Marciano – What means more the 49 or the 0?

By Boxing News - 01/14/2010 - Comments

Image: Marciano - What means more the 49 or the 0?By Dennis Broadhurst: Rocky Marciano, a boxer that everyone has heard of, the only undefeated heavyweight champion of all time (49-0 with 43ko’s). Rocky was a great fighter, what he lacked in skill, size and speed he made up for in heart, chin, stamina and power! Rocky was a stalker with great power in both hands, most notable his “Suzie-Q”, he would never stop coming forward and his fantastic stamina allowed him to do that for as long as the fight took.

Nobody could keep Marciano off them forever, at least nobody he fought could, he had an iron chin and great heart, when on the edge of falling into defeat whether it be due to a deep gash, a split nose or badly trailing on the scorecards, Rocky would always find a way.

Now Rocky had 49 fights in which he won them all but his most notable opponents were Ezzard Charles, Joe Louis, Jersey Joe Walcott and Archie Moore. Ezzard Charles was perhaps the greatest light-heavy of them all and moved up to heavyweight giving Rocky two of his hardest fights but falling short like all others. Joe Louis was past it when Rocky fought him and was knocked out of the ring.

Walcott was 38 when Marciano fought him but was still a great fighter who floored Rocky in the first and outboxed him for thirteen rounds before Rocky ended things with one punch. Rocky’s final battle against Archie Moore who was in his early forties, Rocky was down in the first but recovered and stopped Archie like 43 other unfortunate opponents.

Seeing that Marciano had some good wins against good fighters, I still ask myself the question “What was more important, the 49 or the 0?” In Marcaino’s 49 he defended his title just six times before retiring and only really fought four great fighters, three of which who were 37 years or over. Now I think that Marciano’s 49 does not mean much at all when people rate him and that it is only his 0 that keeps him up there with the greats, there is no denying that Rocky was a great fighter but had he not got the 0 on his record then where would YOU rank him?



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