Why the dislike for Rocky Marciano

I am watching the Marciano/Moore fight and wonder why do people dislike Marciano?

I think most students of classic boxing respect him. But most boxing fans aren't well versed in the sport's past.
There are some who see an awkward fighter who punches off the wrong foot, has a comically short reach, and who misses a lot of punches while getting hit flush early in fights more than most top rung fighters are apt to. But they probably haven't spent the time to appreciate his ability to close distance repeatedly with underappreciated skill and his outstanding inside work. They don't watch old film, so they are ignorant of his inhuman power punching work rate of the first Charles fight after a grueling atg heavyweight battle. Trench warfare is not as visually appealing to many boxing fans today. It's a workman's skill, one relegated to the short, slow, and those not blessed with significant reach. The boxing supernova that was Muhammad Ali glamorized flashy hand speed, foot work, and a persona to match both. Consequently Marciano's stature suffered somewhat from this paradigm shift in skill package appreciation. Benny Leonard, Gene Tunney, Barney Ross, and SRR were popular with their styles, but Ali like Michael Jordan in basketball set an aesthetic standard that rippled throughout the sport. Simultaneously, the encroachment of amateur boxing standards of scoring on professional ranks synergized with this shift, with bodywork scoring increasingly diminished.
The rise of superheavyweights also hurts Marciano, as he is compared unfairly in h2h matches with the Klitchkos and Lennox Lewis. Although a historical heavyweight champion, he would be a cruiserweight today.
And sadly, as any perusal of a YouTube boxing video commentary section will display, race is still a polarizing aspect of the sport. With the exception of the brief Johansson reign, there wasn't a white heavyweight champion until the Klitchkos arrived a half century later. Marciano was both elevated and denigrated by strident factions of boxing's respective fan bases during that interregnum.

 

Walcott was quite arguably Marciano's best opponent. You'll find it very hard to argue that Cooper was Ali's best.

And don't you find it ironic to start a thread complaining about how Rocky is underrated, and in the same post imply that Cooper was Ali's best opponent when in fact he probably wasn't even top 15?

 

Don't know what's said about Marciano on Youtube and other social media. Probably a lot of crap, since there'a lot of crap said about everyone there. But if you ask people here to do a list over their top 10 HWs, Rocky will be in just about all of them. And very few will make it out like LaStarza was the measure stick of his competition.

The kind of underrating you just did of Ali is much, much more common.

 

Im not a fan of Rocky but I dont dislike him. Its his fans I have the problem with. Anytime you talk to a die hard Rocky fan they find a reason for Rocky beating any other HW who ever lived. That just makes me walk away shaking my head.

 

You have to look at the patterns of behavior here.

Whether Marciano fans are right or wrong, they are not the party initiating the fight.

The Revolvers and Black Hercules's of the world launch regular attacks on Marciano, and his supporters only react in defense of him.

Marciano supporters are generally knowledgeable about their subject matter, and they are usually willing to pick fighters like Sony Liston over him.

Who is the real problem?

 

Why pick one like Cooper, who wasn't one of Ali's best opponents, as an example? I would think it dishonest to pick LaStarza to make a similar point about Marciano. Like arguing for old Foreman's wins against Marciano's by saying that Moorer was a better opponent than LaStarza. You'd be all over the place if someone did that.

And I'd say Liston was significantly better. His record the years leading up to the fight definitely was. Nothing but bias can yell you anything else. But your bias obviously is all right.

30-year old Patterson arguably was on par with 38-year old Walcott.

 

I absolutely see your point. I think both sides go to extreme levels

 

He was a great champion and a fine man.His fan boys bore me rigid on occasion, but that isn't his fault.

 

Agree

 

SIZE is not a reason why Ali would lose to any fighter. Your gravitation to size reveals your amateur level knowledge.

Prime Ali, an ATG hwt champion, would never lose to an unproven contender like AJ.

 

I saw something recently that tallied up past HW champs opponents weight compared to their own and Marciano was a bit of an outlier. Whereas Ali enjoyed a weight advantage over his competition even more than W. Klitschko (which surprised me) Rocky was knocking guys heavier than himself stiff. He may have looked crude in comparison to the flashy speed, feints and co-ordination of Ali but was no less effective and dominated his era, you can't really ask for more than that.

ps. Unrelated but anyone who dismisses size/weight as unimportant in combat only reveals their amateurish novice-ness.

pps. Has anyone else seen the latest pictures of A. Joshua on holiday in the bahamas?
What a magnificent natural physical specimen Be still my beating heart……..