Who is the biggest AND best guy you’d pick Floyd Patterson to beat?

I'm thinking!

 

I think all three of those were bad boxers but Willard was the biggest and the worst so I would go for him beating Willard on points.

 

I didn't say he had a great defense. That was another poster.

 

The 6'10 dude that got lucky against Buster Douglas.

 

I was saying that as an undersized, underreached guy whose greatest asset was speed, he sold out on offense (at least in his earlier rendition) at the expense of defense in order to capitalize on said asset. Most of the time you don't get both. All of the time, you have to sacrifice one, to a degree, to emphasize the other.

 

Marciano was slow as molasses and walked away from almost every fight against a half decent opponent with a face of ground beef. The revisionist concept of him as a defensive wizard is one of the more hilarious concoctions of post-modernity.

 

Yeah, I guess all those pics of Marciano's complexion after Louis and Walcott and Charles were just the result of shaving accidents. He got dropped by two absolute ancient fighters, seriously buzzed also by the same guys. An old mummy with one hand damn near closed his eye and bruised his face. Yes, despite his opponent being practically embalmed and only having a single hand, Marciano couldn't find a way to avoid it. I suppose the plethora of times he was wildly off balance and cross footed were just part of his 7th dimensional defense and not the result of having opponents who had one foot in the grave or were the definition of hopeless white dopes. Tell me more of this Willie Pep of the heavyweights. I need more laughter in my life.

 

I may not agree with you politically but holy hell if your takes on Marciano don’t have me ****ing my pants in laughter.

 

Geez not even I use that much hyperbole. Marciano wasn't a defensive genius by any means, but he wasn't as easy to hit as you are making out either. Those fighters were old, agreed, but they were showing good form going into the bouts.

 

On film Marciano offers a ridiculous amount of countering opportunities. However, as fighters age and wear out the tread on their tires and have the onset of neurological conditions, they lose the reflexes to capitalize on these opportunities. That's not called defense, that's called fighting your way through an old folks' home.

 

McVey's invite to hang out and drink beers is on its way to ya