Who is better H2H Dempsey or Marciano?

I picked Marciano but that's only because he may last a couple more rounds. All those guys on that list at their best would beat the brakes off both of them.

 

Dempsey was more of a celeb than a champ.

Marciano.

 

It is a difficult comparison to make, because they have different styles and strengths.

Dempsey is about as good as you get as a finisher, but Marciano is much better as an attrition fighter.

Dempsey would do much better against Lewis that Marciano would, but Marciano would do much better against Ali.

 

Easily Marciano.

 

I've begun to appreciate Dempsey more lately and I think his skills are more transferable to the modern era, mainly because he is proven against super heavyweights. Then again Rocky never drew the colour line so was a much better champion in terms of taking on challenges.

I favour both to lose to everyone on the list apart from Johnson who I favour both to beat, I think. I favour Dempsey over Rocky though so I give him the edge.

 

Lets look at it this way. Say that you had to hand pick one of them to beat each guy:

Johnson - Marciano
Louis - Dempsey
Liston - Dempsey
Ali - Marciano
Frazier - Dempsey
Foreman - Dempsey
Holmes - Marciano
Tyson - Dempsey
Holyfield - Marciano
Lewis - Dempsey

 

I like both guys. They were winners with the right instincts. You can argue other champions had size or ability on them, or both, but who had temperment and instinct over Rocky or Jack?

These two just won. What ever it took, at their best, they were capable of the unexpected.

Thing is Dempsey beat bigger guys and Rocky beat blacker guys.

You could argue Jack was only a white champion where as Rocky was a world champion. But you could just as easy call Rocky (by today's standards) a cruiserweight champion where as Jack was a heavyweight champion.

Who wins more of these fights? Probably Rocky, but both were fascinating champions who could pull off extraordinary results.

If somebody says both beat all those guys at least once who could argue?

 

Why does most posters on this forum hold Jack Dempsey in such low esteem, whilst
great fighters, trainers and boxing writers, who saw him at his best and raved about
his toughness, vicious two handed hitting powers hold him in such high regard in
H2H with any fighter in the heavyweight division ?
I'll take the words of his boxing contemporaries over today's naysayers who love to bash him today..."oh he didn't fight Harry Wills" they cry over their beer, though they did
sign for a bout which fell through due to the Michigan promoter not coming up with
the funds. Dempsey was a racist they decry, though he fought John Lester Johnson,
employed throughout his career top black sparring partners as Big Bill Tate, George Godfrey, and helped a few out in their days of need when they were ill. How noble are today's critics living in different times NINETY years later!!!.
To these critics I say I am just as fair minded as they and I realize that they as well as I are products of our times, No less and no more...Dempsey was a great heavyweight
and a threat to any heavyweight before him and after him. There I got that off my chest.

 

Marciano fought almost nothing but #1 contenders as champion. Dempsey fought almost anything but.

 

We are talking about this thread,"Who is better H2H Dempsey or Marciano"? And as I have posted before in a poll taken in the height of
Marciano's title reign ,they asked veteran boxing writers who saw the prime Dempsey tear through his division, and were watching Marciano
fights ,"Who would win in a fight between the prime Jack Dempsey and Marciano "?.And by almost all, the boxing writers chose Dempsey because of his greater speed, accuracy in his short punches, and the fact Dempsey
was a better two handed puncher than Rocky who truly missed half his punches...Who should I a reasonable man believe THEY who saw both or you 90 years later...? Styles, styles, styles...And Dempsey would find
the slower and less accurate hitting Marciano food for fodder...Adios...

 

Very close but I give Dempsey the edge in H2H because of his blistering hand-speed coupled with brutal one-punch power. Also, Dempsey used to soak his face in pickle brine and it toughened his skin and made him more resistant to facial cuts. Marciano's tissue-thin skin made him bleed like a stuck pig in many of his fights. Nowadays they would stop it when a fighter bleeds heavily from deep facial cuts.

 

Well, tbh, I find it hard to do this, because I have no idea how their styles would translate to modern rules and how the HWs generally got bigger and stronger. But here goes:


Johnson-Dempsey
Louis-Marciano
Liston-Marciano
Ali-Dempsey
Frazier-Marciano
Foreman-? Dempsey? IDK
Holmes-Dempsey
Tyson-Dempsey
Holyfield-Marciano
Lewis-Dempsey

A lot of these are tossups though

 

The difference between their primes was roughly 35 years. By the time those whippersnappers who watched Dempsey at 25 or 30 saw Marciano they were 60 or 65…

When have you ever met a 65 year old who prefers the boxers from the contemporary day to those from his hey day?

 

That is right on Seamus. Nostalgia favors "Your"champion.

1) People are products of their time only in the mechanistic sense of a combination of nature & nurture. But many in racist or less so times CHOOSE to be more or less so.

2) Dempsey was a HW & Rocky a CW? Whaaaa? Dempsey apparently said he was 180 for the Willard fight, is clearly scrawny by modern standards, with much less lower body bulk than Rocky, & never fought above the 190's though not short. A CW.

3) Dempsey gets credit for his 1 punch power of Rocky? Dempsey himself noted how he needed a barrage to finish guys as opposed to Marciano, due to more one punch power.

4) Marciano was far more consistent, much better endurance, fought all the best guys.

5) Yes Dempsey was faster & more accurate. And longer.

I can see picking Dempsy since the height/reach/speed & accuracy deficits might be too much to overcome. Yet Dempsey was not defensive master, & endurance would make a big difference.

I pck Marciano.