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Just curious why everyone tends to pick Liston over Marciano. I wrote this from a desktop so there aren't any artifacts.
If we look at resumes, Liston's biggest claims to fame are knocking out Floyd Patterson (I man he was much heavier and bigger than, and with a style with 0 chance against Liston's style). And of course Liston quitting vs Clay. From a boxing skill perspective, Liston is top tier. Boxing has a lot of intangibles though.
Now I am not gonna be so ignorant to not say that Liston certainly had potential and his outside the ring lifestyle is one of the reasons he didn't go as far as he could.
My question is why is Marciano knocked for beating Walcott 2x, Charles 2x and Moore. When these guys were all better than/equivalent of Patterson at the time Rocky fought them. And Rocky beat them without a size advantage. All were at or around the same weight - and he was giving up height and reach vs all of them. He also did this in a very short span of time with next to no amateur career. He beat them in devastating fashion. Ruined them.
Yes Louis was past his best. Every boxing fan knows this. However, he was on a 9 fight win streak and Marciano is the only guy to have knocked him cold, outside of the ring. Louis was 212 lbs on fight night, Marciano was something like 184 (going by memory). If Louis almost beat him we might have a case, but the fight wasn't close. It was like all of rocks fights, him trying to get close and his opponent trying to stay away.
Ali never spoke of Liston the way he spoke of Marciano. He only used the "shook my kin folk back in Africa" comment with 2 fighters, Shavers and Rocky. In regards to their power. He said this about a man who called him clay to his face repeatedly, talked bad about him openly - and even went on to say he was good friends with Marciano, even though he only knew him for 1 year.
In this article here it states Liston ran from Rocky once he figured out who he was in the flesh.
https://www.espn.com/sports/boxing/n...ory?id=3529752
At Marciano's funeral Liston said something about Marciano being the greatest hw to ever live. Ali said something pretty close to that. Nobody else got this treatment.
when I watch Marciano, I know he is a great fighter. His timing, his leverage, his clever baiting and his relentless crouching style he invented all by himself. He is a nightmare. His only struggle is getting close to you with that 68 reach. Once inside it's his world. He swarms you.
People also go on about Marciano's weight. What other heavyweight was running up to 15 miles in boots with sand weights in them, in hill country. Of course he is light, he trained like a spartan. He was running on christmas day. Are we all so dim to throw hard work out the window? in that photo Marciano is likely around 250 lbs. (I read he was 255 in retirement), 205 in between fights, and 225 before he started boxing. There is only so much time in a day and Marciano used all of it. up at 5 bed by 9:30.
Just curious why everyone tends to pick Liston over Marciano. I wrote this from a desktop so there aren't any artifacts.
If we look at resumes, Liston's biggest claims to fame are knocking out Floyd Patterson (I man he was much heavier and bigger than, and with a style with 0 chance against Liston's style). And of course Liston quitting vs Clay. From a boxing skill perspective, Liston is top tier. Boxing has a lot of intangibles though.
Now I am not gonna be so ignorant to not say that Liston certainly had potential and his outside the ring lifestyle is one of the reasons he didn't go as far as he could.
My question is why is Marciano knocked for beating Walcott 2x, Charles 2x and Moore. When these guys were all better than/equivalent of Patterson at the time Rocky fought them. And Rocky beat them without a size advantage. All were at or around the same weight - and he was giving up height and reach vs all of them. He also did this in a very short span of time with next to no amateur career. He beat them in devastating fashion. Ruined them.
Yes Louis was past his best. Every boxing fan knows this. However, he was on a 9 fight win streak and Marciano is the only guy to have knocked him cold, outside of the ring. Louis was 212 lbs on fight night, Marciano was something like 184 (going by memory). If Louis almost beat him we might have a case, but the fight wasn't close. It was like all of rocks fights, him trying to get close and his opponent trying to stay away.
Ali never spoke of Liston the way he spoke of Marciano. He only used the "shook my kin folk back in Africa" comment with 2 fighters, Shavers and Rocky. In regards to their power. He said this about a man who called him clay to his face repeatedly, talked bad about him openly - and even went on to say he was good friends with Marciano, even though he only knew him for 1 year.
In this article here it states Liston ran from Rocky once he figured out who he was in the flesh.
https://www.espn.com/sports/boxing/n...ory?id=3529752
At Marciano's funeral Liston said something about Marciano being the greatest hw to ever live. Ali said something pretty close to that. Nobody else got this treatment.
when I watch Marciano, I know he is a great fighter. His timing, his leverage, his clever baiting and his relentless crouching style he invented all by himself. He is a nightmare. His only struggle is getting close to you with that 68 reach. Once inside it's his world. He swarms you.
People also go on about Marciano's weight. What other heavyweight was running up to 15 miles in boots with sand weights in them, in hill country. Of course he is light, he trained like a spartan. He was running on christmas day. Are we all so dim to throw hard work out the window? in that photo Marciano is likely around 250 lbs. (I read he was 255 in retirement), 205 in between fights, and 225 before he started boxing. There is only so much time in a day and Marciano used all of it. up at 5 bed by 9:30.
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