How would Joe Louis and Rocky Marciano fare against modern Heavies?

[Joe Beamish]

Marciano would dominate the cruiserweight division.

Louis would be in the mix, among the top HW's. But they don't fight each other anymore, so why bother thinking about it?

[OctoberRed]

Marciano would dominate the cruiserweight division.

No question about it.

[cfang]

Rocky would be a cruiser hero but his cutability would go against him a couple of times. Louis would be in the mix as a heavy and the most popular and exciting but his stature would sometimes count against him against the really big men with power.

If you kind of assume that the louis of today would be a bit larger as people are, hence hes now 6 foot 4 and weighs like 235 then he's the top heavy and has busted up pretty much everyone.

[Ben Bolt]

If Jesse Owens would be running on modern track, with modern shoes would he really be slower than Bolt ?

Yep.
Just a generation later, runners had grown stronger, faster and with improved technique.
Legendaries of the 60s, such as Bob Hayes and Jim Hines, would have left Owens (far) behind.

Marciano would dominate the cruiserweight division.

No question about it.

No, he hadn’t. He was #1 in his time. And you can't take that away from him.
But, more than 60 years have passed since Marciano fought in the rings.

I’m in the firm belief that boxing and its athletes are constantly under ongoing developement.
(If not, boxing unlike other sports, disgraces itself.)

[Alan Smithee]

Judging by the opinions of my father and uncle's Marciano and Louis could easily compete and succeed in today's era. Not sure how much of that is due to nostalgia. I recently rewatched the second Marciano/Lastarza fight and they look "small" by today's standards. My father grew up in the same neighborhood as Lastarza in the Bronx N.Y and always raved about the guy. He did give Marciano a tough time although I can't seem to find footage of their first bout. My long winded post ends with a question mark? I just don't know how well these guys would fare. Even a guy like Tyson weighed around 215 in his prime!

[billeau2]

Judging by the opinions of my father and uncle's Marciano and Louis could easily compete and succeed in today's era. Not sure how much of that is due to nostalgia. I recently rewatched the second Marciano/Lastarza fight and they look "small" by today's standards. My father grew up in the same neighborhood as Lastarza in the Bronx N.Y and always raved about the guy. He did give Marciano a tough time although I can't seem to find footage of their first bout. My long winded post ends with a question mark? I just don't know how well these guys would fare. Even a guy like Tyson weighed around 215 in his prime!

Well lets put it this way. There have been many variables in boxing that seem to determine ability. A lot is by the numbers... How many things can you do in the ring? How in shape are you? Being in shape has been shown to give one superior resistance to punches... How are you being coached? and what is the level of your competition?

When we look and see who are champs, there is no correlation to size. Sure we had Vlad and Lennox, but we also had Holyfield and Tyson. Right now we have Fury and we have Ruiz... And who are the stronger punchers? no correlation to size. It seems heavyweights still come in a variety of weights.
People like James Toney seem to be a threat to any heavyweight, could it be because of his skills?

People always get into these threads where they mentally ********** about size. Fact: Size is also relative and weight is just one component of size. You can have a man built with big hands, shoulders and thin legs... Fitzimmons had the upper body of a heavyweight and weighed in at less than 170. Max Baer had one of the hardest right hands ever, and weighed in just north of 200 pounds.

Guys like Marciano were heavyweights. If they started as cruisers they would soon become heavies. If you want anymore proof? what would John Ruiz weigh it he came in with no extra weight? About the size of Marciano or Toney.

Edit So a giant heavyweight (Joshua) weighed in at 245 pounds for the fight and Ruiz weighed in at 260. Ruiz could easily lose 60 pounds. Look at him lol.

[Alan Smithee]

Well lets put it this way. There have been many variables in boxing that seem to determine ability. A lot is by the numbers... How many things can you do in the ring? How in shape are you? Being in shape has been shown to give one superior resistance to punches... How are you being coached? and what is the level of your competition?

When we look and see who are champs, there is no correlation to size. Sure we had Vlad and Lennox, but we also had Holyfield and Tyson. Right now we have Fury and we have Ruiz... And who are the stronger punchers? no correlation to size. It seems heavyweights still come in a variety of weights.
People like James Toney seem to be a threat to any heavyweight, could it be because of his skills?

People always get into these threads where they mentally ********** about size. Fact: Size is also relative and weight is just one component of size. You can have a man built with big hands, shoulders and thin legs... Fitzimmons had the upper body of a heavyweight and weighed in at less than 170. Max Baer had one of the hardest right hands ever, and weighed in just north of 200 pounds.

Guys like Marciano were heavyweights. If they started as cruisers they would soon become heavies. If you want anymore proof? what would John Ruiz weigh it he came in with no extra weight? About the size of Marciano or Toney.

Edit So a giant heavyweight (Joshua) weighed in at 245 pounds for the fight and Ruiz weighed in at 260. Ruiz could easily lose 60 pounds. Look at him lol.

From what I hear of Marciano he hurt you wherever he hit you. He would supposedly pound an opponent's arms in to submission and Joe Louis was noted for an extremely short punch with tremendous power. These two hall of famers are obviously all time greats. That in itself counts for something.

[Elroy1]

Ultimately Louis and Marciano would suffer a thrashing in the amateurs and never take up boxing as a career today most likely.

It’s conceivable that a license could be issued to both fighters to box pro.

Due to lack of anything that could be civsidered “skill” today neither would be suitable for limited weight divisions.

At heavyweight they’d be koed by the first shot and be defenceless against it. Possibly the same at cruiserweight as well. Difficult to see them surviving round 1 with any serious cruiser.

Best they could hope for as a pro is to wind up as an obscure name at the very beginning of a prospects career stepped on quick.

Positing past greats against today’s criteria does not only bit elevate them- it diminishes them.

Those who made this thread should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

Shame.

[Bundana]

OMG - he's back!

[billeau2]

Ultimately Louis and Marciano would suffer a thrashing in the amateurs and never take up boxing as a career today most likely.

It’s conceivable that a license could be issued to both fighters to box pro.

Due to lack of anything that could be civsidered “skill” today neither would be suitable for limited weight divisions.

At heavyweight they’d be koed by the first shot and be defenceless against it. Possibly the same at cruiserweight as well. Difficult to see them surviving round 1 with any serious cruiser.

Best they could hope for as a pro is to wind up as an obscure name at the very beginning of a prospects career stepped on quick.

Positing past greats against today’s criteria does not only bit elevate them- it diminishes them.

Those who made this thread should be utterly ashamed of themselves.

Shame.

You must have no shame, or a short memory...Well you are proof that while cream rises to the top and travels, s h i t stays on the bottom and is willing to wait for any opportunity to stink up the place.