Where does Marciano rank all-time amongst the hws?

Of course, he KO´d all his opponents during his title reign, and the 1st LaStarza- fight, here it would help you at 1st reading some newspaper articles or something like that before making such comments...

 

top 10....

 

While I certainly agree that a lineal title bears more weight than a mere fragment, I think that you're being a bit harsh by denying credit to a lot of good fighters who held belts. I agree that the introduction of titles like the WBO and IBO, was unecessary and getting a bit carried away, but there have been many good fighters who held titles, and weren't necessarily viewed as lineal champions, but were champions nonetheless.

 

Head to head i put a ton of people over him...His style wouldnt have worked past the late 60s...IMO and of course, size does matter in the heavyweight division.. All that said, i put him in the top 10 P4P on achievement standards though.

 

From an article written by Monte Cox

 

It was a close fight, which could have scored either way. But without the controversial point detuction because of the low blow we wouldn´t now discuss, because than it would have been an UD. Marciano was the aggressor of the fight, threw more than twice the punches than Roland, but both landed ca. the same, LaStarza fought very effective with his great defense and let Marciano missed a lot of shots, now it´s important how you score a fight in the close rounds, do you give it to the boxer, or to the slugger? But it´s far away from a robbery or so...

I´m too lazy to search for another fight report/ opinion, or even searching where someone saled this fight on VHS or something like that, but it´s well known that it was a close fight, but no robbery or so like some Marciano- haters try to make it out...

 

Marciano defended his title vs the # 1 contender 5 times, only Cockel was ranked 2-3, and he was always better in rematches, Walcott,Charles,Lastarza and he rematched tough opponents, something not every Champ did. I have uncles who were rooting for Lastarza because he was from N.Y. but they felt Rocky won the first fight, even though Lastarza was a favorite, but they became fans of Rocky after that fight and the Vingo fight. Marciano dominated an era of some tough,skillfull men, I rate him 2

 

To me, the lineal championship doesnt mean **** cuz from the 1890-1930's, the coloured heavyweight champ had a claim to being the real champ. In those days, the lineal champ wasnt the only guy defending a 'heavyweight' belt. I basically consider the 'coloured' world heavyweight belt, as the other world title in those days.

Mike Tyson beat 'full grown' heavyweights and he blasted them, the michael spinks that he beat was at a much better point in his own respective career than the charles and moore that rocky beat.

 

Anywhere from 3-10

 

Cox's article is a bit slanted. I've seen several accounts which either had the fight dead-even or as such or had it for Marciano. Cox edits his quotes a little misleadingly, too- the "universally condemned around ringside" thing was actually "almost universally condemned around ringside"- and this is likely to be the impression you get when you're talking about a fight which happened in LaStarza's backyard(LaStarza was the first serious New York heavyweight contender in quite some years and was fighting on his home turf).

 

Well...maybe not always.

Many believe that Rocky basically got a gift decsion over 'Tiger' Ted Lowry the first time. By all accounts it was a very close fight that could have (and maybe should have) gone to Lowry.

They had a rematch later and again it was a tough fight, although on this occasion Marciano won more convincingly. I've never been able to establish quite why Marciano struggled with Lowry.

I don't know much about the guy, but he was short - around 5'10" - and his record was hardly spectacular. However, there was something in his style that clearly bothered Marciano.
People talk about the first LaStarza fight being close, but the first Lowry fight was even closer.

 

With due respect, I think you're being a bit harsh on Marciano.

One could call Frazier a short, strong well-conditioned guy with one punch. Or Ali a speed demon with a good one-two. Obviously, there is a hell of a lot more going for these guys than that, although the basic description is accurate.

Perhaps H2H is unfair on the guy. He was, even by the standards of the day, not a big man.
To compare him with giant heavyweights like Lewis or Klitschko may be a little unfair.
However, he was a dominant heavyweight champion and that must be respected.

 

What sources do you have to suggest this?

This old chestnut is often trotted out by the Marciano detractors but I have never actualy seen anything to back it up.

 

Detractors? Geez, Janitor...I usually stick up for the Rock.

So far, my only source is the newish (or should I say latest) biography on Marciano called The Rock Of His Times by Russell Sullivan. Check it out.