By Ken Hissner: I have to laugh when comments come in saying Joe “The Bomber” Louis was only #190 pounds and Marciano only #185 pounds and, by today’s standards, cruiserweights.

Louis, 6’1 ½, was 66-3 with 52 by stoppage from 1934 to 1951. He had a record 25 defenses in the heavyweight division. In June of 1935, he won by stoppage scoring 3 knockdowns over the 6’5 ½, Primo “The Ambling Alp” Carnera, 82-7, at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York.

In May of 1941, Louis won by DQ over 6’6” Buddy Baer, 59-5, at Griffith Stadium in Wash., D.C. He came off the canvas in the first round to go on to score 3 knockdowns in the sixth round. Baer and his manager wouldn’t leave the ring when the fight was stopped. In January of 1942 in a rematch, Louis knocked Baer down 3 times and out in the first round.

In September of 1935, Louis had knocked out Baer’s brother, former world champion 6’2 ½, Max “Livermore Larupper” Baer, 40-8, at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York.

In March of 1942, Louis stopped 6’4” Abe Simon, 36-9-1, scoring knockdowns in the second and fifth rounds, stopping him in the sixth round at Madison Square Garden, New York.

Rocky Marciano, 5’10 ½, was 49-0 with 43 stoppages, defeating mostly all opponents around 3” taller.

The biggest heavyweight champion was Russia’s Nikolai “The Russian Giant” Valuev, 50-2 with 34 stoppages. In his final fight, he lost to WBA, WBC, and WBO cruiserweight champion 6’03” David ‘Haymaker’ Haye, 22-1, by majority decision in Nuremberg, Germany in November 2009.

“Big” John Rankin was 7’04”, only having one fight in November 1967, winning a 4 round decision.

Former Dallas Cowboy all-pro 6’09” Ed “Too Tall” Jones, 6-0 with 5 stoppages, made his debut. He found himself in trouble winning a majority decision over 6’03” Abraham “Yaqui” Meneses, 5-6, November of 1979, in New Mexico. Just 5 fights later, against only one opponent with a winning record, he wisely retired.

At 7’04” Romania’s Gogea “Giant of Marsani” Mitu, was 2-0 with 2 stoppages in 1935 before he retired.

The 6’03” Muhammad “The Greatest” Ali, 56-5 with 37 stoppages in his seventh fight, defeated 6’6” Duke “Kolo” Sabedong, 15-11-1, over 10 rounds.

Some tall exceptions were current UK’s WBC World champion Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury, 33-0-1 with 24 stoppages at 6’09”, is a “freak of nature” with skills that someone that size has.

At 6’07” WBO and WBC champion Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko, 45-2 with 41 stoppages from Kyiv, Ukraine, was another big man with success. His smaller 6’6” brother Wladimir “Dr. Steelhamer” Klitschko, 64-5 with 53 stoppages was another successful big man.