Who Was Marciano's Worst Title Challenger?

Cockell was the only one who didn't hold the Ring Magazine #1 ranking, so I guess him by default.

 

Easily Cockell


22-6 record at heavyweight

- lost twice to trialhorse Aaron Wilson. Got knocked out by one punch

- got destroyed in 4 rounds by feather fisted jimmy slade

- knocked out early and stopped by Kitteone Lave and Nino Valdes


- his best wins are over Roland Lastarza who lost that same year by knockout to Julio Mederos and Charley Norkus. Lastarza was possibly washed up here, evidence suggests it.

- his next best wins were over Harry Matthews, a west coast hype job whom was on the way down and who never beat another contender from 1953-retirement.

- Williams and Arthur were not even Euro Level


On film, cockell looks awful. A slow fat plodder who couldn’t punch, couldn’t take a punch, and had not an ounce of athleticism or slickness in his boxing ability.

 

And for a lot of other reasons, but Lastarza gets severely overrated around here. The rocky jones disasters are eye opening when you read what actually happened

 

****ell for sure was the worst title challenger for Marciano, but he wasn't horrible. For example Jack Johnson fought worse for title shots.

Marciano pretty much fought the top rated guys as champ

 

Marciano was in a weird era where he came up against great fighters who were mostly past prime or above their best weight. Louis, Ezzard, Walcott and Archie, all ATGs but none considered at their best when Marciano fought them.

Not his fault though, he basically fought everyone put in front of him.

Whose the exceptions? Valdez who lost to Archie otherwise he would have gotten a shot. Bucceroni was battered by La Straza in a rematch.

Baker, Harrison, Henry, Satterfield, Baksi were all hit and miss and weren't exactly going to light up Marciano's resume. Bivins was completely shot.

Liston and Patterson were just that little bit out of timing, coming into the rankings/weight as Rocky retired.

Cockell is his worst defence but he's not a whole lot worse than most of the alternatives.

 

Cockell was a test for Rocky's surgically repaired nose...

 

Cokkell was the lowest ranked challenger Rocky ever fought. Don was legitimate Number Two in the world.


- and Don put up a better fight than Tony Tubbs did challenging Mike Tyson.

 

In terms of the ten weakest heavyweight challengers for a ring magazine / lineal title shot, I do not think Cockerel rates. You fool no one. This is just another I hate Rocky Marciano thread, from a poster who thinks he lacks one punch power.

But maybe there should be a thread on the ten weakest heavyweight challengers ever. Nah, let's make it top 20. It might be inserting. Who has the most? Probably Johnson or Louis. Scratch that. Start with Burns! I think Ali, Holmes, Johnson, Louis, and Patterson would each have two or more on the list, but I really haven't thought about it.

It could be an interesting fun type of thread.

 

If your going to make excuses for his opponents you can make them for Rocky also.

How many boxers would have beaten the fighters he did starting boxing in their mid 20s? not many If any.

 

To be fair to Harry Mathews he had a lot of mileage and fought above his weight class before he piled on a few loses. Man knew how to box. Lacked power but was fast.

 

It's not really excuses, it's just what happened.