Who had more heart and stamina Holmes or Marciano?

Guys, seriously.

Stamina, it's Marciano and no contest. He probably threw twice as many punches as Holmes and was the fresher at the end of the fight to boot. And we're not talking a bunch of jabs and then a power shot. We're talking about a relentless barrage of power punches that started somewhere back where the judges were sitting. Stamina is Marciano's defining characteristic.

Heart is more debatable, but I'd still say Marciano. When did Holmes have his nose parted like the Grand Canyon and beg the referee to be allowed one more round? Maybe Holmes would have, but on the balance of the evidence I have to go Rocky here as well.

 

Heart call it even. Stamina Holmes was able to rest more than Rocky. With his jab and height. Marciano had to be working all the time

 

This puts everything into perspective as far as I'm concerned.

 

For the most part Marciano showed his stamina against men in their late 30's who weighed 188-192lbs.
How he would have fared against taller, younger, fresher,heavier guys is a matter of conjecture.
A past prime Charles went 15 rds with him.
A 38 years old Walcott was in the lead going into the 13th rd.
If Rocky had been hitting on a Bonecrusher Smith or a Tim Witherspoon it might have been a different tale?

 

OK.

In other words, Charles and Walcott had great stamina too. Fair enough.

If Holmes had been in with a jackhammer like Marciano instead of, say, I don't know ... Snipes, say, he might have had problems too?

I can buy that Holmes could beat Marciano.

I don't buy that he had better stamina or heart than Marciano.

 

That doesn't really make a difference imo. Throwing say 80 punches per round is still 80 punches regardless of who the opponent is. Holmes was a lot more skilled than his opponents and his opponents were incredibly overmatched. Whereas with Marciano he almost always had less skills than his opponents during his title run.