Why Couldn't Anyone Seal The Deal?

Because Rocky was great. Simple.

 

Nuff said ^

 

Where? Other than Dempsey, I can't think of one light-heavyweight/cruiserweight-sized opponent who many people around here would favor over Marciano.

 

Holyfield and Toney would have made very interesting match ups with Rocky. Not saying I'd favor them but those are both 50/50 type fights.

 

I'd back Rocky over both of those at cruiser. For all intents and purposes Dempsey was mostly under the cruiser limit so he's definitely in the light heavy cruiser mix. Tunney too.

Possibly be a match of Marciano vs Dempsey for best cruiserweight ever i'd think.

 

Marciano probably steamrolls tunney, overwhelms him with volume and pressure. No disrespect to Tunney here, he's a great fighter but I think Marciano is just a bad match up for him.

Marciano will definitely have to get off the canvas to beat Dempsy but I could see him stopping Dempsy late as well.

Rocky vs Holyfield is a coin toss of who wants it more. Certainly would be one of the greatest fights ever. Too close to call.

Toney would be the most interesting of all those fights though. Several guys like Moore, Walcott and Charles had Rocky down big on points only to get Ko'ed late. Toney has a very similar style to those guys and proved he can deal with volume punchers like Jirov and McCallum. But the ace in the hole for Toney is that granite chin. I think he has the perfect mix of style and durability and gives Marciano all he can handle.

 

Good post, not much to disagree with. I think Holyfield was far enough away from what he would become at heavyweight to be beaten by Marciano at 190.

I like Toney's skills but i don't see a guy like McCallum as a volume puncher, particularly in the mode of Rocky. I'd be pretty confident Rocky would outowkr and outpoint Toney. I like the Rock in this one.

So matched in or around his own weight he is or is close to numero uno i'd think.

 

McCallum was a volume puncher when he fought Toney, perhaps not with Rocky's pressure based inside game but still Toney could deal with a lot of leather coming at him. The issues with trying to outwork Toney in close is a lot of guys could throw more punches, but not a lot could land anywhere near as accurately. His great defense allowed him to pick his spots well enough that his opponent would throw 20-30 more punches a round but you'd be landing the same amount of shots. And when Toney landed he lands so clearly and emphatically He'd take rounds by landing cleaner shots. Guys that really troubled Toney were not exactly in the same mold of Rocky.

 

I can't believe people think Rocky could beat Mr.Combination Holyfield at CW. No chance in hell.

 

It's a coin toss because Rocky would be fighting the CW version of Holyfield who was a bit green and possibly weight drained.

That said Rocky would at his career prime, best weight.

I still call that a 50/50 and think Holyfield takes him as a heavyweight.

 

The thing for me is that Rocky hits so much harder than McCallum i'd be throwing that match out as being meaningful. McCallum didn't carry much power up in the weights for mine. They are vastly different fighters to say the least.

I do lend a little bit of credence to the old anology whereever Marciano hit you he hurt you. He'd be banging away hitting Toney's shoulders and arms and head and whatever else. I don't think Toney did that much at 190. It's an open book as to when he started roiding too i guess.

 

Holy only had about 18 fights at cruiser, Marciano would have an excellent chance i think. He beat a couple of great fighters in the cruiserweight category even if they were aging a bit.

 

Marciano would kill Toney.
Toney would do well if he could last as long as Moore did.