[Eric]

Originally Posted by cashman

Marciano wasn't a boxer either Eric, but hes the only undefeated world heavyweight champ as i can recall? so to me that point is irrelevant?

I don't know about that ... it's debatable ... but there must have been something special about a man only about a stone heavier than I am, throwing one of the hardest punches ever, to take out an aging Jersey Joe Walcott.




Maybe he was lucky to fight at the end of one great era of heavyweights ... Archie Moore, Joe Louis, Ezzard Charles, Jersey Joe (and who can forget Don Cockell) ... and before the beginning of another. But Ali was more than just a boxer. He won the championship before the signing of the Civil Rights Act (what Johnson called the "nigger act"). Born before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus, he was a champion of what was right. He put his freedom and his career on the line to protest the Viet Nam war. He was truly great.

Pity there ain't enough of us fans of the golden age of boxing to justify a "classic boxing" thread.