Coley Wallace Floored Rocky Twice!

I've read that many thought the Wallace fight was an absolute robbery and that spectators were nigh unanimous in favor of Marciano, despite having a broken knuckle

Marciano faced Wallace in his initial bout of the All Eastern Coast Golden Gloves Championship, which took place at Ridgewood Grove Arena in Brooklyn on March 1, 1948. Although Coley was the “overwhelming favorite,” writes Marciano biographer Russell Sullivan, Rocky “shocked the experts by manhandling Wallace for much of the three-round fight. The verdict nevertheless went to Wallace, stunning sportswriters at ringside (with one literally falling off his chair), as well as fans.” Bushwa, says Jimmy Breslin. “The Pulitzer Prize winner contends that Wallace knocked Marciano down twice and clearly won the fight,” writes Sullivan, “and that the reporters who later alleged to the contrary were engaging in a bit of revisionist history.”

Maybe, but according to New York Daily News photographer Jack Smith, The Rock “refused to go down.”

http://www.boxing.com/coley_wallace_rocking_rocky.html

Seems to be hotly debated by some. I simply think it's out of Wallace's capability and wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt

 

Dunno why Jack Smith would lie about it either. You just dunno sometimes shrug

 

I do not know, I love Breslin, but I would be surprised if he managed this & nobody else noted it.
This is what makes me question the credibility of Wallace:

“When we fought, Rocky was just a beginner,” Coley told boxing writer Robert Cassidy Jr. (son of light heavyweight “Irish” Bobby Cassidy). “He was more like a street fighter. All he knew how to do was swing wild. He didn’t hit very hard then. I don’t think he hit me hard the entire fight. It wasn’t a tough fight for me at all. But even then you could tell he was tough and determined. I wish we could have fought as pros, but we never did. I always wanted to fight him again. You could see he had potential even when we fought. Still, I wanted to fight him again, because I always thought I could do the same thing again.”

It seems to me more likely that as a very green amateur Rocky was koncked down twice, than contrary to all reports, even before he started boxing & instantly KOed a large tormenter, that going all out he did not hit very hard.
Whaaaa?

 

Marciano, wasn't a naturally gifted athlete I could believe at that time he went down most likely due to being off balance of course this is a guess lol

 

Sure, but from the very start & even before he entered the squared circle, he could hit a ton.
It is just not credible that when he was swinging widly & landing he could not even hit hard.
That is very distinct from saying he was crude or lacked basic learned skills.

 

The seems wrong, since Marciano's pro career started on March 17, 1947, and this tournament took place in March of the following year.

I mean, I can buy the idea of green Marciano possibly getting flashed once or twice in the unpaid ranks when he was off balance or something, but by the time of this event he certainly had some experience in the ring.

 

Wallace was 20 years old. It wasn't like he was a crafty vet. And if memory serves, he was primarily a footballer at the time.

Sounds like Rocky got out-athleted.

 

Marciano apparently fought his first pro fight under an assumed name pretty early in his amateur career, iirc.

Curious what (and how) anyone knows anything about that fight and his opponent, Lee Epperson, who never fought before or after his fight with Marciano.