I still love The Right Rocky threw in that 1st Walcott fight....and both of the Charles bouts,...but more and more I enjoy watching the Moore bout....and see the patient, evolved Marciano become a machine and wear down Ancient Archie.
That ezzard Charles should be ashamed then..getting knocked out by one punch from a retired washed up 38 year old man....how embarrassing anyone could have seen that punch coming! Answer me this..name a period of five years when Walcott was fighting and looking better than in the first Marciano fight? End of the line? Then why did he almost come back to challenge for the vacant world heavyweight title against Archie Moore in 1956? He felt he could beat Moore and regain the heavyweight title now that Marciano was gone. Maybe you should read walcotts book sometime. Once he became heavyweight champion, as long as he kept on winning he would not have retired. You think if he beat Marciano in 52 he would have retired?
"End of the line" is subjective. Obviously he decided he was, even though he wasn't far off his prime (he'd won the heavyweight championship of the world just a couple of years earlier). Retired at the right time. Although I suppose it's worth noting he retired in the early '40s too, before he even made it big.