Via Ken Hisner: I had to laugh when there were comments saying that Joe “Bomber” Louis was #190 pounds and Marciano was #185 pounds and by today’s standards a cruiser class.
Louis, 6’1 ½, was 66-3 with 52 stoppage-time points from 1934 to 1951. He had a record 25 saves in the heavyweight division. In June 1935, he won by scoring 3 injury-time knocks in 6’5 ½, Primo “The Ambling Alp” Carnera, 82-7, at Yankee Stadium, Bronx , New York.
In May 1941, Louis beat DQ by 6’6″ Buddy Baer, 59-5, at Griffith Stadium in Wash., DC. He came out in the first round to score three kills in the sixth inning. Baer and his manager will not leave the ring when the game is over. In January 1942 in a rematch, Louis knocked out Baer three times and was eliminated in the first round.
In September 1935, Louis knocked out Baer’s brother, former 6’2 ½ world champion, Max “Livermore Larupper” Baer, 40-8, at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York.
In March 1942, Louis stopped at 6’4″ Abe Simon, 36-9-1, scored kills in the second and fifth rounds, stopping him in the sixth at Madison Square Garden, New York.
Rocky Marciano, 5’10 ½, is 49-0 with 43 stops, beating most opponents by about 3 inches.
The heavyweight champion was Nikolai “Russian Giant” Valuev of Russia, 50-2 with 34 stops. In his final bout, he lost to WBA, WBC and WBO class cruiser champions 6’03” David ‘Haymaker’ Haye, 22-1, by majority decision in Nuremberg, Germany in November 2009.
“Big” John Rankin was 7’04, hit only one game in November 1967, winning the decisive four innings.
Former professional Dallas Cowboy 6’09” Ed “Too Tall” Jones, 6-0 with 5 stops, makes his debut. He finds himself having a hard time winning a majority decision in 6’03” Abraham “Yaqui” Meneses, 5-6, November 1979, in New Mexico. Just five games later, against only an opponent with a winning record, he withdrew wisely.
At 7’04” Gogea “Marsani’s Giant” Mitu of Romania, took a 2-0 lead with two stops in 1935 before he retired.
6’03” Muhammad “The Greatest” Ali, 56-5 with 37 stops in Saturday’s game, beating 6’6″ Duke “Kolo” Sabedong, 15-11-1, over 10 rounds.
Some high exceptions are the UK’s current WBC world champion Tyson “The Gypsy King” Fury, 33-0-1 with 24 stops at 6’09, which is a “weird nature” with the skills that a person of that size has.
At 6’07” WBO and WBC Champion Vitali “Dr. Ironfist” Klitschko, 45-2 with 41 stops from Kyiv, Ukraine, is another big hit with success. His smaller 6’6″ older brother is Wladimir “Dr. Steelhamer” Klitschko, 64-5 with 53 stops is another big hit.
