Does Rocky Marciano's KO percentage make still need beating?

[W1LL]

Yea, it's great Floyd Mayweather Jr. bored and ran his way to 50-0 (27 KO) against cherry-picked opponents. But when you consider he didn't score a legitimate KO for the last 12 years of his career.

Then you consider that Rocky Marciano was 49-0 (43 KO). Is that a more fearsome/respectable record? Also, Marciano retired young and could have racked up even more KO wins. Floyd meanwhile had to hand pick weak opposition to pad his record and pay off his taxes.

Personally I still find Rocky Marciano's 49-0 to stand as an incredible record. Joe Calzaghe with his 46-0 (32 KO) is the next most impressive undefeated boxer I'd say.

[Mr Objecitivity]

Undefeated records are overrated! A boxer who has a few losses in their record, but has more unique accomplishments from success, is a boxer that I would personally rank higher than another boxer who is undefeated but has less unique accomplishments from their success.

For example, I would rank a boxer who has 2 losses in their record, but defeated more top ranked opposition, mandatory challengers and unbeaten opponents with the highest quantity of knockouts against such opposition as a record that is more impressive than another boxer who is undefeated, but hasn't beaten such quality opposition as frequently.

Thus, Wladimir Klitschko > all

However, it's unfair to compare a heavyweight's undefeated record such as Rocky Marciano's to a non-heavyweight like Floyd Mayweather Jr. Heavyweights do punch harder most of the time.

[juggernaut666]

Mayweather has more significant wins but at the end of the day heavy weights still have greater chance of losing . Slow Marciano certainly was by far a bigger chance to get knocked out than Mayweather out boxed . Marciano fought who was there and only had limited title defences against top true quality but at the end of the day its still comparing a heavy weight to light weight Mayweather .

Mayweather by far is better P4P fighter but Rockys undefeated HW career holds a bit more weight to it even if its overatted .

[NEETzsche]

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/122183

[kafkod]

http://boxrec.com/en/boxer/122183

No disrespect intended .. but it's kind of funny how Boxrec gives the "status" of dead boxers as "inactive"

[Larry the boss]

lol...............lord have mercy

[paulf]

49-0 means absolutely nothing. Has nothing to do with anything.

Joe Messi is 36-0.

[boliodogs]

Undefeated records are overrated! A boxer who has a few losses in their record, but has more unique accomplishments from success, is a boxer that I would personally rank higher than another boxer who is undefeated but has less unique accomplishments from their success.

For example, I would rank a boxer who has 2 losses in their record, but defeated more top ranked opposition, mandatory challengers and unbeaten opponents with the highest quantity of knockouts against such opposition as a record that is more impressive than another boxer who is undefeated, but hasn't beaten such quality opposition as frequently.

Thus, Wladimir Klitschko > all

However, it's unfair to compare a heavyweight's undefeated record such as Rocky Marciano's to a non-heavyweight like Floyd Mayweather Jr. Heavyweights do punch harder most of the time.

I don't think it's unfair to compare non heavyweight's undefeated record to a heavyweight's undefeated record. You seem to imply the heavyweights are better because they punch harder. They do punch harder because they are bigger, not better for their size. Being bigger enables them to take the harder punches better as well as throw harder punches. It's every bit as hard and challenging for a lightweight to beat all the other top lightweights as it is for a heavyweight to beat all the other top heavyweights. As for hard punching you have middleweights like GGG and Julian Jackson and light heavyweights like Bob Foster who hit almost as hard as hard punching heavyweights. They have KO records as good as any heavyweight. Smaller men like welterweight and middleweight Ray Robinson are sometimes considered by many to be better PFP than the best heavyweights. A great boxer is a great boxer no matter what his weight class is.

[iamboxing]

No disrespect intended .. but it's kind of funny how Boxrec gives the "status" of dead boxers as "inactive"

in case they come out of retirement

[Mr Objecitivity]

I don't think it's unfair to compare non heavyweight's undefeated record to a heavyweight's undefeated record. You seem to imply the heavyweights are better because they punch harder. They do punch harder because they are bigger, not better for their size. Being bigger enables them to take the harder punches better as well as throw harder punches. It's every bit as hard and challenging for a lightweight to beat all the other top lightweights as it is for a heavyweight to beat all the other top heavyweights. As for hard punching you have middleweights like GGG and Julian Jackson and light heavyweights like Bob Foster who hit almost as hard as hard punching heavyweights. They have KO records as good as any heavyweight. Smaller men like welterweight and middleweight Ray Robinson are sometimes considered by many to be better PFP than the best heavyweights. A great boxer is a great boxer no matter what his weight class is.

I don't think you fully understood what I meant by my previous comment. My point wasn't that heavyweights are better than other boxers from other weight divisions because they punch harder, but because in a head to head sense, the best heavyweight in the world = best boxer in the world, period! If a heavyweight is capable of beating every other heavyweight in the world, then no boxer from any other weight division would stand a chance against that particular heavyweight head to head. So ergo, best heavyweight > any boxer from any weight division in a head to head match up.

However, pound for pound rankings are different and heavyweights don't belong in pound for pound rankings in my opinion. Simply because, the heavyweight division is an unlimited division from 200 pounds and upwards where anyone can fight each other. This isn't the case in lighter weight divisions.

My main point was that it's unfair to compare heavyweight's record to a non-heavyweight's record because a heavyweight will most often look more impressive due to a higher knockout percentage than a sub heavyweight when both are unbeaten or have similar number of wins / losses. In the case with Rocky Marciano and Floyd Mayweather Jr.