Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano
Data
Birth Name	Rocco Francis Marchegiano
Fight name	The Brockton Blockbuster
Weight class	Heavyweight
nationality	US-american
birthday	September 1, 1923
place of birth	Brockton , Massachusetts
Date of death	August 31, 1969
Place of death	Newton , Iowa
style	Left delivery
size	1.79 m
Range	1.73 m
Combat Statistics
Struggles	49
Victories	49
Knockout victories	43
Defeats	0
draw	0
Profile in the BoxRec database

Rocky Marciano , actually Rocco Francis Marchegiano , (born September 1, 1923 in Brockton , Massachusetts , † August 31, 1969 near Newton , Iowa ) was an American boxer of Italian descent. Overall, he was able to defeat 87.76% of his opponents prematurely, so he achieved the highest knockout. -Quota of all heavyweight world champions in the history of professional boxing. He ended his career as the first undefeated heavyweight boxing world champion and is therefore one of the most successful boxers in the history of this sport due to his high knockout rate. He was world champion from 1952 to 1956 . Marciano was killed in a plane crash the day before his 46th birthday.

Youth, military service and a short amateur career as a boxer

The son of Italian immigrants - his father, Pierino Marchegiano (1889–1986), came from Ripa Teatina , Abruzzo and worked in a shoe factory - as a teenager, he was initially interested in baseball and American football , but not in boxing. Regardless of the sport practiced, a sporting career always meant an option for social advancement, so that in 1947 Rocky Marciano tried to establish himself as a catcher with the Chicago Cubs , a professional baseball club, but failed. Since Marciano's true talent was boxing, with which he began in 1943 at the relatively late age of almost 20 during his military service in the United States Army , he dedicated himself exclusively to this sport from that point on. After his military service he played twelve fights as an amateur under the name Rocky Mack, of which he finished eight victorious.

Beginnings as a professional

Marciano defeated his first 16 opponents in the opening rounds (including the undefeated Eddie Ross ). On March 24, 1950, he defeated the undefeated Roland La Starza (balance 37-0), a first known opponent over ten rounds on points (2-1 judgment), after he knocked him to the ground in the fourth round and in the eighth Round had received a point deduction for an (accidental) low blow. In the fight before he ended the professional career of the aspiring Carmine Vingo , who had previously lost only once in 17 fights. He was knocked out with difficulty in the sixth round and only narrowly escaped death. In 1962 Marciano described this as his hardest fight.
In 1951 Marciano knocked out 23-year-old 9-5 favorite Rex Layne in the sixth round; the year before, this had defeated Jersey Joe Walcott unanimously on points. With this victory at the latest, the boxer from Brockton was one of the contenders for a fight for the world title.
Marciano finally ended the sporting career of a boxing legend - Joe Louis , in October of the same year . He had fought eight victories in a row since his point defeat by Ezzard Charles in 1950, but was relatively exhausted as a boxer at the age of 37 and only boxed in order to be able to pay his tax debts. Although Marciano Louis knocked out in the eighth round after he had already hit the ground, it was obvious that the aspiring boxer was "sparing" his former role model.

Winning the world title

On September 23, 1952, the reigning world champion Jersey Joe Walcott wanted to defend his title against Marciano, who was almost ten years his junior. Despite a knockdown in the first round (Marciano was counted up to "four") and Walcott's high point lead (7: 4, 7: 5, 8: 4 rounds), a right Marciano finished this endeavor in the 13th round. This fight was voted fight of the year by the prestigious RING Magazine.

Title defenses

The first title defense in May 1953 in Chicago was the rematch with Walcott, the "the Rock", as Marciano was called by his fans, won by knockout in the first round.
The subsequent title defense in New York City was also a kind of rematch, because the opponent was Roland LaStarza. In front of 45,000 enthusiastic spectators Marciano won the "Polo Grounds" by technical knockout in round 11. LaStarza was an almost equal opponent and Marciano was after ten rounds with two of the three judges with 6: 4 and 7: 3 rounds in the front, while the third saw the fight equalized.
In 1954 he defended the heavyweight crown twice against the 33-year-old former world champion Ezzard Charles . Both events took place at Yankee Stadium in New York. In the first encounter, Marciano failed for the first time after eleven fights to knock out the opponent, who had twice as many fights in his record. Although he was the unanimous point winner because he was the fresher and more aggressive fighter in the high-class match, especially in the last third of the 15 rounds, parts of the press and many fans were of the opinion that Charles had deserved another chance. The rematch was clearly in Marciano's favor from the course of the fight, but it was dramatic because Marciano was about to lose due to a serious nose injury and was only able to win by a knockout victory, which he finally could succeeded in the eighth round.

The penultimate title defense (1955) was against the British boxer Don Cockell. He had lost three years earlier to the middleweight and ex-world champion Randy Turpin by technical knockout (three knockouts) when he was boxing for the vacant light heavyweight title of the Commonwealth Champion, and at that time weighed 79 kg. Only three years later he was 14 kg heavier, but had defeated world number boxer Roland LaStarza (at least on paper) on points in England. But against Marciano he had no chance and lost in San Francisco by technical knockout in the ninth round.

Marciano's last opponent Archie Moore demanded far more from him despite his (assumed) 40 years and 180 professional fights and even managed to knock the champion down in the second round. Moore went down five times in the course of the fight and Marciano finally won with a clear knockout victory.

The following year Rocky Marciano resigned unbeaten on April 27, 1956 after 49 wins. His fight record lasted until 2017. It wasn't until 2015 that Floyd Mayweather Jr. managed to draw level with Marciano's 49-0 victories. In 2017 Mayweather surpassed Marciano's record with 50 wins.

List of professional fights

49 wins (43 knockout wins), 0 defeats , 0 draws
year	Day	place	opponent	Result for Marciano
1947	17. March	Valley Arena, Holyoke, USA	Lee Epperson	Victory / KO 3rd round
1948	July 12	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Harry Bilazarian	Victory / TKO 1st round
	July 19	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	John Edwards	Victory / KO 1st round
	August 9	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Bobby Quinn	Victory / KO 3rd round
	August 23	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Eddie Ross	Victory / KO 1st round
	August 30th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Jimmy Weeks	Victory / TKO 1st round
	13.september	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Humphrey Jackson	Victory / KO 1st round
	September 20th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Bill Hardeman	Victory / KO 1st round
	30. September	Uline Arena, Washington, USA	Gilbert Cardone	Victory / KO 1st round
	4th of October	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Bob Jefferson	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	November 29th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	James Patrick Connolly	Victory / TKO 1st round
	December 14th	Convention Hall, Philadelphia, USA	Gilley Ferron	Victory / TKO 2nd round
1949	March 21st	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Johnny Pretzie	Victory / TKO 5th round
	28th March	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Artie Donato	Victory / KO 1st round
	11 April	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Jimmy Walls	Victory / KO 3rd round
	2.May	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Jimmy Evans	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	23. May	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Don Mogard	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	July 18th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Harry detention	Victory / KO 3rd round
	August 16	New Page Arena, New Bedford, USA	Pete Louthis	Victory / KO 3rd round
	September 26th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Tommy DiGiorgio	Victory / KO 4th round
	October 10th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Ted Lowry	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	November 7th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Joe Dominic	Victory / KO 2nd round
	2. December	Madison Square Garden , New York, USA	Pat Richards	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	19. December	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Phil Muscato	Victory / TKO 5th round
	30th of December	Madison Square Garden , New York, USA	Carmine Vingo	Victory / KO 6th round
1950	March 24th	Madison Square Garden , New York, USA	Roland La Starza	Points win (split decision) / 10 rounds
	June 5th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Eldridge Eatman	Victory / TKO 3rd round
	10th of July	Braves Field, Boston, USA	Gino Buonvino	Victory / TKO 10th round
	September 18	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Johnny Shkor	Victory / TKO 6th round
	November 13th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Ted Lowry	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	December 18th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Bill Wilson	Victory / TKO 1st round
1951	January 29th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Keene Simmons	Victory / TKO 8th round
	March, 20th	Auditorium, Hartford, USA	Harold Mitchell	Victory / TKO 2nd round
	26th of March	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Art Henri	Victory / TKO 9th round
	April, 30th	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Willis Applegate	Points victory (unanimously) / 10 rounds
	July 12	Madison Square Garden , New York, USA	Rex Layne	Victory / KO 6th round
	August 27	Boston Garden , Boston, USA	Freddie Beshore	Victory / KO 4th round
	October 26th	Madison Square Garden , New York, USA	Joe Louis	Victory / TKO 8th round
1952	13th February	Convention Hall, Philadelphia, USA	Lee Savold	Victory / abandonment 6th round
	April 21	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Gino Buonvino	Victory / KO 2nd round
	12th of May	Rhode Island Auditorium, Providence, USA	Bernie Reynolds	Victory / KO 3rd round
	July 28th	Yankee Stadium , Bronx, USA	Harry Matthews	Victory / KO 2nd round
	September 23rd	Municipal Stadium, Philadelphia, USA	Jersey Joe Walcott NBA World Heavyweight Championship	Victory / KO 13th round
1953	May 15	Chicago Stadium, Chicago, USA	Jersey Joe Walcott NBA Heavyweight Title Defense	Victory / KO 1st round
	September 24th	Polo Grounds , New York, USA	Roland La Starza NBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 11th round
1954	17th of June	Yankee Stadium , Bronx, USA	Ezzard Charles NBA heavyweight title defense	Points victory (unanimously) / 15 rounds
	17th of September	Yankee Stadium , Bronx, USA	Ezzard Charles NBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / KO 8th round
1955	May 16	Kezar Stadium, San Francisco, USA	Don Cockell NBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / TKO 9th round
	21st September	Yankee Stadium , Bronx, USA	Archie Moore NBA heavyweight title defense	Victory / KO 9th round
Source: Rocky Marciano in the BoxRec database

Marciano's boxing style

Marciano was an attacking boxer who - due to his high stroke frequency - exerted constant, never-ending pressure on his opponents from the first to the last round. This ability - combined with above-average "ability to take", good eye and reflexes, exceptionally powerful two-handed hitting power - which made one forget that he, with a fighting weight of around 85 kg, would be a cruiserweight by today's standards - required 100 percent concentration from his opponents. If this could not be sustained, with a few exceptions the defeat followed by a sudden knockout blow. Prerequisites for this very physical style were an enormous stamina, strong nerves and absolute confidence in your own abilities.

Since Marciano meticulously prepared for his fights and was always fully trained, it never happened during his entire professional career that he had to pay tribute to the end of a fight, even at a very fast pace.

The aim of the tactics that Marciano and his trainer Charley Goldman developed was to dictate the fight from the half-distance and the infight. This suited Marciano more than his mostly larger opponents due to his small body size for the heavyweight division of only 1.79 m. By quickly dodging, crouching and constantly swinging, he made it difficult for the other boxer to get his punches to the target, because on the one hand he reduced his attack surface, on the other hand he almost never gave a stationary target.

Life after boxing and death

Marciano devoted himself to family life and had invested his combat markets profitably through solid financial management, so that he could be described as wealthy. The day before his 46th birthday, he was killed in a plane crash near Newton, Iowa as a passenger on a single-engine Cessna 172 during an evasive landing due to deteriorating weather conditions. The pilot and another man died with him. Marciano was born in Ft. Lauderdale / Florida buried.

Marciano was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990 .

Rocky - the Alltime Great

Rocky Marciano is considered one of the "all-time greats" of boxing. He was the outstanding heavyweight world champion of the fifties, as it was before Joe Louis in the forties or after him Muhammad Ali in the sixties and seventies. In contrast to these two boxing legends, he resigned at his absolute peak and remained true to his decision, which reinforced his legendary status and gave him a certain "inviolability" towards critics.

Others

The opinion often claimed that Marciano was the model for Sylvester Stallone's " Rocky " is not true. This “honor” goes to Chuck Wepner (born 1939). On March 24, 1975, Stallone saw Wepner's world championship fight against Ali, which he lost in the 15th round to Tko. His valiant performance as a 10-1 outsider inspired Stallone to make his film "Rocky".

In 1969, inspired by a dispute among American sports journalists as to who was the better boxer, Marciano or Ali, a computer was supplied with data from both boxers. From this controversial experiment, which was also filmed with the participation of both boxers, Marciano emerged as the demolition winner. From today's point of view, such an approach seems strange and even then the whole thing was perceived as tendentious and a gimmick in large parts of the sports world.

Nick Sandow played Marciano in the 2007 film The Champ .

See also

• List of heavyweight boxing champions

literature

• Rocky Marciano: The Rock of his Times, by Russell Sullivan. Publisher University of Illinois Press (August 1, 2002), ISBN 0-252-02763-9 .
• Rocky Marciano, by Everett M. Skehan. Robson Books (December 1, 1999), ISBN 0-86051-234-7 .
• Unbeaten: The Life and Time of Rocky Marciano, by Everett M. Skehan. Rounder Books (March 1, 2005), ISBN 1-57940-106-6 .
• Rocky Marciano, the 13th Candle: The True Story of an American Legend, by Michael N. Varveis. Verlag Adriana Pub (2000), ISBN 0-936369-84-1 .

Web links

• http://www.rockymarciano.net/
• http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/1047/Rock.html ( Memento from November 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
• Rocky Marciano in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Rocky Marciano in the BoxRec database
• Rocky Marciano amateur record 9-4

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Top 10 best puncher. Stern Online, accessed January 16, 2013 . 
2. ↑ rockymarciano.net: Biography - Page 2 ( Memento from August 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Mayweather moves with Marciano Spiegel online.de, September 13, 2015, accessed on February 23, 2016.
4. ↑ Columns 2 and 3, below: "Ex-world champion Marciano is dead" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna September 2, 1969, p. 12 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
5. ↑ Fights and Flights ... The Crash of Rocky Marciano's Cessna . Check-six.com, accessed September 16, 2014
6. ↑ Knockout in the time machine. Spiegel Online, accessed November 23, 2012 .