Who is the biggest person Rocky Marciano fought?

I think Charles was only ever an exclusive lightheavyweight for about 8 months in 1946. After that he was beating men between 176 and 215lb, he never went back to just fighting men below 176lb.

It's easy to see why Charles should be considered a lock to beat any lightheavyweight from history but it seems funny to rank him as just a lightheavyweight when he was one for such a short time. It's 8 months.

I know Charles often beat heavyweights whilst weighing under 180 but so did Dempsey. Did that make Dempsey a great lightheavyweight too? Or does that make Dempsey a heavyweight because he was beating heavyweights?

I think Michael Spinks had the same number of Heavyweight opponents as Tunney yet out of the two of them Spinks is regarded the light heavyweight who won the heavyweight title. Tunny is regarded as a heavyweight. Always.

 

HE WAS A GREAT P4P FIGHTER.
I think we can all agree on that, whether he would beat Langford,Loughran, or Tunney at 175lbs is a moot point.
Speaking of Loughran among the heavies he beat were.
Sharkey
Baer
Braddock
Hamas
Levinsky
Risko
Schaaf
Griffiths
Uzcudun
Godoy

Light heavies

Lomski
Slattery
Stribling
Carpentier
McTigue
Latzo
That's a better scalp list than Charles's ,anyone consider him a great Heavyweight?

 

Tunney fought 9 fights at HW and Spinks I believe had 5? I think the fact spinks was so overpowered by Tyson marginalized how people view him at heavy despite the Holmes and Cooney fights.

 

Braddock was a LHW opponent.

There was never a time Loughran was considered the best HW in the world. He was a busy hot/cold contender that picked up alot of great scalps but also many losses.

I thinK Charles has the better scalps anyway.

 

Splitting hairs with Loughran and Charles resumes. I think the fact Loughran was a little inconsistent throughout his career as a whole may give the nod in Charles's favor being that a good chunk of his losses came on the back end of his career.

 

You're right, Braddock was at Lhvy I should not have included him in the heavyweight scalps.

Marshall was 168lbs is that a heavyweight ?
Maxim and Lesnevich were career lhvys wouldnt you say?
Fitzie Fitzpatrick was only a three quarter pound over the lhvy limit for one of their fights, he dropped Charles in the other.

My point is that Loughran had lots of wins over ranked heavyweights yet no one ever calls him a great heavy, nor should they imo. I feel the same about Charles ,who may be the no1 at 175lbs.

 

-No, which is why I didn't count him as such. :huh
-No. Maxim bounced around, I believe he was over the HW limit everytime he fought Charles, in a few fights he had something like 20+ pounds on him.
-Gus had some meaingful HW fights and the Charles fight was for the HW title. Gus was actuallly heavier.
-Fitz was also 182 in one meeting.

-And I disagree for reasons stated.

 

How would people view Tunney at heavyweight if he hung around and fought Harry Wills, Larry Gains, George Godfrey, Jack Sharkey, Paulino uzcudun, max Schmeling, primo carnera and Jack Renualt?

 

Nah, not at HW.

Declined Louis, Bivins, Walcott, Bivins, Ray> Declined Sharkey, Baer.

The rest are probably splitting hairs though. Oma, Valentino, Hamas, Levinsky, Risko, Baski, Uzcudun.


-Exactly. Charles also reaching the apex and defending the title a good number of times whle Loughran lost to both Sharkey and Carnera in his title bids.

 

I would favor Tunney to win against every guy on that list and the sheer longevity and title defenses that would have been added to his resume would probably place him inside the top 5. Even though there isn't a top 10 ATG in those names there are a lot of hall of fame fighters there.

 

I think it's close don't sell Earnie Schaaf short he held wins over Loughran, Baer, Braddock and Stribling before his life was cut short at only 24 he is at least the equal of Elmer Ray who was avoided but basically built his resume on sub standard opposition receiving a gift against Charles in one fight being ko'd in the next and losing his series to Walcott. A big puncher but not as highly rated as his resume or win streak would lead one to beleive. He is in the same vein as a young Stribling great record but lacking top end quality victories.

 

That's fair, regarding Ray. I still don't see a case for Loughran on par with Charles at HW though. He might be on even terms with Moore though.

 

That is all a shot in the dark as these fighters on the whole are much better, and bigger, than any heavyweight Tunney fought other than the aging Dempsey.

I think someone like Godfrey would be an entirely different kettle of fish than Tom Heeney. Same with Schmeling.

And Tunney would be aging at the time of these fights.

*all just guesswork, of course.

**The clear difference between Charles and Loughran is that Charles won the big ones. Loughran lost his key fights to Sharkey and Carnera. Charles defeated Walcott in 1949 and Louis. That is why Charles became champion and why he is rated higher at heavyweight. The champion in most sports (like the NFL) isn't necessarily the team with the most wins, but the team that wins the big ones. Charles was also much more consistent in his prime.

 

Loughran could not beat Primo for the Heavyweight title so he did not win or defend it. Do you think Primo would beat Charles, I do not. Do you think Loughran is in Charles class? or more in the class of a Joey Maxim who beat Floyd Patterson,Lee Oma,Curtis Sheppard,Ollie Tanberg,Jersey Joe Walcott,Jimmy Bivins,Bob Satterfield and at light-heavy beat Irish Bob Murphy,Danny Nardico,SRR

Besides not winning the Heavyweight title Loughran also had many losses in the same time period Walter Nuesel,Arturo Gody,Jack Sharkey,Stanley Poreda,Ernie Schaff X2, Johnny Risko,King Levinsky,Tommy Farr and Steve Hamas

Loughran is not near the class of Charles at Heavyweight IMO

 

Yes it is all pure speculation but outside of Godfrey's physical dimensions I doubt He would bring anything to the table to bother a clever tactician such as Tunney. I've always felt Godfrey was overrated. His resume is simply not hall of fame worthy, even though he is enshrined. He was ko'd often, was a very dirty fighter and was beaten in his prime by Johnny Risko whom Tunney handled with ease. Sharkey couldn't get past Heeney settling for a draw with the hard rock who also posed virtually no problem for Tunney. Tunney an astute observer of fighters was willing to cross the color line to fight Wills. One would think he was well aware of his diminishing skills and would have feasted on the black panther much the same Sharkey did only months later. Gains and Renault while good never faced anyone such as Dempsey or Greb multiple times each. Renault was already in considerable decline by time Tunney became champion. Uzcudun was durable and anyone who fought him was in a fight but a boxer was total kryptonite to him. Even his lone "draw" in three failed attempts to get a win off Schmeling was a complete hometown hose job to schmeling. Schmeling would be the one fighter I could see of the batch springing an upset on the fighting marine. Again all pure speculation and we'll never know but I would favor Tunney going in to these matches.