[Syd Thrift]

Sorry to bring up a dead horse, but...

Rocky was a great fighter, no doubt. He almost lost to Jersey Joe Walcott, who was a pretty good fighter but not somebody rated as a top 10 by anybody I know. Marciano no doubt got better as his career went on but the Walcott fight in particular demonstrated that good defensive, tricky fighters could give him trouble. Given that, I think he loses to Ali and Lennox Lewis for sure (unless he catches Lewis like he did Walcott - Lewis is vulnerable exactly the same way, maybe even moreso). Marciano - Tyson would be a fantastic fight; whoever won would only do so after multiple knockdowns on either side.

One note about that computer fight anecdote: I think George Foreman in particular but also guys like Bernard Hopkins have demonstrated that unlike other sports you can keep a lot of the ability that you had in your prime until you get pretty up there in years. In particular, I'm not sure it could be said that Rocky lost *any* punching power from 1956 to 1968. The biggest thing Foreman still had during his comeback - some might say the only thing if they only watched that Holyfield bout - were his fists. As for Rocky... he had apparently taken the computer fight very seriously and had trained himself back into decent shape for the thing. On Ali's side, asking him to pull head punches is in a sense taking away his jab, which is like asking Rocky not to follow with his elbow after a hook.

It would have been really, really interesting if Rocky would have survived the plane crash and decided to box again. I think he would have done pretty well, although he would have most certainly spoiled his perfect record.