Muhammed Ali - The Greatest

[RohanKnight]

and from whom Rocky Marciano had run shitscared from.

sif its not true, how do you explain Marciano training to come out of retirement for Ingemar JOhansson, and then quitting as soon as Liston literally tore the champion apart..

Marciano knew for a fact that he'd get destroyed,and lets not forget Liston was the same age as Marciano, so you cant argue he gave up his comeback because he was past his prime. He was simply more limited than you make out, and now he realised it - why should he risk his record and his ATG status to get shown up by someone obviously better than him?

Then Rocky had the bad grace to say he would have kicked Clay's ass - an odd thing to say for such a gracious man, given that he ran from an obvious beating from Sonny Liston that Clay was happy to take - something was obviously bothering him immensely for him to react like that. A lot of retired champs mouth off, so he wasnt alone in that behaviour.

I don't think Marciano was ever afraid to fight anybody, including Sonny Liston, that's insulting. I do believe however that had this fight happened, Liston would have knocked Marciano out, he was too big, and too powerful for the much smaller Rocky.

well yes, shitscared is an unfair term for such a brave man, I concede that was wrong to say. As you say and everyone seems to agree with apart from BB above, its more that Rocky knew his limitations as a fighter... and I was not happy that he then went on to say he could whup Ali when he knew he couldnt even whup Liston.


I would expect a gracious man like Marciano to admit to his limitations, not lie about them, but that might be too much too ask from a lot of ex champs. Thats why I am glad that Ali didtn fall into the trap of BShitting like Marciano did - when asked about him versus Marciano (see BrocktonBusterMathis's thread for the video), he showed that rather than talk shit like Rocky did, he was down to earth and said - 'who knows?'

thx for posting the video, Brockton, always good to win an argument using your opponents own attack. very nearly said 'rope-a-dope' there.