PLEASE READ before responding
Iâll give my reasons.
First of all, Rocky Marciano is the greatest heavyweight of all time on a p4p basis, not by resume. There is a reason he never lost, it wasnât just clever match making either, no way Charles, Moore and Walcott was cherry picking, these were good fighters.
now my personal reasons as to why stem from the way he won his fights. Not who he beat. Add to that the many clear interviews of him to understand who he was.
Marciano had unlimited heart. There has never been a fighter harder than Rocky Marciano. He is the closest thing to a gladiator we will get to see. This man is ice cold. What people donât understand about old conditioning vs new conditioning is the effort put forth in ones training. Marciano could push himself harder than anyone. There are references to him coming to a fight 2 hours early just to warm up because he was so sore. He would fight with a full blown flu. He was smiling with Joy while his nose was hanging off. At the peak of camp Marciano would run 12-15 miles in army boots up and down hills, where some sections the uphill run might be 45 minutes straight. For a man of his build - he is someone who could easily carry 300 lbs on his frame had he not been a boxer - to run this type of distance and albeit pace is incredibly hard and takes incredible willpower. He would sickishly drive hard digging punches into that big heavybag for hours on end almost with a religious fervor.
So take careful note to understand the type of person he was. Just listen to Ali speak of Marciano. Donât you find it strange how he just lays the compliments on Marciano, while Marciano bad mouths him, and calls him clay? Does anyone notice this? I always get a lot of feedback for saying things like this, but I canât help but feel its true - Marciano scared the daylights out of Ali.
I have my own Ideas Marciano REALLY hurt Ali, but they had a silence clause to preserve Alis image. But Ali being the man he was, felt obligated to not bad mouth the man that hurt him and broke him. There is another interview of Ali I believe with cosell or something, and heâs praising Marciano again. The interviewer is almost comforting him. Ali just keeps going on about how hard Marciano hits. I have this idea from reading about the computer fight and how they interacted, anything I could get my hands on. And watching the entire thing many times over.
Ali mentioned how excited and almost giddy Marciano was to spar Ali. Marciano would watch all the fights and comment to his wife how he thinks he could beat them all, including Liston.
Because power is the last to go, remember this is still Marciano that Ali was sparring with. You donât want to get lazy and let Marciano hit you.
anyhow, on to his style -
I find him to be a very crafty and almost brilliant at times, fighter. Marciano was constantly baiting you with his sweeping slow headmovement designed to draw punches in so he can get close. Itâs not just âslow headmovementâ it has a purpose and that is to get his opponents to open up. If you do everything fast they will go on the defensive.
once inside Marciano maintains that smooth lumbering rythm, he even throws some lobbing punches that they too, are all apart of the lulling to sleep process. Then of course, out of knowhere - the nuclear weapon goes off and Marciano launches some high velocity projectile on his dopey victim. Marciano does not have slow hands! The amount of times Rocky used the âlull you to sleep, wake you upâ tactic. Duran employed his own version of this, they were both in contact with Freddy Brown. Perhaps Duran is a fan of Marciano.
the heart is the most important factor in all of boxing. It determines how hard a person is willing to try to win. How badly they want it. Its more important than speed. Because effort means adjusting and improvising, and it means trying when someone else wonât. This is what Rocky would do to Ali. He fights everyone differently, and against Ali heâs gonna use the crouch and chase him all night, doing crushing damage when Ali takes breaks. The crouch will Frustrate the hell out of Ali. He canât punch down at someone 5 â. 10 whos crouching to 5 ft 5. Look what Louis tried to do, he lowered himself to meet Marciano in an effort to hold his ground and lost his mobility and leverage. If Ali tried this it would be even worse.
now I still figure Ali to land some fast hard shots on Marciano, who especially early on might get tagged.
however, Marciano isnât going to just stand there and take a beating. And heâs not going to slow down or be intimidated no matter what Ali hits him with. Marciano has a reservoir that no other fighter has. In one round he threw 133 punches alone.
Marcianos power. Its dynamic. The man is built like a rhino, and incredibly hard bodied and strong. A referee early in his career said he tried to break him and grabbed his arm. He said he could not even budge his arm. He couldnât believe how strong he was. But even better, Marciano has PERFECTED punching for his build. His punches are all perfectly leveraged. He certainly worked on this for hours at a time. He does not pull his punches whatsoever. He only uses the propulsion required to send his shots through. Complete and utter follow through. He is punching as if there is nothing in the way. Lastly his short thick arms offer so much leverage, this is where the raw power comes from.
once this man gets up close to you. Its his territory and its over. He can throw dozens of full power shots while the 6 fr 3 guy canât even get one good one off.
as Archie Moore put it âhe just wants to get close to youâ and **** you up lol.
his defense. Amazing in the sense that he doesnât take damage. For a fighter who is 5 ft 10 with a 68 reach that comes forward 100 percent of the time. He is incredibly hard to hit with his combination of head movement and placement, followed by just raw aggression which is defense in itself when you have the type of stamina Marciano has. He rides punches very well in the freddy brown style. The only punches Marciano takes are smothered weaker inside punches that he usually rolls with. He never takes damage.
he never boxes outside so he never gets outboxed. Outside he crouches. Its inside he opens up. He avoids his biggest weakness with cunning.
I think I have typed enough. Marciano is the HW goat. Once in a lifetime type of fighter.
Iâll give my reasons.
First of all, Rocky Marciano is the greatest heavyweight of all time on a p4p basis, not by resume. There is a reason he never lost, it wasnât just clever match making either, no way Charles, Moore and Walcott was cherry picking, these were good fighters.
now my personal reasons as to why stem from the way he won his fights. Not who he beat. Add to that the many clear interviews of him to understand who he was.
Marciano had unlimited heart. There has never been a fighter harder than Rocky Marciano. He is the closest thing to a gladiator we will get to see. This man is ice cold. What people donât understand about old conditioning vs new conditioning is the effort put forth in ones training. Marciano could push himself harder than anyone. There are references to him coming to a fight 2 hours early just to warm up because he was so sore. He would fight with a full blown flu. He was smiling with Joy while his nose was hanging off. At the peak of camp Marciano would run 12-15 miles in army boots up and down hills, where some sections the uphill run might be 45 minutes straight. For a man of his build - he is someone who could easily carry 300 lbs on his frame had he not been a boxer - to run this type of distance and albeit pace is incredibly hard and takes incredible willpower. He would sickishly drive hard digging punches into that big heavybag for hours on end almost with a religious fervor.
So take careful note to understand the type of person he was. Just listen to Ali speak of Marciano. Donât you find it strange how he just lays the compliments on Marciano, while Marciano bad mouths him, and calls him clay? Does anyone notice this? I always get a lot of feedback for saying things like this, but I canât help but feel its true - Marciano scared the daylights out of Ali.
I have my own Ideas Marciano REALLY hurt Ali, but they had a silence clause to preserve Alis image. But Ali being the man he was, felt obligated to not bad mouth the man that hurt him and broke him. There is another interview of Ali I believe with cosell or something, and heâs praising Marciano again. The interviewer is almost comforting him. Ali just keeps going on about how hard Marciano hits. I have this idea from reading about the computer fight and how they interacted, anything I could get my hands on. And watching the entire thing many times over.
Ali mentioned how excited and almost giddy Marciano was to spar Ali. Marciano would watch all the fights and comment to his wife how he thinks he could beat them all, including Liston.
Because power is the last to go, remember this is still Marciano that Ali was sparring with. You donât want to get lazy and let Marciano hit you.
anyhow, on to his style -
I find him to be a very crafty and almost brilliant at times, fighter. Marciano was constantly baiting you with his sweeping slow headmovement designed to draw punches in so he can get close. Itâs not just âslow headmovementâ it has a purpose and that is to get his opponents to open up. If you do everything fast they will go on the defensive.
once inside Marciano maintains that smooth lumbering rythm, he even throws some lobbing punches that they too, are all apart of the lulling to sleep process. Then of course, out of knowhere - the nuclear weapon goes off and Marciano launches some high velocity projectile on his dopey victim. Marciano does not have slow hands! The amount of times Rocky used the âlull you to sleep, wake you upâ tactic. Duran employed his own version of this, they were both in contact with Freddy Brown. Perhaps Duran is a fan of Marciano.
the heart is the most important factor in all of boxing. It determines how hard a person is willing to try to win. How badly they want it. Its more important than speed. Because effort means adjusting and improvising, and it means trying when someone else wonât. This is what Rocky would do to Ali. He fights everyone differently, and against Ali heâs gonna use the crouch and chase him all night, doing crushing damage when Ali takes breaks. The crouch will Frustrate the hell out of Ali. He canât punch down at someone 5 â. 10 whos crouching to 5 ft 5. Look what Louis tried to do, he lowered himself to meet Marciano in an effort to hold his ground and lost his mobility and leverage. If Ali tried this it would be even worse.
now I still figure Ali to land some fast hard shots on Marciano, who especially early on might get tagged.
however, Marciano isnât going to just stand there and take a beating. And heâs not going to slow down or be intimidated no matter what Ali hits him with. Marciano has a reservoir that no other fighter has. In one round he threw 133 punches alone.
Marcianos power. Its dynamic. The man is built like a rhino, and incredibly hard bodied and strong. A referee early in his career said he tried to break him and grabbed his arm. He said he could not even budge his arm. He couldnât believe how strong he was. But even better, Marciano has PERFECTED punching for his build. His punches are all perfectly leveraged. He certainly worked on this for hours at a time. He does not pull his punches whatsoever. He only uses the propulsion required to send his shots through. Complete and utter follow through. He is punching as if there is nothing in the way. Lastly his short thick arms offer so much leverage, this is where the raw power comes from.
once this man gets up close to you. Its his territory and its over. He can throw dozens of full power shots while the 6 fr 3 guy canât even get one good one off.
as Archie Moore put it âhe just wants to get close to youâ and **** you up lol.
his defense. Amazing in the sense that he doesnât take damage. For a fighter who is 5 ft 10 with a 68 reach that comes forward 100 percent of the time. He is incredibly hard to hit with his combination of head movement and placement, followed by just raw aggression which is defense in itself when you have the type of stamina Marciano has. He rides punches very well in the freddy brown style. The only punches Marciano takes are smothered weaker inside punches that he usually rolls with. He never takes damage.
he never boxes outside so he never gets outboxed. Outside he crouches. Its inside he opens up. He avoids his biggest weakness with cunning.
I think I have typed enough. Marciano is the HW goat. Once in a lifetime type of fighter.