Rocky Marciano: Stop it Already That he Couldn’t Compete with the Heavyweight Champions Today

 Loading ...

By Ian Murphy

To many modern (and younger) boxing fans, the name “Rocky Marciano” makes them roll their eyes in the backs of their heads. “Yeah, yeah, 49-0. Ok, but he would get CRUSHED by today’s huge heavyweights!” “That was 137 years ago (thanks Eddie Murphy!), Gramps, boxing is different today! Well, kiddies, buckle up. You are about to get an education. At first glance, Rocky Marciano doesn’t look like the guy you’d expect to be Heavyweight Champion. He’s generously listed at 5’11, but is much closer to 5’9 1/2 or so. He never weighed more than 188lbs for a fight. He has arms shorter than most middleweights, yet he is considered by most boxing aficionados as among the top 5 All Time great Heavyweights. How is it that a guy that appears so ordinary on paper held in such high regard? If you dig beneath the surface and look at how Marciano measures up via intangibles, the picture becomes much clearer.

What the Rock may have lacked in obvious athletic advantages (T-Rex arms, slow of foot and hand, awkward, etc), he more than made up for them with a special combination of intangible skills. For starters, he had one of the greatest trainers to ever work a corner in the history of boxing: Charlie Goldman. MR. G was a fantastic “sculptor” of fighters. He understood that instead of trying to bang a square peg into a round hole, you needed to create a style that enhanced the fighter’s unique talents and strengths.

Notably with Rocky, these were his toughness, unbreakable will, and massive power that belied his modest frame. Goldman felt that if he could minimize limitations and allow his man to operate within the realms of his advantages, success was possible. Specifically with Marciano, he felt that if Rock could develop a high level of conditioning, he could swarm his opponents with virtually no rest, not allowing any breathing room to counter effectively or mount significant offense. This, coupled with his iron will and granite chin, worked to fantastic effect leading Marciano to his vaunted 49-0, 43 KO’s career record, with only six matches lasting inside the distance. To illustrate these points, we now look at a few key examples:

Example 1: Rocky Marciano vs Jersey Joe Walcott, 1952 Championship Bout.

Joe Walcott is amongst the most underrated of Heavyweight Champions. He possessed an enormously well rounded game. He could box, he could hurt you, and he was an expert counter puncher. See his 1951 fight with the legendary Ezzard Charles, and specifically round 7. The Rock was challenging Walcott for his title in this match and through 12 rounds, he was being beaten convincingly, even floored in the first round. However, though he was being soundly bested by a master boxer, Marciano’s will never wavered, nor did his stamina. In the 13th round, Walcott was baiting Marciano to throw a lead right hand to counter with his own straight, relying on his speed and precision to allow him to land first. Walcott’s right hand never found its mark. Marciano’s fabled “Suzie-Q” landed first and crumpled Jersey Joe on the spot, resulting in a one shot KO. What necessitated this finish was the fact that Rock had enough gas in the tank to deliver a one punch KO very late in the fight.

Example 2: Rocky Marciano vs Roland LaStarza, 1953 Championship Bout.

In this match, Rocky again was outmatched physically by a quicker, more skilled opponent. LaStarza was an excellent boxer, with great movement, flow, and footwork. He came very close to defeating the Rock a few years earlier and was someone that on paper, should give Marciano fits. However, Goldman again came up with an ingenious game plan to utilize Rock’s strengths. He knew Marciano could not beat LaStarza by chasing him around the ring and hunting for his head, no matter how many punches he threw. Roland was too elusive for that to work. What Goldman suggested instead was to hit LaStarza anywhere he could, be it elbows, shoulders, hips, body, neck. He knew that Marciano’s seemingly limitless stamina combined with his heavy punches would break down his faster, more skilled opponent over a longer fight.

Truth be told, by the middle rounds, LaStarza was shot. The sheer accumulation of blows that he absorbed to his arms and body robbed him of his speed and since his arms were nearly dead weight, he was becoming unable to protect his head. Rocky KO’d LaStarza in the 11th round. Afterwards, it was revealed that LaStarza had broken bones in his forearms and had hematomas in his shoulders from Marciano’s assault.

Now, the biggest question that ultimately seems to stump boxing fans is how Marciano would fare against the much bigger heavyweights of today. To answer this, we need to look at what advantages and disadvantages a large fighter has. For example, a 245lb fighter will more than likely have a power advantage over a 190lb fighter, and will often have greater strength. These advantages come into play much more when there is relatively even boxing skill among the two combatants. A better skilled boxer can overcome this obstacle. Jack Dempsey did it in spectacular fashion against Jess Willard, and Joe Louis destroyed bigger opponents on the regular as well. There is one glaring weakness with the larger fighter that needs to be addressed, however. He almost assuredly will tire earlier. Look at any recent heavyweight fight. They have some steam and pop over the first few rounds, then the pace slows mid fight. By the later rounds, you have two large beasts hanging on each other gasping for air, and the pace has slowed to a crawl. Marciano’s work rate was steady, unrelenting, and finally concussive nearly 90% of the time. His lack of excess mass enables him to fire a much larger volume of power punches over a longer period of time.

This level of conditioning amongst Heavyweights is almost unheard of today, due to the sheer dinosauric mass that the big men possess. Let’s take Wladimir Klitschko for an example. He is large, athletic, and has good conditioning for his size, but not in relation to a fighter of Marciano’s frame. It is impossible, really, for him to keep up over a long fight. To break it down further and give some numerical value to this argument, let’s say, on a scale from 1-10, Klitschko’s power is a 9.0 and Marciano’s is a 8.5. Due to his exceptional conditioning (helped by his lighter bodyweight), Marciano might rate at a 7.0 in round 12, while Wladimir could be at a 4.5. In short, Rocky Marciano at 80% capacity is better than ANYONE at 50%.

So, Rocky Marciano would fare very well in today’s heavyweight division, and probably would be the champion. There would be some factors against him, like shorter fights (12 instead of 15 rounds) and the propensity for fights to be stopped earlier on cuts (Rock was susceptible to them), but his strengths would definitely overcome any limitations. His lack of size would be more of an asset than liability. In regards to boxing especially, bigger is not always better. Boxing is not football, where mass and power more greatly affect the quality of play. In boxing, technique and conditioning often trump brute force and size. Many of our greatest fought regularly at 200lbs or less: Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, and of course, Marciano. Joe Louis and Joe Frazier were just over that mark. A little big bigger were Sonny Liston, Muhammad Ali and George Foreman, who were 215-220lbs at their best. So was Mike Tyson. These fighters regularly bumped off much larger opponents. The reasoning for the lack of champions under 210lbs or so in the modern era is beyond the scope of the article, but the gist has something to do with sanctioning bodies and the need for more title bouts…