I don't know if Liston had been around and everyone was talking about him being invincible. I could see Rocky going for one last big one.
Though Valdes may have been a difficult fight due to styles ,Archie Moore efffectively eliminated him from contention , beating him twice during Rocky's reign.
This is true and Rocky was going to give him a shot at # 50 if he could get past Satterfield in 1955 but the 6"3 Nino Valdes was dominated and dropped for a 9 count in the last rd vs the 5"10 Bob Satterfield making him unmarketable for Rocky's 50th win and 44th KO
Translates to, anyone who dares challenge my agenda driven tributes to my heroes is infantile. Yeah sure.:roll::roll:
What's this? McVey on a mob thread? You were so anti this when I mentioned Louis mangers were linked in with dirty business. But with Marciano, its fair game. Hmmmm.... Wonderful double standard even if you are correct in this case, but wrong with Louis management. Next thing you'll say is Rocky lacked one punch power again
The thing is, most of us don't have heroes who we crusade for here(closest thing for Foxy seems to be Marvin Hagler though, fyi). Most of us are just here to try to talk boxing as objectively as possible.
You tried to show Louis benefited from his managers mob ties in the decisions that were rendered in his fights. The only mob ties Roxborough and Black had was that they had both been number runners. Braddock,Walcott, through his manager,Baer, Carnera,Sharkey,Marciano Liston ,all had ties with the mob either directly or indirectly.Louis was clean and no one has ever produced a single iota of evidence that any of his fights were rigged.The only person ,and I use the term loosely,who has tried to smear him is your self. Marciano was friendly with both Carbo and Palermo. Here educate yourself muppet! !Throughout his career, Marciano had managed to steer clear of any visible mob involvement. That was important to rebutting the underside of the Italian-American stereotype and keeping him clean in the public eye. Its likely that Frankie Carbo had a piece of Marciano by virtue of their mutual tie to Al Weill. But that was never part of the public record. One of Marcianos friends, Ed Napoli, said after the fighters death that Rocky had been offered a lucrative inducement to throw the ****ell fight, in which the Brit was a 10-to-1 underdog. According to Napoli, Marciano told the mobster who made the offer, You disgust me. Im ashamed that youre Italian. Get out of here and dont come back. But after Marciano retired, he became openly friendly with several mob figures, including Carbo. He saw Carbo as having class, Sullivan writes. Someone who knew how to dress, how to live, how to move, how to command respect, and how to treat other Italians. Moreover, Marciano liked the aura of danger and excitement that surrounded Carbo. William Nack elaborates on that theme, writing, As celebrated a folk hero as he was to the workaday Italian-American, Marciano found himself to be an even more-respected figure among members of the underworld; a life-sized icon whose company and favor were sought by hoodlums wherever he went. Over the years, Marciano kissed the cheeks of many of the major crime family bosses. [But] in spite of the social contact he had with hoodlums, he feared the violence and notoriety of the underworld and made it a point not to get involved in their businesses. The exception to that rule, according to Nack, came when Marciano loaned $100,000 to Pete DiGravio (a loan shark linked to the Cleveland mob). From Rockys point of view, he was merely investing in a business. He wasnt involved in the street end of things. Still, the association with the mob was there. Frank Saccone (Marcianos longtime accountant) later recalled, Wed go to these elaborate restaurants and sit with fifteen, twenty underworld characters. I was a naïve accountant from Brockton. I thought they were just friends of Rockys. Rocky finally told me who they were. They couldnt do enough for him. Theyd say to him, I got a beautiful tailor. Let me take you down there and get you some suits. Theyd buy him six suits, three dozen shirts. He loved it and they loved him. In a similar vein, Richie Paterniti (a friend of Marcianos during the retirement years) told Nack, Wherever we went, there were mob guys. They loved him because he represented what mob guys really want to be. He was Italian and he beat up every guy he faced. He exuded power, an air of authority. They all wanted to be with him. They kissed his ass. Nack further recounts, When Vito Genovese was dying, he put out the word that he wanted Marciano to visit him in prison. Rocky went to Leavenworth to show Genovese films of his fights.
Actually it translates into an influx of posters who only read one or two articles that suit their agenda and want to roll with that instead of being objective and trying to learn everything about the topic. They then want to dismiss more knowledgable posters by sticking to their guns, trolling and making assumptions about what was or wasnt true. Sadly this has happened on every website Ive been on since 1999.
You don't ever have the convictions of your belief in a certain fighter's greatness? If you do, it's always a case of "hero worship"? Be careful, that blade cuts both ways. Your favorites and your prejudices always surface, whether you're willing to admit that or not. No one is truly "objective" 100% of the time. You can strive to be objective, but be careful not to be driven by the winds of modern day historical boxing revisionism.