Wladimir Klitschko vs. Rocky Marciano

Most of this is true.

Rocky's unbeaten career started in March 1947 and ended in September 1955. That's 8.5 years.

Wlad's unbeaten streak started in October 2004. At the earliest, it could end in his next fight, March 2013. That's also 8.5 years.

Rocky's retired at 32.

Wlad's career, until today, has lasted 16 years. Soon he will be 37 years old.

(In fact, only Larry Holmes, Jack Johnson and James Jeffries had longer unbeaten streaks than Wlad.)

 

Ranking above Holmes is harder for Wlad, imo.

Holmes was undefeated since the start of his career until he was past his prime in 1985. He never lost in his prime. Wlad did at least two times.

That's the main difference. Both dominated mediocre divisions during 7 years, though, and Wlad's comp might be a bit better (just because Holmes never unified and fought a lot of boxers with less than 20 pro fights).

 

Funny but I just watched a overweight 40 year old 5'11 Sherman Williams (who is not a puncher) stagger 6"7 Robert Hellenus and a lot of the reasons put forth here are size and Robert who is a puncher could not get off vs the smaller man ...I do not think R.H. is in the class of Klitschko but when a real puncher connect to any chin you never know

After watching Johnathan Banks dispatch the mighty muscled Seth Mitchell and would love to see how the svelt Ezzard Charles with a few more lbs of muscle would do these days

Don't get me wrong I am a big fan of the Klitschko's and I think Vlad has improved with each fight. I think he displayed a great variety of punches vs Wach, it was a showcase fight. The Klitschko's are also very fit but in a 15 round fight fought at a fast pace I can see an ATG like Marciano making him work and Marciano's power, Walcott KO (right hand) Layne KO (Layne proved to be tough chinned before this) some of the Moore battery, can not be discounted...this is a very tough fight for Vlad despite his size and it only takes one snowball to start an avalanche, another question is it 12 or 15 rounds

 

That's always a risk.

If you change a variable, everything could change. You never know. If you give more muscle to Charles, his speed would change, changing his style and possibly everything, including his stamina and defense. In my opinion, in fantasy matchups you can only use a fighter from his best performance.

 

Err.. didn't Marciano flee back to the amateurs after that March 47 victory, and wasn't his next pro victory 16 months later? That stretch of professional inactivity, fit between bouts with two non-entities, constitutes 20% of his career. Just further indictment, in my opinion.

 

Wlad has little in common with Helenius, who won wide anyway, and Seth Mitchell. Mitchell is also a lot shorter than Wlad and Banks is bigger than Marciano. I question Marciano's ability to get full power on a head shot against Wlad. I can't see him ever connecting with that short right.

 

what would be the best tactics for marciano to use?
for 6 rounds i would want to see mostly body shots to try and get wlad's hands down a bit and take him out of his comfort zone.
not much rocky can do about clinches himself, so i'll have joe cortez to referee

 

I agree to a point, Haye fought to survive which is why he lasted, Marciano would be fighting to win that alone shows you the difference between the fighters. However, that's what I think it would take to beat Wlad, to fight him, not do what Haye did stay on the outside eating punches then blindly lunging in every so often to throw a wild punch. Marciano didn't fight on the outside, every second of every round Marciano was trying to get in close, in order to unleash a barrage of bombs. Haye even tho he went the distance had the absolute worst game plan possible against Wlad by staying on the outside on the end of Wlads jab and yet he still survived. Marciano will be bobing and weaving to get inside, and to fight on the inside something Wlad hasn't proven he's able to do effectivley. Win, Lose or Draw Marciano would give an infinitely better account of himself than Haye.

Haye's feet and handspeed although certainly faster than Marciano accounted for nothing against Wlad other than to run away something you admitted Marciano wouldn't be doing. Marciano's power seemed to be more devastating but it might be able to be argued any way. Marciano certainly throws a HELL of alot more punches tho.

 

Marciano KO by the 6th. And heres why, Brute force power, fact of the matter is Wlad never been as hard as The Rock's gonna lay it on him, and Wlad is just not talented enough to keep a stalker and power puncher like Marciano off his hs big ass, I say Rocky destroys his ass!

 

I'm not sure Larry had the sqne dominance to be honest... He struggled in some fights and he never once fought a fellow belt holder. Even when all he had to do was face a mandatory to unify he failed again.

Larry is a better heavyweight than wlad. I'm just not sure he was a better champion.

 

Yes, it's well possible that Marciano takes him out. He has the power to do so.

Regarding Wlad's stamina, that's changed a lot. He lost the Purrity and Brewster fights purely because of it - both times he rarely got hit even when he was falling all over the place before being stopped. He used to have very wrong training habits. A lot of weight lifting and sparring 4 intense rounds but rarely more. When he hooked up with Steward, that changed and he trained like a classic boxer. It showed: since then he's shown good stamina. Against Peter he wasn't caught on the ropes a single time during all 12 rounds while maintaining 40-50 punches a round. Against Chambers and Thompson he showed late round power to still score a KO.

 

Shame he wasted his physical prime with a **** trainer.

 

Stop overrating Marciano's power. Marciano wore 6 ounce gloves and fought a litany of past-prime cruisers and light heavies, some of them with certifiable glass jaws. So the results are not particularly surprising.

 

Marciano did NOT wear 6 ounce gloves

 

Seamus, stop saying that. Marciano's era was filled with hall of fame champions(Walcott, Charles, Moore, H Johnson) and young, dangerous punchers (Henry, Baker, Valdes, Layne) and a dangerous old vet (Louis)

Certainly it was far better than Dempsey's era