion Rocky was more so of a "Break you down with power shots" instead of a 1 punch KO artist

 

I don't really like the whole question and how it's phrased really. Are we trying to be SUPER exclusive here or just upper end of the spectrum type of thing? If it's the former, then no, but I don't think the later can be question. He hurt guys with his punches, it's really that simple. Many people have commented on how hard his punches were all over their body. That must be a hard puncher. So if you're a hard puncher like Marciano, and you land flush, yup there's a good chance you'll be KO'd or messed up. I also factor in his size. That has to be considered. When I think of Marciano the puncher, I'm factoring in his weight, and what he was still able to generate and ruin guys.

 

Who were the one-punch KO artists ?

Is that just the guys that literally land ONE punch in the entire fight, and it puts the opponent out for the 10-count ?

 

The term itself is mostly a misnomer but the idea is that there is a certain class of puncher who opponents must fear from the opening bell because they have the real potential to effectively end the fight with any single punch, even if the punch doesn't by itself knock the opponent unconscious.

Contrary to how we romanticize his exploits in the ring, Marciano wasn't really in this category. The fact is that many of his opponents stood their ground against him, ate plenty of his Sunday punches, and only eventually went down after they'd been worn out over the course of many rounds.

 

So who does belong in the category ?

 

Some of his fans here want to have it both ways: They acknowledge that Marciano was an active, aggressive pressure fighter who hit his opponents with hundreds of power punches, but they still insist that he was one of the hardest punching men in the history of the division. If that were truly the case, with his work rate and aggression, it seems that he'd have stopped many of his opponents much sooner. Just my speculative opinion but I can't fathom many 180-200lb men taking as many punches from Tyson, Foreman, or Tua, for example, and lasting into the mid-to-late rounds of fights with them.

 

I can think of many fighers who stood their ground against most of those fighters too, 'ate their punches' for several rounds before they wilted.

 

I just saw someone argue Lyle hit harder than Marciano.

 

Foreman against Peralta.
Foreman against fat-light-heavy Everett Martin.
Foreman against Levi Forte.

Shavers against light-heavy Rondon, who'd been KO'd in 2 by Bob Foster.
Shavers against Stallings, who'd been stopped several times.

Liston was extended by Marshall, Whitehurst, Machen .... all of them weighed between 179 and 196 pounds. They took his shots.

Tyson took 10 rounds to TKO Ribalta, who'd already been stopped in 7 by a bum.
Tyson took 7 rounds to get a controversial TKO against Ruddock, who had already been stopped in 7 by Dave Jaco.

 

How does this help your case though? So a guy is so motivated that he just won't go down and fights his ass off, and obviously has an ok beard; and somehow this proves Marciano isn't a big puncher? That logic makes no sense at all. Sometimes these things can happen. Every puncher you list as one shot KO power (which I don't disagree with most btw) all have the same thing happen to them as well. Which again, is why that proves very little. Besides the KO artists you are referring to, along with J Jackson, obviously power has to do with it, but they also were better at timing their power shots. Not just that, but more accurate with them. When someone doesn't see something coming because it's so quick, hard and right on the button is when people drop like that; well then, why couldn't it be that Rocky wasn't that kind of big puncher? Many of his shots were telegraphed, which as we know can help the receiver of the punch take it better.

Imo many are forgetting that Rocky wasn't the most accurate guy, nor was he the most sneaky. All things, that go hand in hand with power to make those one shot KO's happen. Rocky had one shot power no doubt, to even argue that is kind of silly imo. I don't think it was on the level of some others, sure, but he still had that kind of power.

 

As mentioned in reality there are very few actual one punch knock out artists.
Take Jackson who is generally regarded as being right up
there as one of the best, how many of his opponents did he actually take out that way in all of his fights?
I would suspect you may be able to count them on one hand.

 

Marciano had very good power, especially for his size, but I still feel that people on here exaggerate it significantly. It's as if people only remember the knockout punches and not the many, many other hard, clean punches. Put Tyson and Tua in the ring against Marciano's sub-200 lb opponents, let them land the same number of power punches, and you end up with way more Tua-Moorer, Tua-Ruiz, Tyson-M.Frazier, Tyson-Spinks type ko1 blowouts, imo.


I asked about the other fighters because I'm genuinely curious: who are the opponents that inexplicably endured the most punishment from them?