Which Heavyweight Champs Beat Rocky?

Agree

 

Should we put an asterisk * by his name in the record books? Just a reminder that he was an undeserving fighter holding the title of champion?

Oh, if only Mike Dokes had been around in the 1950's...

 

the only ones I would give a chance leading up to Ali would be Louis and Ali, Dempsey would be a war and dangerous but these fights would be tough battles. Foreman has a punchers chance but Marciano had a right hand for him that I am not sure he can survive.

Marciano beats Frazier and Holmes...too much right hand IMO, I think he had too much for Liston

Lewis & Vlad may have too much size but were also KO'd by lesser punchers than Rocky so who knows

Vitali had the size but the 6' Chisora pressed him and made him work and Chisora has limited power so Marciano may be able to out work him

Marciano was only capable of a short career, he did well for a swarmer but he also had tremendous power, he may have had 3-5 fights left but that's pushing it.

He could lose to a few of the best but I would not bet heavy against him

 

No, just because there are maybe 30+ guys who could beat him in history doesn't mean he's a bum. He's just one of the weaker heavyweight champions like Lamon Brewster or Siarhei Liakhovich. Billy Soose has a just claim to the middleweight title even though I think Ray Robinson, Carlos Monzon, Marvin Hagler, Mickey Walker, Harry Greb, Bernard Hopkins, Charles Burley, Stanley Ketchel, Freddie Steele, Tiger Flowers, Marcel Cerdan, Jake LaMotta, Gene Fullmer, Dick Tiger, Sergio Martinez, and several other guys would beat him.

 

You argument is full of holes. It's kind of embarrassing for one with such an eruditely derived name and weakens any supposed argument to point of failure.

Firstly, Lamon and Siahei won splintered titles and did not have any sort of longevity at the top. Marciano was, without any doubt, the single best heavyweight for 4 or 5 years. Horrible analogy.

Secondly, the Soose analogy doesn't fit because you name quite a few contemporaries which you think were better. Which contemporaries of Marciano were better than him? Who did he duck to maintain his stranglehold on the title?

 

This

 

He was the best for a period of 4 or 5 years only because it was the weakest period in 20th century heavyweight history. There literally wasn't anyone around worth fighting. Find me a a weaker era.

My analogy holds because Soose and Marciano are both champions, but weaker champions, way down the list when considering who was the best ever in their division. I would add a further comparison to Mike McTigue, Battling Siki, and Freddie Mills being fairly weak examples of light heavyweight champions. Compared to Michael Spinks, Ezzard Charles, Roy Jones, Tommy Loughran, Bob Foster, Archie Moore, Gene Tunney, Billy Conn, etc. they aren't that impressive.

You might want to think of Marciano's reign at heavyweight sort of like other periods when divisions have lacked luster. There have been a couple of those since the cruiserweight division was invented, times when there isn't really much going on or anybody who's really all that great. Cruiserweight is actually where I do rate Marciano highly and I don't have many beating him in that division.

 

Which heavyweight champ beats Rocky? Maybe none of them. Obviously there's a lot of bias regarding boxing.

 

Originally Posted by Mendoza View Post
AHAHAHA. You know he did. That is enough for me. The fact that you know something to be true, and " hope " I can't find it on the web speaks of your character.

Hope it not a strategy.

Not for the quote you requested:

"Very few people knew this, but I had a weakness, a bad weakness. I didn't like to be crowded. And that was Marciano's thing. He always crowded. I knew I could never beat Rocky." - Joe Louis

In the May, 1990 issue of Boxing Illustrated, Joe Louis was quoted as saying, "very few people knew this, but I had a weakness, a bad weakness. I didn't like to be crowded. And that was Marciano's thing. He always crowded. I knew I could never beat Rocky.

 

For me Liston, Foreman, Bowe and Lewis would be too strong for Rocky. I think Joe Louis would maybe be a bit too polished, but that would be no easy fight.

Ali? I think it would be a war, with Ali winning but only after a tough, tough battle.
I think he beats Johnson after being made to look somewhat foolish for a while, and a Dempsey fight is tough to call. I'd say Marciano if it's over 15. Over a shorter distance, it's extremely close, imo.

 

I only discussed those mentioned by McVey. But other than that, I do believe he'd struggle with a host of 80's/90's heavyweights. I'd also say that Tyson, Tua & the Klitshcko's all beat him relatively easily.

Doesn't really matter though, the man is a legend regardless.

 

I do agree that Marciano was more than the sum of his parts. He maximised his potential 110%, and that's why I'm a huge fan of his.

But at some point, pure size DOES matter, a lot. A guy 8" taller and 60 lbs heavier has a massive (pardon the pun) advantage. Especially when they're pretty decent fighters too.

 

And throwing in that he won by over powering the men he fought which he simply would not be able to do against much bigger, high caliber men .. it's ore than enough to say he was a terrifically tough fighter and one of the pound for pound best heavyweights ..