Who ranks higher as a all time heavyweight Rocky Marciano or Evander Holyfield?

And Tyson post-prison, and Douglas when he was 50 pounds overweight...

 

Who were still good fighters and considering Marcanio also beat up mostly old men not really that big of a criticism

 

Heavyweight. In a heritage aspect certainly not H2H.

 

Holyfield.

 

Cool. I like spicy lists that's far lower than were either get rated usually.

 

Aren't most of Marciano's wins against fighters past their prime aswell ?

Joe Louis was certainly further removed from his prime than Mike Tyson was.

Ezzard Charles went 10-13 after his loss to Marciano.

Foreman was old but atleast won the lineal title after losing to Holyfield.

Holmes was also old but was coming off schooling Mercer and then 3 years late came within 1 point of winning a world title.

And beating a prime Bowe with a considerable size disadvantage is better than beating the likes of Walcott, Charles, who were past their best.

 

That is the point. The usual knock against Marciano is not applicable.

 

Marciano for me. Undefeated

 

You can only beat whoever is in front of you. It would be like faulting Usyk for not beating a 7'0 300 pound version of Lennox Lewis that will be around in the year 2065.

 

Do you really think we will see 7'0 300+ pound giants in 2065 at elite level?

 

Who knows. I mean, maybe so, especially with gene editing. I was watching the super bowl and an interesting Stat came on screen. The average lineman in the 60s weighed like 200 pounds or so. Now, it's like 260 pounds. Humans today aren't any genetically different than humans in the 60s. In fact, there's still a considerable amount of people around today who remember the 1960s and even more people who were born in the 60s. It's probably because of advances in sports science and weight training that they are bigger.

With gene editing, we may see 7'0 tall 300 pound fighters that are just as skilled as a Lennox Lewis. And if we do, it's no stain on Usyk's legacy to have not beaten such a fighter as one wasn't around when he was fighting.

 

True but my point is that Holyfield beat a higher level of opponents then Marciano did

 

it's true but it doesn't change the fact that Marciano fought small men even for his era. The cards at the turn of the 40s and 50s in the heavyweight division were so arranged that the biggest HW were small, Joe Louis was already too old and Sonny Liston was too young, there was no Cleveland Williams, Ernie Terrell yet. It's quite strange that Tyson is lynched for quickly massacring an outstanding LHW and Marciano is praised for fighting for his life with another outstanding LHW. It's strange that Tyson is lynched for an easy fight with a 38-year-old who was still active for many years and Marciano is praised for a difficult fight with a 38-year-old who was ending his career. I apologize but all those defeated by Marciano were not that impressive. Sentiments, record, legend... but Rock was not such an outstanding athlete as Holy

 

good comment

 

Lest anyone ie Rocky...Jim... attribute that to the beating Marciano gave him, Ezzard had lost 5 of his previous 17 fights before fighting Rocky the first time. Guys he had previously beaten, like Rex Layne and Jersey Joe, were now beating him. Ez was on the slide well before Rocky got to him.