January 2002 - July 2006 - The Jerry Quarry Foundation

hurt from just one from Rocky. Though true that this comparison came towards the
end of Louis's career, it is still relevant given that punching power is usually
the last tool of a champion to desert him.It seems to me from reading of
Rocky's heroics that, despite his clumsiness and awkwardness and lack of boxing
skills, nature assigned him an all-conquering right hand complimented by a
willingness to use it as viciously as need be to win no matter what. He not only
had the best weapon, but he also had the strength of mind to show no sympathy
with it.I am left wondering whether a young Clay could have endured
Rocky's overhand right. After all, Cooper put him down with that left hook and
Clay needed Dundee to broaden the cut in his glove to give him the time to
recover. Rocky punched harder than Cooper. (But, then again, Clay was only
vulnerable to left hands and he might never have been caught by Rocky's
right.)Massimo - forget Don Corleone and Luca Brassi and all those other
truly great Italians, because Rocky Marciano was the very, very best to come
from your country ! |
|1/1/05 08:16:00 PM|max hord|fernandina
bch,fla||maxhord@adelphia.net||||10|Dr.Patterson you are a phony bastard.You
might be a doctor but I doubt that you have any patients.Go somewhere else and
play.|
|1/1/05 10:31:08 PM|Kent|La Habra, Ca||kentallenent@aol.com||||10|The thing
about Marciano is although he was small, even among heavyweights of his time, he
had the punching power of a much larger man. What can't also be
discounted is he trained harder than anyone one else, one of the reasons he left
relatively early from the sport is he had started to lose his desire to train
hard and he knew it was time to get out. That is fine as he earned every one of
his victories.I used to think Marciano only beat a bunch of has beens
but consider that Charles and Walcott were close to the top of their games and
Moore was still a very dangerous opponent. Only Joe Louis was over the hill,
though Louis did have some of his skills intact.I do think Louis
would have beaten Marciano prime verses prime as he did show a good left jab in
their fight to win a couple of rounds. I know Marciano looked up to
Louis as a hero and some people contend that he took it easy on Louis, but
consider that Louis was standing in his way at getting a title shot and Louis
was actually favored in the odds leading up to the fight and no fighter with the
fire to be the best would let his personal feelings get in his way. I think
Louis still had some boxing skills at that point and Marciano had to fight hard
to get the win.|
|1/2/05 02:05:58 AM|Noam|same||ghtuty||||10|KentYou are entirely correct
in writing that Marciano trained very hard. When training for a fight, Rocky's
discipline was second to none. The guy was completely focused on winning
the title, unashameably because of all the trappings that would come with it,
and nothing and no one was going to get in his way. He was desperate to elevate
his family out of its humble surroundings. The first thing he did when he
started getting good purses was to make his father quit the shoe factory where
he worked and he subsequently supported his parents (and even some of his
friends).His remarkable will-to-win was why he came from behind to
knock-out his opponent so many times. Rocky ALWAYS won a battle of
wills.The other great thing he had was power. He was small but he fought
from a crouch and used his powerful legs to spring upwards and forwards with his
body when punching. The result was tremendous momentum and leverage, even though
he was clumsy and awkward.Another reason for Rocky's great power was
that he punched through the other guy. His punch didn't stop when the knuckle
connected; his fist just kept going and going until the end of the arc. Study
the photos of Rocky fighting and you will notice this.Walcott said that
although Rocky was easy to hit generally, he was hard to hit with good hard
punches. Opponents would get the pitter-pat scoring punches in, but the money
ones didn't land too often.A month ago I would have picked Louis over