Why the dislike for Rocky Marciano

I do not believe Marciano struggled at all to escape Louis shadow any more than Ali struggled to escape Rockys shadow or Louis struggled to escape Dempsey shadow. Each established themselves as an ATG in of themselves, enough time had passed between the eras and each had very different styles than the previous ATG champion.

 

Absolutely (especially re: Marciano).

 

Very true. When we talk about fitzsimmons or James Braddock we don't automatically start bringing their skin colour up, or Dempsey or Ingo. It just seems to be a focus of a few people on here. And I don't see anything wrong with the question superman1986 brought up, I don't see any agenda behind it.

 

It's complicated. Race affects a lot of people subtly and maybe even subconsciously. Most (white) Americans think that racial bias is some rare character flaw only found in Klansman and black radicals, but in reality many people are affected by subtle and self-conscious biases. It shapes which athletes we gravitate toward, which traits we value most, and which athletes we recognize them in. It's not a coincidence that many of Marciano's most fervent fans tend to be white, and many of his "haters" tend to be non-white.

 

There is no racial bigotry here. We do not look down on n1ggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here fighters are all equally admired.......

 

Even though I think it's better here in Classic I've seen some downright racist things being said by posters who have a legitimate boxing interest and aren't trolls. Then there's one other poster who I haven't seen say anything overtly racist but who will go to all lengths to defend white fighters, past and current, and generally have little positive to say about any others, and only have critical things to say about Johnson and Ali. Now, this doesn't by absolute certainty mean racial bias, but going by Occam's razor...

EDIT: And then you also have at least one poster (present in this thread) who seem to think that white fighter automatically are overrated and inferior. And I can think of one other who wasn't overtly critical of whites but didn't seem to have a lot of good things to say of any white fighters.

General seems pretty infested by racial bias. Especially the Ward-Kovalev fights really was a kick in the ant hill concerning that.

 

During ,and just after his reign Marciano never reached the heights of acceptance , respect or status as a great that Louis did.

 

I wonder whom the underlined can be?

 

I agree.

Yeah, and with the odd exception people here seems to be in general agreement here about that.

 

Rocky attracts some fans who like him particularly because of his color. The thing is, this is a tiny minority of people. Sometimes for innocent reasons, other times, malicious.
But what happens is that this phenomenon introduces a "backlash effect" where people think that every good thing said about Rocky is a race statement.

It's a shame, because that means you've lost the perspective.
You weren't strong enough to go beyond that trashy element of the topic, and look at it purely through a boxing lens. You got sucked into the obscure thinking of flawed ideas.
You are a victim of dogma, and lost out on truth and accuracy.

 

You mean a "blacklash?"

 

Many of the people who have the backlash effect are white.
The 90's was a very tough time for Rocky legacy wise.
Boxing to that point had been interwoven with American social issues.

His story was far less important and captivating than Johnson, Louis, and Ali.
All three of those guys were some of the most progressive figures of our countries history.
Marciano's impact on the world was tiny compared to them.

And the 90's/2000's were a sort of "victory lap" for all of that.
With the documentaries, the narratives, etc.

In the 2010's, the boxing narrative evolved.
It slowly started to shift from a narrative of heros & villains, and started to be covered as a sport.
Kellerman introduced the "I don't care about the cute stories, let's look at the performances" angle.

This is where Marciano thrives.
When you remove the storylines, and stick to the footage, and the ring performances, Rocky sees a legacy resurgence.

 

I always found it curious that people who hate Marciano seem to have him more than Jeffries or Dempsey.

At least you would have a valid reason for hating them, because they drew the color line.

Marciano did not draw the color line, he did the decent thing.

He fought all the top black heavyweights of his era, and he beat them all.

I suspect that is what some people can never forgive him for.