Who is the best modern heavyweight (90s and onward) that you would pick Rocky Marciano to beat?

How much did Tua and Tyson weigh?

 

Wouldn’t have to go 15 rounds just 12 (one of the reasons why people get bigger). He’d also be more explosive using weights and PEDS. Once again men like Tua and Tyson were able to get big and be explosive. Marciano would be no different. His natural walk around weight was plus 210.

 

Yes see David Tua. I’d wager he stay closer to the 215-220 range his natural weight (he used to trim down to 188). Unlike today’s guys of gaining weight.

 

The Tua-Marciano comparison is a tired old trope in these parts.

One guy had a chest like a 200 year old oak, the other like a robin.

Also, one could actually box.

 

One actually won some career defining fights!

 

One got to pick from retreads, no treads and cane-wagging geriatrics.

 

Well any sort of world class wins is better than nothing!

 

I suspect that somebody like Bert Cooper might be a better model for what Marciano would look like today.

 

Beating 4 former or future champs ain't bad.

But I will absolutely agree that Marciano was more accomplished during his era than Tua was during his era. But the sneaky reality is that Tua's contained exponentially more formidable heavyweights, in terms of skill, athleticism and abundance at the top level.

 

Seamus, couldn't agree more. Tua and Marciano couldn't be more different in their builds, the only thing they have in common is height. Tua was a strong, skilled man, Marciano was a guy who came along between two wars at a time that Ron Stander or Rocky Pepeli would have been a dominant heavyweight champion.

Tua's wins over Ruiz and Moorer were better than any wins Marciano ever had and surviving and fighting a close fight with Ibeabuchi is IMO, one of the most impressive performances in boxing history. Not many could have done that and nobody from the Marciano era of boxing would make it into the second round. Marciano could not compete with modern fighters at 200, 175, or 168. His lack of speed, clumsiness, lack of fundamentals...he'd be over powered at 200 and 175 and look like a tug boat in a speed boat race at 168. Size is far from the only thing limiting Marciano in the more modern era.

 

His best bet is Michael Moorer, James Toney, Holyfield, and other smaller guys that moved up. If we’re talking about natural Heavyweights, I’d give him a solid run at beating a good amount of guys in the Klitschko era, but definitely not any top 10 fighters in that era.

 

Perhaps you should care more about their records. than their builds?

You don't have a single piece of data from the real world, to support this wild and speculative assertion.

It is nothing more than trash talking.

This is an absolutely ridiculous statement.

Ruiz was a nobody at the time, and Moorer had long ceased to be a force at world class level.

Neither was close to being a world level win at the time.

Trash talk, hot air, and not a single thread of evidence.

Look at what fighters actually did in their own eras, rather than what you think they might have done in another era.

The former carries a lot more weight than the latter!

 

So what if it did?

The ones that mattered all beat him!

 

What matters is that we are essentially discussing head to head. If we ignore the context of their respective eras we distort their respective worth.

Now, I'm not as down on Rocky as Pat, tho I respect his opinion. I think Rock would be a factor at 190. Chin, power and fitness, and facing smaller and less talented fighters ( the more talented having generally moved up) would keep him in the mix. He wouldn't have that perfect record but he'd get a strap.

 

I just don’t understand how people actually think gaining weight is an issue? Couldn’t be simpler especially now adays. Especially for a man NATURALLY over 200. These people actually think his walk aroung weight was 188. If Tua trained like Marciano then guess what? He’d have a smaller chest size. This really isn’t at all hard to grasp imo.