By Al Francis: Boxing fans can almost unanimously agree that Muhammad Ali is the greatest heavyweight of all time. Most of us can also unite in admitting that Joe Louis and Jack Johnson aren’t too far behind. As we look further down the pantheon of greats it becomes considerably more subjective and there are varied opinions on where we should rank heavyweight greats like Lennox Lewis, Evander Holyfield, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, Joe Frazier, Jack Dempsey, John L Sullivan, Jim Jeffries and several more.

Judging where Mike Tyson should be ranked always generates a good and worthy debate, but when I think of all the heavyweights and their place in history, Rocky Marciano will probably generate the most varied response from boxing fans. So how good, or indeed great was Rocky Marciano?

There is no doubt that Marciano will always have a place in heavyweight history seeing as he is the only heavyweight champion to date to retire with an undefeated record but I feel this is exactly why there is such a mixed response when it comes to ranking him. Some may feel that he was unbeatable and some may feel he was lucky to retire with a 49-0 record, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle. To consider just how good Marciano was we must evaluate the pros and cons of his style, the quality of his opposition, the era in which he fought and take a look at the manner of his wins.

The fighter originally known as Rocco Marchegiano stood at only 5″10 and weighed between 184 and 189 lbs throughout his championship career. He had great heart and determination, and was a real big puncher, leading to 43 of his 49 victims being stopped inside the distance. However he was criticised for having poor technique and often plodded forward with little or no graceful footwork. Yet with 49 out of 49 its difficult to doubt the effectiveness of his style, which leads us to delve into the quality of his opposition and the era in which he fought.

Marciano won the title by knocking out then champion Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round of a bout in which he was largely outboxed. He followed up this win with a 1st round knockout over Walcott. Jersey Joe Walcott was the original pick to become the first black champion since Jack Johnson. The famous list of rules that Joe Louis’ management set him were actually drafted for Walcott and Walcott was the one signed to a long term deal, not Louis. However Walcott was plagued by injury and Joe Louis ended up on the fast track to the title instead. This left Walcott out in the dark, with poor management he suffered a string of losses throughout his career and never really got any big breaks in his younger days. He was 37 when he won the title, 38 when he lost to Marciano and 39 when he lost to Marciano for the second time. If a 38 year old Walcott can outbox Rocky for 13 rounds then is not conceivable that a prime version of any of the fighters mentioned at the top of this article could do the same?

Ezzard Charles was another. Charles, one of the truly underrated fighters of this time also never got his breaks until late in his career and was actually considered to be passed his best and above his natural weight before he even won the title in 1949. It was 1954 by the time Marciano got to him. With Walcott and Charles on the slide and Marciano reigning supreme as champion, the 50’s heavyweight division was considered to be a poor one. Comparing the 50’s to the 60’s, there was no contenders of the standard of Zora Folley, Earnie Terrell or Eddie Machen, let alone the contenders of the 70’s!

Rocky Marciano was an Italian American, a hero amongst his people and his most die hard fans insist on ranking him among the very best of all time, however I look at it though, I just cannot conjure with that theory. His grit, heart, determination and undeniably big punch make up for his lack of skills and technique, and for that I class him as a good fighter and an outstanding champion. But I cannot in good conscience rank him among the top 10 heavies of all time. There are dozens of heavyweights past and present who’s skill level far exceeds that of Marciano’s. That’s not to say there were dozens better as Marciano made a career out of knocking fighters out who were perceived to have superior skill such as Walcott, Charles and Archie Moore. And although he was certainly a huge puncher, fighters like Liston, Foreman and Tyson had a more lethal punch. Even a fighter such as Jack Dempsey, who fought in a very similar style to Marciano, coming forward aggressively throwing bombs from start to finish, had much better technique.

As previously stated, there is always a debate to be had regarding Marciano’s place in history and boxing fans and writers will argue about it for good while longer, but for this writer, Rocky was an outstanding warrior but comes nowhere near the upper echelons of boxing’s old glamour division. Prognosis : Good but not great!