It was 40 years ago today that Rocky Marciano died in a plane crash, one day shy of his 46th birthday. The legendary "Brockton Blockbuster" retired in 1955 with a record of 49-0 (43 KO), with his final win coming via 9th round knockout of Archie Moore.
Rocky Marciano at BoxRec.com
The Way It Was: Marciano went out on top - The Washington Times
over 2 years ago
Scott Christ
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It is a great shot of Marciano
Not the iconic one of Walcott, but it really shows what was so dangerous about Marciano, which was his legs. I remember talking to the great Kenny Weldon about Marciano, and the thing we agreed on was the flexibility and reach of his step, which still strikes me as the most freakish thing about him and the thing that made him deadly.
Over the hill or not, I’m pretty certain that Marciano would’ve murdered Floyd Patterson in cold blood.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
he would have murdered patterson similar to what sonny liston did to patterson in their fights.
i love floyd, not many people have anything at all bad to say about him, but he would not of stood a chance against rocky.
by sonofapsycho on Aug 31, 2009 10:38 PM EDT up reply actions
It would have been worse, honestly.
No disrespect to Floyd, but Patterson was the only sitting world champ I can think of who got dropped by a guy like Rademacher with no professional experience. Floyd’s chin was legendary, but for all the wrong reasons. Besides, if the “Hammer of Thor” could break Floyd’s light bulb six times in one fight, Rocky Marciano would have unplugged the lamp in three rounds.
That said, I think Liston-Marciano would’ve been a great fight.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
I think Marciano
Might have had trouble breaking Listons body… But breaking his spirit is another thing entirely. The first time Liston hit Rocky, I mean REALLY HIT Rocky and he didn’t go down and caught a bomb in return that little voice of self-doubt talking to Liston in his head would tell him he didn’t want any part of that monster.
Gimme 1 round!
by ItBurnzWhenIP on Sep 1, 2009 4:21 AM EDT up reply actions
yup
even cus knew floyd didn’t stand a chance against rocky. he knew floyd didn’t have a chance in the against liston either and ducked him as long as they could too.
@mikefareri on twitter.
by sonofapsycho on Sep 1, 2009 12:52 PM EDT up reply actions
Prime Liston would have destroyed Rocky
“Styles make fights.”
Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"
I think that Liston had the style to beat Marciano. But, like like psycho points out above, did he have the “everything else?” One thing about Marciano was that had the “everything else” in spades, and had a truly bizarre style that could really throw a good boxer off his gameplan. Liston could be broken by Marciano both psychologically and physically. If I recall correctly, a Light Heavyweight broke Liston’s jaw in his first loss. If Marciano was able to really bust him up on a big exchange, I don’t necessarily see Liston rising to the occasion.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
In that spirit...
I thought I’d throw in Marciano’s second round destruction of Kid Matthews in 1952, which gets short shrift, but for my money is one of his best wins. Matthews was on an eight year unbeaten streak, and for my money was one of the top twenty light heavyweights of all time. Matthews was a cute, slick counterpuncher who was trying to cute his way around Marciano and into a heavyweight world title. I wish I could find a clip for it, because it was one hell of a vicious knockout, and underrated on Rocky’s list.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
Not even remotely close
Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"
So
who do you reckon as the greatest? Just out of interest.
by Drunken cutman on Sep 1, 2009 4:55 PM EDT up reply actions
There’s no question that Marciano is top ten, all time, and probably top five. In the time travel fight, it’s better to send modern fighters backwards than old timer forward. The reason is diet and nutrition. For the generation of fighters raised in the Depression, average heights and frames were smaller than they were for fighters raised even a decade later, when not only did diets include more protein, but farmers widely started adding hormones to livestock to increase their yield. I saw some human growth rates recently that bears this out. The huge spike in size that occurred during the post-war period doesn’t seem to be a coincidence.
There’s no reason I can see that a modern Marciano wouldn’t be much bigger than the one who fought in the 40’s and 50’s, and all other things being equal, we would have chewed through much of the competition of the 80’s to the present. I don’t mind if people don’t rate Marciano that high, but if its just because of size I don’t really think that’s accurate.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
It's not that.
It’s because Rocky never beat a single historically elite HW in his prime, not a single one.
Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"
Ali, Louis, Johnson Foreman, Dempsey, Fraizier, etc. all beat multiple elite HWs while they were in their prime.
Boxing writer: "Iran, what are you going to do when you retire?"
Iran Barkley: "Rob your house"
I sometimes feel that in his “overrated” state that has spread across the interwebs, Ali has become almost underrated among diehards, some of whom just have a boner for not taking the easy pick. It’s not like Ali doesn’t have a tremendously awesome case for being greatest HW of all time. Better than Marciano’s, IMO.
Bad Left Hook
"Well Howie, I think I'm going to stay outside and outjab him." -- Tex Cobb telling Howard Cosell how he would approach Larry Holmes
I'm not gonna get into this with you man...
Nice try, though.
"This fight'll be the nastiest thing you'll ever see. I been sober for six weeks, and that makes me vicious."
-- Randall 'Tex' Cobb
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