What boxers did Rocky Marciano consciously and deliberately duck, if any?

Ezzard Charles was the #1 contender for both The Ring and the NBA. What is the issue?

 

What exactly is the issue here? If he was 6' he was more solidly built. If he was 6' 4', he was taller. What difference does it actually make? He weighed 189. At the same age Max Baer weighed 190 and Joe Louis 181.

Just looking at photos of the fight, my guess is he was at least a couple of inches over 6'. The 6' 4" might have been wearing boots or something.

 

Just on the size of Marciano's opposition. I checked the weights for Marciano and Louis opponents at box rec:

11 of Marciano's 49 opponents were over 200 lbs. 3 over 220.

18 of Louis listed 69 opponents (71 in the old Ring Record Book) were over 200 lbs. 4 over 220.

26% of Louis' opponents on box rec were over 200 lbs, 25% if using The Ring Record Book fights.

22.4% of Marciano's opponents were over 200 lbs.

The opposition of the two is surprisingly close in size. The big difference is Carnera, Buddy Baer, and Simon on Louis' resume.

Louis did not fight anyone over 200 lbs. after the war.

 

yes can we get a confirmation on vingos height

 

The issue is that Marciano and Weill didn't make an effort to give a greater number of worthy challengers a shot at the title. Rocky wasn't busy enough to have a title run equal to those of other champions like Louis, Ali, Holmes, and Tyson who cleaned up their divisions and defended their titles more than twice a year. He was a great fighter, but his 49-0 record is a bit tarnished for that reason in comparison with theirs, IMO. They all fought not only No. 1-rated fighters but quite a few others, too. If your opinion is different, that's okay with me, too.

Charles may have been rated No. 1 by those organizations, but his day was almost over. If I had been rating fighters I would have dropped him down a peg or two after he lost to Rocky the first time and required him to earn the rematch by defeating one of the guys above him. That's all.

 

Holmes. You seem to have a revisionist mind. He threw his belt in the trash rather than fight his WBC Mandatory # 1 Greg Page. Instead he fought laughing stock Scott Frank and Marcus Frazier

He refused to take on ring magazine number 1 pinklon Thomas when he was an undefeated champion and defeated Witherspoon easier than Holmes did

you put a lot of stock into Marciano “Re matching” Charles even though all the experts/historians/papers of the day were calling for it after their first fight which rated as one of the greatest fights in heavyweight history. And the second fight was anticipated to produce the highest gate.

Hey, at least Marciano rematched close fights and left zero doubt with emphatic knockouts unlike Holmes who never gave rematches to his close controversial decisions


You are also very hung up on this two title defense thing.Would it have made you feel better had he taken out henry in 53, Valdes in 54, and baker in 55?

 

1. Charles was rated number 1. Not May have been.

2. Charles fought a historically great fight in Marciano I . 15 grueling rounds some of which you can watch on YouTube. “Almost done” may be your way to describe him, but the fans and marciano certainly got his money worth choosing Charles as oppponent. He looked pretty game to me!

3. Who did Marciano miss out on fighting that is causing you to lose sleep?

 

Patterson was fighting last LHW. He was not on their radar.

 

The two defenses a year had much to do with the tax codes. Taxes were cut way down under JFK in the early sixties. Prior to that it was hard to have more than two defenses for a popular champion who was drawing big gates.

As for Charles, I can't see criticizing a champion for fighting his #1 contender.

"If I had been rating fighters"

But Marciano had to deal with the ratings of the people who were rating in his own time, not opinions from nearly 70 years later.

Anyway, I respect fighting the best out there, not a lot of second raters. Is it so great that Ali never gave Foreman a rematch but defended against Coopman and Dunn and Evangelista?

 

Would love to know how kasimirkid would have rated the heavyweight division in 1954 if he owned. Ring magazine. What is your top 10

 

Really haven't given it much thought. There were a number of good fighters out there. Baker, Valdes, Henry, Holman, etc. Just the general run of names that other people mention from time to time. My point isn't to single out any contenders, just to point out that Marciano didn't go out of his way to fight them.

I understand your position. You asked for my reasoning and I gave it to you. I have nothing to add regarding Marciano. As for Ali, I was a lot more impressed by his work during his first title reign than his second run.

 

Haven't given it much thought. There were a number of good fighters out there. Baker, Valdes, Henry, Holman,

You bet.

 

You bet, and he very likely would have defeated all of them but he didn't, did he?
Charles 1 was a great fight, but the decision was not disputed. It was unanimous for Marciano, and the press was as far as I know unanimous for Rocky too. So why not make Charles earn another shot first? Our opinions differ. That's it. You're right, and I'm right too. That's the way it is in opinion land.

 

nope and neither did Holmes. So please stop bringing up Larry Holmes

 

So, who's losing sleep?