who should rate higher: marciano or foreman?

My vote goes to Marciano.
But isn't this more of a Classic Forum thing?

 

Marciano: The fact that he never lost carries a lot of weight behind it.

 

And??

 

Walcott, Charles and Archie Moore were great fighters, Outside of Joe Fraizer, Foreman never beat any one that was as good as these guys.

 

Marciano's competition is debated a lot because he fought in an era full of old champions but as I said before, the fact that he never lost carries a lot of weight behind it.

Joe Louis also fought in a somewhat weak era while fighting a lot of old champions on his way to the title, and even he had a loss to an old champion. Lennox Lewis in his youth fought in a very strong era of heavyweights, and as he got older in a weaker era of heavyweights, and again even he had losses in both those eras to lesser fighters.

So what I'm getting at is just the plain fact that Marciano remained undeafeated throughout his entire points to his incredible greatness as a fighter.

 

Never slipping up, ever, and never getting KO'd is a remarkable achievement. Plus, Marciano was a cruiser weight really. PFP he was above Foreman, because Foreman cracked at times when it meant the most, Frazier aside. Marciano wouldn't have been able to stand up to a prime 6'3" Foreman, but that's an unfair match-up. These days Marciano would be regarded as possibly the most dominant cruiserweight ever. I'd have loved see him fight Holyfield or Michael Spinks at CW. Those would have been epic battles.

 

it's close, but i'd say foreman for me.

better h2h ability, fought in the golden era of heavies, won 2 titles separated by a 20 year span, was impressive in tearing through the division on the way to a championship, being the oldest champ has to count for something too.

 

You argument is only halfway there. Foreman himself lost to a past his best Ali while Marciano never lost to a past his best anyone, and the greatest fighter George ever beat was a much smaller Joe Frazier while Marciano had 4 great names in his resume; Moore, Walcott, Charles, and Louis.