Prime Ali vs Prime Marciano: Who wins?

[Sugar Adam Ali]

I have been thinking about this fight a lot and I envision a 15 rd fight going like this

Ali would start fast and rack up points using the jab and footwork and win the first 4 rounds pretty easily.

5th round would be really close with Marciano finally started able to track down Ali.

6th round would be a clear Marciano round as body shots send Ali to the ropes and rocky lands some good shots.

7th Ali recovers and gets on his bike and uses the jabs and counters over rocky's lower shots.. Ali's biggest round in terms of damage inflicted as rocky got his head snapped back from a few counters and small cut around the eye from the jab..

8th fairly dull round as rocky is recovering and Ali alittle gassed.. Suddenly with min left in the round Ali gets caught napping by a huge left hook right hand by rocky and Ali gets dropped.. Ali gets up and isn't that hurt but slightly buzzed and recovers quickly and finishes the round,,

9th round Marciano starts to takeover as Ali is getting pushed back and trapped on the ropes.. Marciano would pressure Ali and continually trap him against the ropes. Rocky wins rounds 9,10,11,12

13th round is action packed as rocky is tiring from Ali's jabs and counters that he has been walking thru all night, Ali is gaining his 2nd wind.. Close round, goes either way

14th Ali digs deep, finds his legs and has the best round in a long time.. Doesn't do much damage but shoe shines rocky and steals the round.. Marciano is really tired from the rounds 9-12 onslaught he put on Ali..

15th rocky goes for broke, but Ali ties him up constantly and is often on his bike.. Late in the round rocky when going for the ko, will walk into some huge shots from Ali and will get visible hurt, but rocky will keep charging forward and Ali will tie him up.. Rocky would have the better round but the hard shots he walked into by Ali will be enough for Ali to steal the round..

Ali wins a close decision

[Japanese Boxing]

I have been thinking about this fight a lot and I envision a 15 rd fight going like this

Ali would start fast and rack up points using the jab and footwork and win the first 4 rounds pretty easily.

5th round would be really close with Marciano finally started able to track down Ali.

6th round would be a clear Marciano round as body shots send Ali to the ropes and rocky lands some good shots.

7th Ali recovers and gets on his bike and uses the jabs and counters over rocky's lower shots.. Ali's biggest round in terms of damage inflicted as rocky got his head snapped back from a few counters and small cut around the eye from the jab..

8th fairly dull round as rocky is recovering and Ali alittle gassed.. Suddenly with min left in the round Ali gets caught napping by a huge left hook right hand by rocky and Ali gets dropped.. Ali gets up and isn't that hurt but slightly buzzed and recovers quickly and finishes the round,,

9th round Marciano starts to takeover as Ali is getting pushed back and trapped on the ropes.. Marciano would pressure Ali and continually trap him against the ropes. Rocky wins rounds 9,10,11,12

13th round is action packed as rocky is tiring from Ali's jabs and counters that he has been walking thru all night, Ali is gaining his 2nd wind.. Close round, goes either way

14th Ali digs deep, finds his legs and has the best round in a long time.. Doesn't do much damage but shoe shines rocky and steals the round.. Marciano is really tired from the rounds 9-12 onslaught he put on Ali..

15th rocky goes for broke, but Ali ties him up constantly and is often on his bike.. Late in the round rocky when going for the ko, will walk into some huge shots from Ali and will get visible hurt, but rocky will keep charging forward and Ali will tie him up.. Rocky would have the better round but the hard shots he walked into by Ali will be enough for Ali to steal the round..

Ali wins a close decision

You've quite the imagination. I don't understand how you can break a fight down like that. I see strengths vs weaknesses both ways and then strengths for strengths for overall. Adjustments and plans will be made separately or one the spot.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

You've quite the imagination. I don't understand how you can break a fight down like that. I see strengths vs weaknesses both ways and then strengths for strengths for overall. Adjustments and plans will be made separately or one the spot.

It was just a day dream... Not to be taken super seriously

[soul_survivor]

First of all this is a close fight, no Ali does not do a cakewalk. The proof is in the pudding (cake, pudding, no wonder I am gaining weight!).

Frazier and Ali gives us an idea. In a sense we have to have an opinion about Marciano compared to Frazier and how Ali was in his physical prime. First off: Ali (like Louis) was an obviously incredible fighter in his prime, but Ali gained a lot of his ability in his wisdom when he matured a bit. He was still very good when he fought Frazier.

Now how does Frazier compare to Marciano? Marciano was as relentless, he had power and foot speed like Frazier, and many people think he was better....I tend to think him and Frazier were both swarmers with an attitude and cut from a similar cloth...Rock was a lot more technical than people think, watch films of his fights and break em down like Barry does for some of the Modern guys. Suprise!!!!

come on man, Frazier was faster, more coordinated and hit harder.

Where's this new found revisionist history that all of a sudden Marciano had fast fists and feet and was a coordinated fighter. In his prime he was famous for being an ungainly mess in the ring, his trainer, manager, heck even the guy himself admitted he didn't have the best technical ability.

What he did have was incredible heart and chin and good power but if he watch any of his fights against the past-prime greats he beat, almost all of them were beating him till the stoppage. At least two of those opponents were not even proper heavyweights, they were MW/LHWs who had moved up.

Ali is superior in skill, speed and other physical advantages when compared to ALL those guys, like Charles, Moore etc, especially at their stage in their careers. If they could outbox and lead on points against a prime Marciano, what does he have to trouble Ali? Not on is ALi bigger but he has a better chin than Charles, Moore etc.

No way does Ali lose this or even come close to it.

[billeau2]

If you're talking about Barry from Million Styles, the dude can break people down but his own bias gets in the way of breaking down the opposition of his favorites. IE Watch anything involving Floyd. The dude nutrides Floyd harder than a lot of people on this site. So when you watch his breakdown, you have to do a lot of work yourself when trying to obtain proper information.

So what!!?? I didn't say he was good or bad....I have my own opinions but they are not the issue. My point is that there is proof....which I cannot link here for various reasons, that the Rock was hardly the mindless swarmer people often assume he was. I used Barry as an example because he does those types of analysis

[billeau2]

come on man, Frazier was faster, more coordinated and hit harder.

Where's this new found revisionist history that all of a sudden Marciano had fast fists and feet and was a coordinated fighter. In his prime he was famous for being an ungainly mess in the ring, his trainer, manager, heck even the guy himself admitted he didn't have the best technical ability.

What he did have was incredible heart and chin and good power but if he watch any of his fights against the past-prime greats he beat, almost all of them were beating him till the stoppage. At least two of those opponents were not even proper heavyweights, they were MW/LHWs who had moved up.

Ali is superior in skill, speed and other physical advantages when compared to ALL those guys, like Charles, Moore etc, especially at their stage in their careers. If they could outbox and lead on points against a prime Marciano, what does he have to trouble Ali? Not on is ALi bigger but he has a better chin than Charles, Moore etc.

No way does Ali lose this or even come close to it.

You are dismissive of Marciano's competition. These so called old fighters were incredible talents...size is one variable, look at Frazier's size compared to Ali and he was able to give Ali fits. If Marciano was so unganely he would never have beat, or even been able to trade with the likes of the people he beat....with the exception of an obviously old Joe Louis.

I don't know who would win but what I do know is that Frazier was hell on Ali and that Marciano when viewed carefully from a technical perspective, was much better than he often gets credit for.

[fight_professor]

Ali would clown him. Too fast, too big, too much reach. Easy UD or stoppage.

[New England]

prime ali?

can you imagine how easily he'd dance around marciano? after his prime, when he couldn't stay on his toes as much, he'd just pull down on marciano's head. marciano would get no power at all when ali was able to do that.

[Sugar Adam Ali]

Prime ali got buzzed a few times by guys that weren't as good as rocky.. I don't seewhy rocky couldn't do the same

[BKM-2010]

To me, prime Ali was only knocked down 1 time. Against one of the hardest punchers ever, delivering one of the hardest and most picture perfect punches ever landed, in the 15th round of an extremely gruelling fight. And Ali calmly got up to his feet at the count of 3 with no wobble in his step.

The two knockdowns early in his career(including the left hook by Cooper) were before he matured physically. Ali's punch resistance grew quite a bit by the time he came back from his layoff in the 70s.

So for several of you guys to say that Marciano would be able to drop Ali as if this was a usual occurence in Ali's fights is not realistic imo. Not when guys like Foreman, Lyle, Frazier(beside the one time in the 3 fights) and Shavers could not do it when Ali was past his prime.