Who Would Draw More Viewers Today: Sugar Ray Robinson or Rocky Marciano

Truth is if it were today that Marciano fought he would not have been as succesful as he was....

Now before everyone starts getting all into the well so and so would lose to him ect....

Marciano as a heavyweight in this era just would not happen....Even if he made it in at 201lbs....Too much size and the laws of nature catch everyone....This isn't the old school when a guy gave up 20lbs Rock never reached 191 lbs...

Marciano would be more of A Gatti version of the big men...IMO he would rule the cruiserweights though

Robinson would be the P4P best at anyweight and he would fight every top name on the list...Ray was a master boxer who also could mix it up with success if need be....

Ray Robinson like his unofficial of P4P best of all time would be the top PPV draw as well

Well I saw this as a hypothetical question so.....

IF Rocky was a heavyweight today

IF Rocky won the fights like he used to

and IF Rocky's KO power worked like it did when he was the champ

Then hell yeah people would LOVE that....much more than a welterweight or middleweight who was extremely talented

robinson

I think Marciano would draw more.. But Robinson would do better in the fights.

I think Marciano would draw more. After all, he's the greatest of all time. :box3:

That is a great question, as Marciano's latest biographer (Redemption: The Life & Death of Rocky Marciano - due to be released soon initially as an ebook) I can tie these two together to an event that almost happened, after Louis' defeat at the hands of Marciano Robinson planned his revenge, first he was to fight Maxim for the light-heavy crown then he would move up to heavy and fight the rising contender Marciano before having a crack at that title too. As we all know now he lost the title challenge to Maxim, more through the heat than the superiority of his opponent yet still he hankered after facing Marciano in order to avenge his friend, that is until Louis himself advised him against it...It is a shame that the fight never happened because it would have answered many questions regarding these two legends...

Robinson hands down. I'd just pay top dollar to see Robinson at Mayweather vs Cotto so Floyd could tell him face to face that Ray wasn't the best there was. Honest question...would Marciano, seeing as how it's 'peak', be in at 195 or go to today's heavy?

Marciano would draw more.

- White
- Heavyweight
- Hit Hard
- Had that ugly brawling style like Hatton that casual fans oddly seem to like.

It would have been no contest imo.

Although, it depends how SRR was built up and the state of the heavyweight division if Marciano was in it. For example, we don't see Wladimir Klitschko outselling Floyd Mayweather's PPV's..Although the missing ingredient is that Marciano's fights were probably considered way more exciting than Wladimir's are..

Quite a few variables - I'd personally watch SRR all day long over Marciano

Why does everyone keep mentioning that marciano is white? I don't think that's very relevant in today's world. The biggest draws are an African American fighter and a Filipino .

If Rocky was resurrected through scientific cloning and fought today at cruiserweight he would draw more viewers initially. After that Robinson would get more viewers fighting the likes of Floyd, Pac Man, Sergio and Cotto. Those would be more interesting fights than Rocky v Huck/Cunningham.

Rocky would have decapitated Robinson if they ever fought. Lucky Joe Louis talked him out of it.

For me it would have to be SRR, that man had it all.

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Originally Posted by amat

I might be wrong, in fact I tend to be wrong a lot. Maybe Robinson does have name recognition over Marciano, but I'm not lying. I don't even see what I could be lying about ??? My mom? That's ridiculous.

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I honestly can't believe anyone is even arguing with you on this. Marciano, despite being nowhere near the talent of Robinson, clearly has WAY BIGGER name recognition, at least in the U.S. Chiefly because he was white; but also to some extent because he fought at heavyweight. I think the Rocky movies (despite not being based on him) also have something to do with it. People see those movies, poke around to see if there was a real "rocky" and quickly learn about Marciano.

You are absolutely right that most non-boxing fans think Leonard when they hear "Sugar Ray." And plenty of them have no idea who Robinson is. Sad but true.

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Originally Posted by Maravilla2012

Why does everyone keep mentioning that marciano is white? I don't think that's very relevant in today's world. The biggest draws are an African American fighter and a Filipino .

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If there was a white American fighter at 147 or above who had anywhere near the talent of Floyd or Pac, he would outsell them, guaranteed. Think about how ridiculously hyped Kelly Pavlik was getting before his career went downhill--way more than Floyd or Pac were at the time they won their first titles. Hillary Clinton appeared with him at a campaign event!

Of course, Marciano didn't have anywhere near the talent of Robinson. But most non-fans don't know that, and the poll question is "Who would sell more in a one-off fight against a no-namer tomorrow?," not who would sell more tickets 20 fights down the road once people became acquainted with them.