Why did Rocky Marciano have such a short title run?

Age can be deceiving though Ken. I look at it as a matter of ring miles in a sense. Like a car`s odometer. Rock had some miles. His style of fighting and the energy it took. He got cut, he had his nose split in half.

 

Swarmers don't normally have long careers, look at Frazier and Tyson. Both washed up by that age.

 

He didn't have many easy defences Charles x2, Moore,his title challenge of Walcott,that's 4 hard fights there.

 

You could say Marciano was the first heavyweight champion who did not use any color line. He pretty much fought the best in his day.

While a match with Valdes would have been nice, Valdes would not rate as a top 4 opponent for Marciano

 

Strange how a little thing like four years in prison impacted so much on Tyson's career.

 

Charles went less than .500 for the remainder of his career. He seemed ripe for the picking. Likewise, Walcott retired after his second bout with Marciano (some would say before it, even). Moore was a heavyweight bride's maid. The less said about LaStarza the better. We only know his name because of Marcianistas.

 

LaStarza was a good fighter but I wasn't myself that night. I was a concerned about his well-being after what happened with Carmine 3 months before. It wasn't until the 4th round when I realized I was getting whooped so I let the hands go and hurt him bad. Had a flashback of Vingo in the hospital. Remembered pacing the hallways wondering if he was gonna die and if I was ever gonna fight again. When I hurt LaStarza in the 4th I had to fight with myself to let the hands go again for the rest of the fight. Luckily I got the win and was able to remind myself after the fight that I am in the hurt game and I better get my **** together or retire. In our rematch I had no such trouble. I was upset by something he said leading up to the fight and I carried him extra rounds just to punish him.

 

B S. Marciano was too eager trying to ko Lastarza he never carried a fighter in his life!

Life magazine reported: "Trying to knock the challenger out with one punch, the 29-year-old Marciano was over-eager and awkward. He lunged, butted, hit below the belt, on the break and after the bell. Once, he swung so wildly that he missed and slipped clumsily to the canvas. Outboxing the champion and avoiding his blows, LaStarza managed to win four of the first six rounds. In the seventh, Marciano changed his tactics, started aiming at LaStarza's body as well as his head in an attempt to wear the challenger down. He succeeded."

 

All you need to remember is the last sentence you wrote. He Succeeded. And LaStarza had nothing for me in the rematch. I carried him and smashed his arms up. Ruined him. He never beat another good fighter again.

 

Rocky Marciano gave serious thought to a 50th fight, but the heavyweight division was seen as being dead at the time.

Then as towards the end of Wladamir Klitschko's title reign, it was not clear who would emerge as the key heavyweights of the future.

 

Still, to decline a good chance to go 50-0 with no real notable threat around to oppose him, I guess people weren't as obsessed with stats and numbers back then?

 

Obviously not.

If he had wanted to get to 50-0 as a target in itself, there were a number of relatively easy options that nobody would have questioned.

He could probably have justified taking a no hoper given the consistency of his previous title fights!

 

Lastarza won 4 of the first 6 rounds.
Lastarza didn't beat many"good fighters" period.
The list of contenders he missed is legion.

Marciano never carried anybody , not even his Brother.

 

Realistically he had a lot left in the tank.
But not enough to guarantee a longer undefeated streak.

He probably weighed the risk/reward of fighting non ATG fighters and putting his 0 on the line, and decided it wasn't worth it.

If Liston or Patterson somehow were superstar fighters at the time of the Moore fight, I'm sure Rocky would've fought them.

Another thing to consider is that Rocky was the only elite HW of his era.
If there was another serious HW star battling him for the #1 spot a la Frazier-Ali, Holyfield-Lewis, then there might've been competitive reasons to keep fighting.