[Jersey-Jim]

Notes from an All-Time Heavyweight Tournament

On January 20, 1970, The Superfight – Ali vs. Marciano was shown on time in 1500 theatres across North America and Europe.

Murry Woroner, a Miami boxing promoter, conducted a radio series of fantasy fights between Champs of years past. A then state-of-the-art computer was fed statistics about each of the fighters. A revolutionary new software program allowed the computer to predict what would have happened had the fighters met at the peak of their careers.

Announcers read the punch-by-punch commentary. Marciano won the tournament, beating Jack Dempsey. Ali, who lost early in the series, felt slighted and sued Woroner for defamation of character.

The lawsuit was settled when Woroner agreed to have the computer decide a match between Ali and the “All-Time Computer Champ” Marciano. Worner then convinced the two champions to simulate on film what the computer predicted.

Marciano, who fought long before the age of inflated purses, had not been very successful in his post-boxing career. Whether it was a restaurant in New Jersey or a potato field in Iowa, one deal after another went down the tubes. When Marciano received Woroner’s offer, he agreed immediately. His prayers answered, he had a challenge again.

Hank Kaplan, the technical director of the project, compiled the data using only the matches from each of the fighter’s best five consecutive years.

The data was fed into the NCR 315 computer that took up an entire floor. That was 1970.

Now, in 2008, I will reenact the great All-Time Heavyweight Tournament.

Using our boxing simulation, carefully developed over a 30 YEAR PERIOD, it is undoubtedly the most accurate boxing simulation in existence.

Instead of one individual compiling the data for the tournament, the boxer data has been updated, evaluated and play-tested by many individuals over the same 30 year period.

Each bout has been scheduled for 15 rounds under the Unified rules. There will be no standing eight counts. The fighters cannot be saved by the bell except in the final round.

Will Marciano duplicate his 1970’s performance against Dempsey in the finals? Or, will Ali or Louis triumph in 2008?

60 Champions, past to present will compete.


Stay Tuned…