Why was Marciano's era not strong?

Disregard it then. I thought it was interesting and went off on a bit of a tangent, no crisis.

 

Henry was mob managed, I would treat his career with a great deal of circumspection.

 

I think the 50's was better than the 30's.

Marciano's era wasn't the strongest, but he did fight the best out there, in some cases twice, and didn't use any color line at all. What more could you ask from him?

From 1950-1955, The ten best were in my opinion were:

Charles
Walcott
Moore
LaStarza
Louis
Valdes
Henry
Layne
Savold
Cockrell


Rocky fought 8 of them, only missing out on Valdes who was #1 for a while and Henry who started to lose more often around 1952. In his best years, Henry was dangerous

 

Everybody was mob owned to some extent. You could not get a major fight without taking on a new manager/partner. It was a polite way of handing over a percentage..It went on for years too.

 

Yes, there was a mob influence over boxing from the 30's to 50's for sure, but Henry who's best time was over by 1954 tried to fix a match between Bobby Jones and Joey Giardello. The fix I think was worth more than the purses. Henry wasn't just mob influenced, he was part of the action.
Jake Lamotta once threw a fight too.

 

C*ckell doesn't belong there imo Bob Baker was much more relevant and with better wins in that period.
eg.
Payne
Cestac
Peaks
Valdesx2 [who kod C*ckell]
Agramonte x2
Gilliamx3
Baksi
Bivins
Davidson
Wallace x2
Slade[ who kod C*ckell]
Mederos
Brion

Who did C*ckell beat in that time?
Hype Job Mathewsx3
A Lastarza whom Marciano had ruined.
A comebacking, bankrupt Farr 40 years old having his last fight.
A 37 years old Beshore who had lost 4 of his last 5 fights.
A light heavyweight Barone who had lost3 of his last 4 fights and been stopped in his last 2.
C*ckell actually faced 10 real heavyweights and lost by ko to 3 of them.

 

In major fights, under real scrutiny, there proberbly was hardly any fixed fights during that time. No more than now. That's not to say there was not fixed fights or that there was no mob influence. Of course there was. It's just because the mob had a piece of Both winner and loser in all major fights they did not need to fix them!

It's like when a stable of belt holders are all promoted and managed by the same guy and have three fight options on anyone challenging them, they also dont need to fix anything.

 

Betting was the thing.Some of Jimmy Carter's fights were suspect,the Pep v Perez one too.I think Lloyd Marshall had the cuffs on a few times too.

 

Carbo and Marciano were friendly,I very much doubt Rocky got the benefit of the doubt in a fight because of his "Italian connections", he is on record for having indignantly refused to throw a fight. Weill's connections undoubtedly helped smooth Rocky's progress.

 

I think it's an era that's comparatively weak in ability, but strong in skill.

Lots of small heavyweights and skilled oldies.

The fighters look better than they may have been, like a good middleweight tends to look better (more skilled) than a good big heavyweight.


An era with a lot of skill, but H2H I rate it as a very weak era.

 

Rocky certainly never threw a fight, we know that for sure.

Roland LaStarza's manager certainly complained about being robbed in the first fight due to Al Weill's owning a piece of Marciano.
Some people who saw the first Marciano-Lowry fight questioned a moment where Lowry had Marciano in trouble and seemed to ease off.

Why do you say we should view Clarence Henry with some circumspection?
Which fights do you think were crooked?

 

I have no first hand information,I'm going purely on his management.

 

You can argue Cockrell doesn't belong in the ten best from 1950-1955, but he was highly ranked.

From 1950-1955, Maybe I move in Bivins or Barker over Cockrell, but at least 7 on this list from 1950-1955 were the best out there and Rocky fought them.

Charles
Walcott
Moore
LaStarza
Louis
Valdes
Henry
Layne
Savold
****rell

 

It goes back further Braddock's manager Joe Gould was an associate of Owney Madden,Public Enemy NumberOne.

It was Gould who was waiting outside ready to chauffeur Madden home when he came out of "The Big House"

 

the rematch clause was exploited quite a bit but otherwise things in the heavyweight class were no more crooked than say it is now. like you say betting and deals no doubt went on...as they continue to do so!