Rocky Marciano VS Mike Tyson.

[RockyMarcianofan00]

Larry Holmes was certainly not in his prime, or barely out of it when he fought Tyson. That's obvious. He did have experience and a splash of ring savvy, but let's face it: stick a 38-year-old man in the ring who hasn't been there in years, with a guy who was in tip top fighting condition and had 20-year old legs...well, enough said.

As for Douglas vs. Tyson. *Ugh* I think we can avoid this fiasco of an argument. Everyone who hates Tyson claims he just got stomped, and everyone who chews Tyson's ball hair claims his world came crashing down before the fight occurred. I like to find that happy medium where we know that Tyson failed to prepare properly and dropped as far out of his comfort zone as he had ever been by that point; while Buster Douglas got in the best shape of his life and used his advantages against Mike's poor choices to beat the crap out of a troubled young man.

NO, Mike was not in true Mike Tyson form that night. Period. Mike Tyson at 20-21 would have beaten Douglas somewhere during rounds 1-4. However, it's his own fault for handling his life, and this fight so ******ly.

YES, Buster Douglas looked fantastic on that night, and really took it to Tyson. James probably would have taken it to almost anybody that night given the circumstances. But, like Tyson, Douglas handled his next fight like a moron, and it cost him.

Everybody needs to stop plugging their ears like a little kid and look at the fact that a whole slew of strange and unusual circumstances came together to make one of the most memorable moments in sports history. Nothing about Tyson or Douglas was "typical" that night.

Back on topic.

Tyson was quicker than Marciano, heavier than Marciano, had a better reach than Marciano, and could put punches together better than Marciano. He had better head movement, and 30 pounds of muscle that says he had greater power. Give Rocky gloves that were 10 oz. heavier and cushier like Mike had to use, and he won't be sending reverberations through Mike's chin any time soon. Mike wins this one in round 4 or 5. Rocky would definitely fight back, and he could take a beating, so it's not like it would be completely one-sided.

i compeletely agree with the bold

[SlightlyStoopid]

Tyson would KO him.

[moondog0]

I would go with a prime Tyson over the Rock. Rock was to much of a charger and didn't worry a whole lot about defense, Early Tyson was a good defensive fighter with head movement and peek-aboo style. He was elusive and very fast with great combinations, the Rock was a great fighter but I don't think even his heart would have sttod up to tyson's power...

[Hous]

I would go with a prime Tyson over the Rock. Rock was to much of a charger and didn't worry a whole lot about defense, Early Tyson was a good defensive fighter with head movement and peek-aboo style. He was elusive and very fast with great combinations, the Rock was a great fighter but I don't think even his heart would have sttod up to tyson's power...

Talking about Marciano with different people will give you two completely views on the man. Here are the facts.

-Top 5 greatest chins in boxing history along with, Joe Grim, Jake Lamotta, and i forgot other two.
-More knockouts than any other heavyweight champion in history - 88% only other person to come close was Joe Louis with 87%, then it drops to 60's.
-looks funny on old film, but Louis, and all of the other champions all said the same thing, he is incredibly difficult to hit.
-Louis, Walcott, and George Foreman all placed him as number 2 boxer in the history of the sport.
-The arguement about Marciano beating champs after they are past their prime is absoulte garbage, do you know when he beat Louis there was a 9 year difference, but when Louis, Walcott, Tyson, Ali won the title they all won it from boxers with more of a age difference? Its all true.
-Marciano was only like 187lbs, much smaller than most heavyweights of the time, but still beat them all, 88% by KO.
-P4P best boxer in human history? Definatley of heavyweight division. Only Louis could beat him, which he failed too do twice.
-He beat the best that ever lived.
-when he was 46 years old he beat Ali in a exhibition fight that was deterrimined by computer, noone can say it was incorrect. He died shortly after.

Tyson would be demolished, no contest. Tyson is vicious, but hes not even in the top 10 heavyweights of all time.

These are facts.

I would go with a prime Tyson over the Rock. Rock was to much of a charger and didn't worry a whole lot about defense, Early Tyson was a good defensive fighter with head movement and peek-aboo style. He was elusive and very fast with great combinations, the Rock was a great fighter but I don't think even his heart would have sttod up to tyson's power...

His heart to stand up to his power? LMAO, he is the heart that couldn't be broken. He had amazing defense, he was raely struck, watch his videos people always swung, he looked open but he was rarely hit. when he did he shown struggle with it, even from the legend Joe Louis's gloves.
Ive heard an arguement that Tyson paralyzed someone after a fight, someone tried saying thats proof Marciano wouldn't take a hit from Tyson. Well that means nothing, Tyson has punched alot of people. also Marciano almost killed a proffessional boxer, seriously almost killed the guy.

[RockyMarcianofan00]

Talking about Marciano with different people will give you two completely views on the man. Here are the facts.

-Top 5 greatest chins in boxing history along with, Joe Grim, Jake Lamotta, and i forgot other two.
-More knockouts than any other heavyweight champion in history - 88% only other person to come close was Joe Louis with 87%, then it drops to 60's.
-looks funny on old film, but Louis, and all of the other champions all said the same thing, he is incredibly difficult to hit.
-Louis, Walcott, and George Foreman all placed him as number 2 boxer in the history of the sport.
-The arguement about Marciano beating champs after they are past their prime is absoulte garbage, do you know when he beat Louis there was a 9 year difference, but when Louis, Walcott, Tyson, Ali won the title they all won it from boxers with more of a age difference? Its all true.
-Marciano was only like 187lbs, much smaller than most heavyweights of the time, but still beat them all, 88% by KO.
-P4P best boxer in human history? Definatley of heavyweight division. Only Louis could beat him, which he failed too do twice.
-He beat the best that ever lived.
-when he was 46 years old he beat Ali in a exhibition fight that was deterrimined by computer, noone can say it was incorrect. He died shortly after.

Tyson would be demolished, no contest. Tyson is vicious, but hes not even in the top 10 heavyweights of all time.

These are facts.


His heart to stand up to his power? LMAO, he is the heart that couldn't be broken. He had amazing defense, he was raely struck, watch his videos people always swung, he looked open but he was rarely hit. when he did he shown struggle with it, even from the legend Joe Louis's gloves.
Ive heard an arguement that Tyson paralyzed someone after a fight, someone tried saying thats proof Marciano wouldn't take a hit from Tyson. Well that means nothing, Tyson has punched alot of people. also Marciano almost killed a proffessional boxer, seriously almost killed the guy.

i knew most of that and its all true

but anybody who reads that post can't discredit any of it- and don't turn this into a Marciano v Ali thread AGAIN

-also Foreman was the closest to the hw KO % with 87%, but he had 90 something before his comeback

[The Noose]

I have to watch some Marciano, but id say Tyson. If Walcott could put Rocky down, i think Tyson could.
Tyson was extremely fast, and i just think his combinations would KO Rocky.

Also his reactions were quick enough to slip Rockys big shots.

[Hous]

Rocky poped back up from Walcott, then he KOed Walcott.

[the traveler]

People always talk about Marciano's ko percentage, and rightfully so, but I think that George Foreman's ko record is the more impressive of the two.

George had 81 fights and 68 knockouts.

Ok, if George would have retired at the end of his 49th fight like Rocky did, their ko's would have looked like this.


George- 47 wins 2 loses= 49 fights. 44 of those 49 fights came from ko victory. That's a 89.79 ko percentage.

At the end of 49 fights, Rocky had 43 knockouts. That's a 87.75 ko percentage.

Now if you want to talk about how rock would have fared, hypothetically, per 81 fights--same amount George had-- if he would have continued at his pace.. he'd have
a 72 percent ko percentage which is lower than George's 83 percent.

[Hous]

People always talk about Marciano's ko percentage, and rightfully so, but I think that George Foreman's ko record is the more impressive of the two.

George had 81 fights and 68 knockouts.

Ok, if George would have retired at the end of his 49th fight like Rocky did, their ko's would have looked like this.


George- 47 wins 2 loses= 49 fights. 44 of those 49 fights came from ko victory. That's a 89.79 ko percentage.

At the end of 49 fights, Rocky had 43 knockouts. That's a 87.75 ko percentage.

Now if you want to talk about how rock would have fared, hypothetically, per 81 fights--same amount George had-- if he would have continued at his pace.. he'd have
a 72 percent ko percentage which is lower than George's 83 percent.

That is a very hypothetical statement and holds no relevance. Its also false in your calculations. You have Marciano at one less KO at 49 fights right, but at 81 fights you have him at 72% which is 11% lower than foremans, its completely false. There is no way you could correctly come to that calculation, its impossible.


No offense to Foreman but Marciano did fight more iron chins in his 49 fights than Foreman did in his
-Roland LaStanza twice
-Archie Moore
-"Jersey" Joe Walcott twice
-Joe Louis
-Phil Muscato
-Freddie Beshore
-Harry "Kid" Matthews
-Ezzard Charles (Twice)

Foreman had
-Joe Frazier twice
-Muhammad Ali
-Ken Norton
-Ron Lyle

I dont think Marciano is the best boxer in history, but I have to hand it to him for his KOs.

I mean Lastanza is almost impossible to KO, lol.

[Brassangel]

I hate throwing out a tidbit like this in butterfly fashion, but Marciano commonly used gloves no heavier than 8 oz. Meaning, he basically had a taped hand that was protected when slamming it home against his opponents. Foreman used 14 and 16 oz. gloves with more cushion and higher resiliency to padding redistribution. George Foreman with gloves half the size he was accustomed to would have torn people's heads off.

On the original topic: Marciano wasn't a defensive fighter, wouldn't have reach or height advantage going for him, and Tyson put punches together with trigger-quick speed. He was 215 1/2 at his prime, but he fought with the speed of someone at 165. I honestly don't see this fight going favorably for Marciano.

Just to note, I do believe that Marciano ranks higher on the list of all-time heavyweights than Tyson, but that doesn't mean he'd win the head-to-head, if that makes any sense. (Also, more critics are starting to recognize Tyson as a top 15 and even a top 10 all-time heavyweight because of his amazing skills and physical gifts, regardless of how his career took a flush.)