Why Rocky Marciano Never Lost A Fight

i once showed my friend a highlight reel of rocky marciano to which he replied but that's not real right that was from an old movie and looking at the footage it's easy to understand his reaction rocky marciano almost routinely knocked people out of the ring known as the brockton bomber marciano fought some of the greatest heavyweights of all time and stands as the only heavyweight champion without a single loss on his record allegedly he had to have a custom 300 pound heavy bag made for his training which would help explain why 43 of his 49 fights were won by devastating knockout his achievements are all the more impressive when you consider that rocky is a pretty unusual heavyweight even for back then at 5 foot 10 with arms slightly shorter than manny pacquiao's rocky was one of the smallest heavyweight champions ever despite his size he was also one of the heaviest hitters the division has ever seen put simply rocky's punches sometimes look like something straight out of a comic book marciano also had the insane cardio necessary to maintain this intensity all the way until the 15th round if opponents could last that long rocky threw so many punches so consistently that it didn't really matter if every single one hit even if his opponent had an iron guard he would simply batter and bruise their arms until they lost all filling and became rendered useless recently canelo alvarez has used this same strategy to great effect while his limitless stamina and bulldozer-like punches made rocky the quintessential relentless fighter he was far from being a mindless slugger who just overwhelmed his opponents with ferocity and brute force marciano's style was unorthodox yet highly intelligent and very methodical a lot of people ask how rocky was so successful taking so much damage a much better question to ask would be how someone so recklessly aggressive could take so little damage a few videos ago we examined how thomas the hitman hearns was the perfect template for taller lengthier fighters likewise rocky marciano is the perfect template for a shorter and stockier fighter so today we'll explore the ways that rocky closed the distance landed his incredible knockouts and bullied his often larger competitors without getting bullied himself from the moment the fight started rocky balanced aggression with nuanced defense almost every punch he threw had knockout potential but almost every punch he threw was brilliantly set up in order to remain as safe as possible this is especially impressive because rocky was the embodiment of throwing your entire body weight into every punch he would use exaggerated head movement to create extra distance loading up his shots and putting a lot more momentum into his punches while most fighters prefer to advance with their front foot first rocky preferred to do the opposite moving his back foot to his front foot this is very similar to the footwork used by smoke and joe frazier like frazier it was not a very subtle or nuanced step but it did allow rocky to cover a lot of distance and put a lot more power behind his punches taken together rocky's exaggerated head movement and unusual shuffle step set up the ideal mechanics to unleash the two most powerful punches in boxing in the most powerful way possible these punches were the right overhand and lead hook to set up his overhand rocky would lean back while shuffling into an exchange another oddity this movement pattern allowed him to advance while remaining defensively responsible if his opponent tried to catch him with a jab or cross rocky didn't need to change his position drastically to respond he could simply ride the punch back to reduce the impact or shuffle away to a safe position from his crouch as mayweather likes to do as well as keeping him safe this backwards-leaning advance loaded up an unbelievable amount of power in rocky's punches particularly his signature suzy q cross and his decimating overhand since leaning back put most of his weight over his rear foot rocky just needed to shift his weight forward to practically pitch his punch into his opponents and this led to some of the most beautiful pole counters ever seen in the heavyweight division taking it one step further rocky did not follow the conventional wisdom of twisting his back foot to put his hip behind his cross rocky would instead step into his cross unpinning his back foot to allow more follow through of course a boxer lifting their back foot can cause them to lose balance and many fighters would try to capitalize on that open window of vulnerability but rocky had a unique way of turning the seeming disadvantage into a safe exit after setting up his cross rocky would often evade by lateral shuffling out to a southpaw stance before pivoting back to an orthodox stance great boxing stylists like roy jones jr would go on to have great success with sequences exactly like this many years later if the opponent retreated rocky could turn his step into a full-on shift moving forward into southpaw to chase down his opponents this would turn his already powerful left hook into a shifting rear hook speaking of rocky's hook was just as devastating as his rear hand [Music] rocky would usually begin to set this up in the same way as his overhand with deep exaggerated head movement to build distance and momentum [Music] instead of leading back into an overhand he would weave to the inside masking the beginning of his hook and building up momentum besides setting it up with an extremely deep inside crouch the thing that made marciano's hook unusual was that he often threw it as a gazelle punch like frazier rocky would spring up out of his crouch to shuffle forward as he straightened up and through this not only covered more distance but it also added a lot of weight to an already powerful hook floyd patterson would popularize this movement many years later and you could check out my video on him if you'd like to learn more since both his fight ending hook and overhand came off of exaggerated head movement rocky's opponents would often be conditioned to see that movement alone as a warning and he could use this to get them to back themselves into corners even the great jersey joe walcott respected rocky's power so much that he backed away from the mere sight of his swaying head movement and this resulted in one of the most beautiful punches ever thrown [Music] rocky had one more line of defense to set up these dangerous attacks these were the blocks that he used while crouching and like everything else in his style they were extremely unusual rocky would often alter his rear hand parry letting it travel so far over his center line that it would turn into a rear cross block years later ken norton would use a similar block to nullify ali's jab but usually from a more upright position another highly unusual but equally effective tactic was rocky's lead inverse elbow block [Music] while it's common to elevate the elbow during a shoulder roll to add more protection rocky took this one step further often ditching the roll all together this block did a great job protecting the lead side of his head while he crouched but if rocky's long-range power shots didn't connect that didn't mean opponents were out of the woods marciano's infighting was just as devastating as his long-range power blows rocky again used his shorter and stockier frame to its fullest advantage getting in close and unleashing an endless barrage of shorter tighter punches so while a tall fighter like hearns shines the best when they can keep their opponent at the end of their jab [Music] rocky knew that he needed to get past his opponent's jab from there his shorter arms could beat upon us to the punch and capitalize on angles that would tip the fight in his favor here too rocky seamlessly blended defense and offense because rocky stepped or shuffled into his punches he could put that momentum to good use by driving his head into his opponent's hips or shoulders immediately after throwing this both kept him safe and unbalanced his competitors notice in this clip how rocky uses the momentum from his stepping overhand to crash his head into azertrol's hip smothering charles and nullifying his counter before it can happen rocky could also use these head positions to manipulate his opponent's movement once his head was safely pinned on his opponent's shoulder or hip rocky would push forward to steer them off balance or force them to back up if opponents tried to counter wrestle rocky would rake his head up across their chest pushing their chin up to leave them open for devastating head shots [Music] along with controlling their posture rocky would also manipulate their guard and he would do this by directly prying it open from his inside position rocky would insert his arms between his opponent's guard and crack it open creating targets so that he could put his t-rex arms to good use but rocky's main go-to tactic on the inside was to suddenly disengage from his head slot on the opponent's shoulder in order to land a punch on the same side because his head effectively blocked his opponent's vision on that side rocky would use this to his advantage by suddenly unpinning his head and replacing it with his fist [Music] but rocky was at his very best when he combined his extreme head movement with his stellar wrestling he would weave from one head position to another unloading with the momentum of his head movement behind his punches while pinning and smothering his opponent before they could counter at times rocky would weave over or under his opponent's head just like roberto duran would do years later it should be noted that this technique requires a lot of skill and practice since it's easy to accidentally headbutt your opponent and get called for a foul or get headbutted yourself and possibly cut it should be clear by now that rocky's style relied heavily on crossing the center line at both long range and close range but marciano really never gets enough credit for is how he could do the same thing with his footwork and on a pretty intricate level in fact i would make the bold statement that marciano had brilliant football that worked in tandem perfectly with his wild punches [Music] rather than simply barreling forward rocky turned the momentum from the shuffle into lateral movement and these nuanced adjustments helped him to circumvent his opponent's guard ensuring that each punch could come from a completely different angle even while in the middle of throwing long combinations [Music] a lot of marciano's skill has been historically under-appreciated mainly i think because his style was so unusual that it's not obvious right away what he was doing or why he was doing it even those that praise him tend to focus on his impressive knockout power and cardio not looking far beyond that but rocky proved to be on a shadow of a doubt that his style had merit he was a powerhouse a stylist an infighter and a thinker marciano's well worth studying even today for more information on footwork defense and power you can check out my books linked in the description below from the modern martial artist this has been david christian wishing you happy training

Channel: The Modern Martial Artist

Views: 2,401,529

Keywords: rocky, rocky marciano, boxing, explained, breakdown, technique breakdown, analysis, boxing breakdown, film study, boxing film study, modern martial artist, the modern martial artist, boxing explained, boxing footwork, boxing head movement, boxing power

Id: PjinT0ieVV0

Length: 14min 32sec (872 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 31 2022