Quote:
Originally posted by plawrence:
Ali, in his prime, would've boxed rings around Marciano, I think.

The level of competition in the Heavyweight Division was much stronger during Ali's day, and he fought and beat just about everyone during his 17-18 years on top.

While Marciano was undefeated, he was not on top very long before retiring, and didn't beat nearly as many "name" fighters in their prime as Ali did.

The four best that Rocky faced were Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Joe Walcott, and Archie Moore, all of whom had seen better days to some degree.

The guys Ali fought and beat were mostly in their prime when he beat them.
As I said Plaw, it's a tough call. But let's address some of the points that you've made here.

When Ali aka Clay turned pro, in his first 15 or so fights, the only name that he fought was Ingmar Johannson, the rest were just a bunch of no names. Then after a few more fights he took on the legendary Archie Moore. But Moore's better days were way behind him and obviously Ali's handlers set him up for that fight only because of Moore's past reputation. It was a good name that was sure to bring Ali some recognition. Then it wasn't until 2 years later that he fought and defeated Sonny Liston. Then again basically a bunch of no names for another year until his fight with Floyd Patterson in 1965. In reality after the Patterson fight it was not until 1971 that he again faced a reputable opponent in Smokin Joe Frazier. Of course we know that he could not fight for two years in between facing Patterson and Frazier.

In truth, the only reputable fighters that he fought for the rest of his career was Frazier, a 37 year old Floyd Patterson, Ken Norton, George Foreman, Ernie 'questionable' Shavers, Leon 'was he really that good' Spinks and Larry Holmes.


Again, not taking anything away from Ali, as I said he was definitely one of if not the greatest, but he had a lot of no name fights in between those name fights throughout his career. I think that his persona added to his great fights is what made him that much more popular in the boxing world.


As for Marciano, well I don't know if you could really say that Archie Moore had seen his better days when he fought Marciano in 1955 as compared to Ali fighting Moore in 1962. As for the rest from that list, you are right. The youngest one from that list that Marciano fought was probably a 31 year old Ezzard Charles. And if I'm not mistaken, I don't believe that Marciano was EVER knocked down in a fight.


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