Why do people persist with these fantasies that Rocky Marciano would've beaten Ali,?

Question

I read this question over and over and I'm always dumbfounded that someone is posing it seriously. Let's give Marciano his due; he was tough, tenacious, could punch, and 49 times out of 49 managed to find a way to work with his limited skills to beat his opposition.
And there's this whole romance surrounding him of 'The Rock' - the rags to riches Italian kid that fought his way out of the streets and retired undefeated. Against who?
Has anyone actually seen any footage of him fighting? Tune into Classic Sports one day. He's dreadful. Flat footed and slow with poor balance. He's also very small. 5ft 10 in. 185 pounds.
Okay, let's talk about Muhammad Ali. 6'3 225 pounds. That alone.
But then you have Ali's speed, his grace, HIS punching power with 225 pounds behind it. Quality of opposition: Frazier, Norton, Lyle, Patterson, Liston and he's the only man to ever knock out George Foreman. He did that when he was 32 and supposedly washed up, and Foreman was 23 and supposedly incincible

There is no way. Not statistically, and not in the real world. Ali is arguably the greatest fighter, pound for pound in the history of the sport.

invincible. I'm very tired.

To 'smitty' who answered below: This is a question about boxing, not civil rights and the war on terror, but thanks for your interesting input.

to 'dcnbls' writing below: you didn't understand a word I wrote, did you?

to 'toughguy" writing below: newsflash - George Foreman did stop someone 10 rounds into a fight. He knocked out Michael Moorer in that round to reclaim the heavyweight title in 1994. You seem like a nice guy, so I'm going to go easy on you, but please, don't even try to hint that Marciano had punching power comparable to Foreman's. Foreman would have levelled Marciano the same way he did Frazier.

To Santana D below: Guess what? A computer also picked Hagler to beat Leonard.

To 'pejon60' below: At last, someone with brains.

Answer 1

Ali would have slaughtered Marciano. He would have systematically cut him to pieces with his left jab and then followed with the right cross. Marciano would have found it very very hard to get inside Alis defences. Ali would have danced around Marciano, stayed on the outside and just pounded him.
Ali could take a punch too. I defy anyone to watch the Ali v Foreman fight and then tell me that Ali didnt have an great jaw. Foreman didnt just "rope a dope" to Alis body. He hit him with several bombs to the head in the first 3 rounds and Ali took them and came back at him.
The only question in my mind is whether Ali would have knocked Marciano out. Marciano was never knocked down in his career, he had a phenominal jaw. I think the ref would've stop the fight for Marcianos health, because if he didnt, the pounding he would have taken could have caused permanent damage.

Answer 2

I answered a question submitted by Bruno J 4 weeks ago: How can Muhammad Ali be called "the Greatest" when Rocky Marciano is the only heavyweight in the history of boxing to retire undefeated? Brad I believe you answered the same question.
The Marciano/Ali question is posed many times because they are 2 great fighters. This is a forum where people can discuss, as we are, different match ups in a sport we all obviously follow closely and love. I am always interested in reading people's varying opinions on the subject. In short despite the tremendous heart of "The Rock" , Ali's ring generalship, height, chin, reach, hand and foot speed are too much for even as great a fighter as Marciano. Ali TKO win round 13 or 14 due to Marciano's face being chopped up due to catching too many punches.

Answer 3

Brad ~
Marciano had so much going against on his own without any help fro Ali, he was short for a heavyweight, he was light for a heavyweight, he was slow for a a heavyweight, he was hit a lot for a heavyweight, he was flatfooted for a heavyweight and yet as a heavyweight, he has been the only undefeated Heavyweight Champion of The World. Ali as great as he was lost, and lost bad on several occasions. In my opinion Rocky would have beaten Ali via 5th round TKO. In the late 60's even their played out computer fight had Marciano winning their fight dubbed "The Super Fight" a computer put together their strengths as well as their weaknesses and determined that Rocky would have won the fight. Who am I do argue with a computer.........Pejon60 better do his homework before he starts to write "The Rock" was knocked down twice in his career Sept 23 1952 knocked down in round 1 against "Jersey" Joe walcott and again in his last fight against "The Mongoose" Archie Moore in round 1.

Answer 4

Rocky Marciano feared no one and though he was smaller could he ever punch. Watch the right hand in the 13th round vs Walcott and try to convince me anyone could punch like that including Frazier who I admire and who happened to beat Ali as well. Marciano had more determination, heart, desire, endurance, and stamina than any fighter ever and had to in order to win. I give Ali a lot of credit and believe he would have beaten anyone with the exception of Marciano and Louis although I believe they would have been great fights. Think about it could George Foreman have been able to land a knockout punch after 10 rounds? The answer is no. Could Ali who was a fantastic boxer but could he have outslugged Marciano? The answer is again no. Marciano would have knocked out china chinned Floyd Patterson, would have overwhelmed Ron Lyle, Quarry, Bonavena and had more power in his right hand than Joe Frazier did in his left hand. This is a lot of fun and again it's your opinion against mine and as I respect yours, I think I made some good arguments.

Answer 5

Ali replaced into too enormous (approximately 30-40lbs heavier) too quickly and lots taller with a plenty longer attain. Ali replaced into additionally a boxer, at the same time as marciano replaced right into a slugger who might in basic terms are available on human beings. right here's a greater clever question: do you men think of marciano would desire to've crushed George Foreman or Sonny Liston?(the two men have been crushed via Ali)

Answer 6

one of the problems with speculating about fights between boxers of different generations is the absence of an x factor where a wild or lucky punch could determine the outcome...but on pure skills alone, the smartness and quickness of ali combined with his superior size and strength would make ali an overwhelming favorite...ali was incredible in the sense that he always found a way to outsmart and out box his opponents and i believe in his prime he would have defeated any boxer in the leg heavy and power oriented heavyweight division...it would probably take another ali type to beat him and thats a tall order since the "greatest" was one of a kind

Answer 7

Ali was deffinately more skilled. and larger that Rock.
But he still had his flaws. He wasn't really that much of a power puncer, but since he threw punches constantly the accumilation eventualy knocked his opponent out. Rocky although smaller than Ali still had massive punching power. Going by todays standards, they would have never had a match. But I think the match would be very close. I can't choose between them . It just depends on who was on his better game during the match.
Ali could beat Rocky on his skill and lager size. But Rock had enough power he could hurt Ali. Bigger doesn't always mean better.

Answer 8

Some of these romanticists hate Ali for his courage and arrogance (they think that a black man should be humble and thankful, even one of my heroes Jackie Robinson thought the same thing) just like Bush says the terrorists hate us for our freedom.
Some of them hate Ali for his politics without realizing that dissent is part of the Constitution.
Some of them hate him for changing his name without realizing that several other boxers changed their names.
Some of these people say that he was a draft dodger without realizing that Jack Dempsey really was a draft dodger.
Some of these people want to turn back the clock and they are conservative, made up their in 1929 and refuse to change.
Some of these people think that extra marital sex is worse than lying to the American public so that you can start a war in which our soldiers die for nothing (yeah you are d**m I said it and I meant it).
Some of these people love George Allen, Trent Lott and Jesse Helms.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion however if it is warped and not logical then it has less validity.

P.S. This is why I am not a fan of Micheal Jordan because he was more worried about tennis sales when he was asked to back a black candidate against Jesse Helms.
Thank you so much for this opportunity.

Answer 9

You forgot about Ali's ring tactics, which were very good. You also forgot about Leon Spinks, who, with no skills whatsoever, was able to beat Ali (the only fight Ali threw, in my opinion, so he could win 3 championships).

You also misspelled 'invincible' -- badly.

Answer 10

Your right he was the greatest boxer of all time,but at that time he was less than a man.