Rocky Marciano: Underrated Defense.

Got Norton and Holmes confused. Both are boring ass whiteboy surnames.:doh::laughing: Sometimes I give that 15th round to Kenny and have his career extending on into the mid 80's:laughing::laughing:

 

Nonsense. Just on the "size factor" alone.....Tua and Tyson were heavier than Marciano but neither were really any "bigger" and neither had the stamina or durability of Marciano- its debatable if Mike ever had the same stamina as Marciano and he certainly never had it by the time he fought Lewis. As for the fat man well....we all know about him.

I'm not saying Marciano would win per se, and thats not what this thread is about, but he showed me enough stamina, defense and 1 punch power to at least make it interesting.

 

Show me ONE foto with Rockys face all beat up and cut up....how many times were his eyes busted shut??? How many times were his eyes sliced open?? How many times was he even down.

Gattis defense is ABSENT. You understand? ABSENT...and people are happy to admit it. When you are down that often, cut that often, stopped on cuts that often, stopped period that often.....looking for 1 punch KO's cos your eyes are closed and you are running on empty that often........then its fair to say your defense is absent.

How many times did the above scenarios apply to the Rock???

If he was as open as people believe he was,if he was as cut prone as people think he was, he would have been sliced and diced in around 6 rounds vs Walcott. Fuck it...Walcott put Louis on the mat TWICE as often IN ONE FIGHT as he did the Rock but does Louis have a shakey D too??

There is NO WAY he would have made it to contender status if he was that open. Not in a heavyweight division. Any heavyweight division. Its the one fucking division you DON'T want to be in if you are wiiiiiiidddeeeee open.

You look at Rocky waiiling away on Archie Moore......plenty of openings, supposedly....but how often does Rock get nailed?

Floored twice in 49? Cut badly ONCE {to the nose by an elbow, could happen to anyone} that the fight might be stopped, never stopped at all and never had an eye busted shut or his jaw broke....yet you want us all to believe that the guy was a wide open face-first absent D fighter??

Stick to writing articles about bantamweights fella.

 

dsimon writes:

:bears:

 

Because he was succeptible to cuts.

The ONLY fight he looked "beat up" after was the first Walcott fight. The cuts he got in each of the two Charles fights were each the result of a single punch.

Cotto.

 

If Rocky Marciano has "Underrated" Defense, Paul Spadafora has "Underrated" PUNCHING POWER...


REED::

 

I'm not really sure where you get your information, but Marciano was cut, swollen or bruised in most of his title fights.

The nose split against Charles is most famous, but don't forget Marciano had a huge gash on his forehead against Wlacott. Rocky was also sliced up pretty good against Archie Moore also. And the experts can correct me, but Marciano was also tagged a few times and facially swollen in his second fight with LaStarza.

Marciano wasn't Chuvalo or Wepner, but he did bust up a bit. And he certainly was hittable.

 

Underrated in the sense that

{1} The guy could defend himself, and did not stop every punch with his face

{2} If you look at him, you will see that he did not bleed, get floored and get nailed as a matter of course.

I mean, Joe Frazier got floored, swelled, cut, nailed, stopped and fucked up. And I'm not saying Joe got fucked up at the Ali-Foreman level....he was getting nailed by the likes of Bonavena and that Mexican {I mean, who gets rocked by Mexican Heavyweights???}

But its Rocky who couldn't defend himself.::

 

Of course he was hittable. They are all hittable. The gashes against Charles and Walcott.

In the second fight with La Starza, Rocky did all the damage.

This photo is taken from the second fight, near the end. Rocky looks pretty clean to me.



Here is moore.....at least one sight of Marcianos face is clear....


Of course...the other side, alone, could have been in tatters....from Moores slicing right hand.::

 

After his career.......note the cleanliness of the eyebrows....they are not all sliced and tracked.

 

lets not forget he could punch harder than a armor piercing bullet

 

I'd pick Craword Grimsley over him

 

I guess people only see what they want to see.










Maybe it's just me, but that left eye looks a mess at the end of the Archie Moore fight. You can believe myths or the truth. You can choose for yourself.

::::::

 

dsimon writes:

Archie Moore was one of the greatest, sneakeast, best Ko percentage hitting, smartest fighters to ever grace the ring. Nobody, even somoene fighting an older Moore would come out of a fight with the guy unscathed, unless his name was Charley Burley.

The real crux of this thread is that people cannot admit that tape is deceptive when evaluating the subtle things a fighter does. I would like to hear some of these old timer naysayers admit to that point. But they won't

 

Paul Spadafora Scored an Occassional KO as Well...So U Could just as EASILY Call him an "Underrated" Puncher...

Was Marciano the EASIEST Fighter N History to Hit???...NO...But there's a SHITLOAD of Guys, Past & Current who were BETTER Defensively...

If U're ASSESSING Marciano & Rating his "Strengths & Weaknesses", his Defense Was Definitely NOT a "Strength"...

Ali wasn't QUITE as Featherfisted as his Record Suggests Either...But U'll NEVER Hear REED Refer to him as a "Puncher"...

REED

 

Well, I agree with you that in the case of watching old fight tapes. Sometimes all does not meet the eye.

In cases like this I defer to those that witnessed and wrote about Marciano. Guess what? I can find very few that ever called him a defensive guru or a master of avoiding punches.

In fact, almost everything you read about Marciano describes him as a wade in slugger that would gladly take 3 punches to land 1 of his own. He has a reputation as having had a granite chin. You don't get that kind of reputation if it hasn't been tested.

Back to Archie Moore. I agree Moore was one of the slickest fighter in history who actually gave great account of himself long after the Marciano fight. But I take exception to anyone saying that Moore wasn't able to hit, hurt, or bust Marciano up due to the Rock being so adept at avoiding punches. That is complete and utter BULLSHIT.

 

Oh, thats one cut. So much for "raw beef".... I wouldn't say it was any worse than Holyfields eye at the end of the Holmes fight...or this cut...

 

I said his defense was UNDERRATED, and the skin-opened, easy-as-hell-to-hit image was badly in need of revision. Rocky had the basics of defense mastered and executed them against some fast, clever fighters. His style, as much as his skills, exposed him to the incoming.

 

Marciano was unbelievable. He would pound Klitschko and Jaws into the ground in 1 round at the same time

 

Jaws :tease: