Why Didnt Lastarza Fight The Following?

In some ways, LaStarza's situation mirrors Ortiz and his shots at Wilder. A few decent wins, good first effort getting the public interested in a return.

 

If he had not been able to reach terms with Charles or Valdez, then I could accept Bruceroni or Cockell.

 

Since losing to Marciano the first time, Roland Lastarza had put together a 16-2 Over a 3.5 year period. His only two losses he avenged within that time and had wins over Notables in Rex Layne, Dan Bucceroni and Ted Lowry. Couple this with his giving Marciano a tough time in their first fight and his receiving a title shot wasn’t all that unreasonable.

 

Yes, the answer to the OP’s question is: because he fought other guys.

You can look at the resumes of most everyone listed and then pick through the top 20 or 30 fighters of the era and say ‘why didn’t he fight these other guys instead?’

I tell you one guy he did fight — twice — and that’s Marciano. And the vast majority of the guys on the list in the first post did not fight the Rock. And who fought all those guys? I’m pretty sure nobody fought them all, so they must have been ducking the ones they didn’t fight and fighting other guys instead?

 

Agreed. In all the sports history there are precious few men who fought EVERYONE with a heartbeat in their era. Muhammad Ali might be one of those rare exceptions.

 

Bucceroni was rated #2 after LaStarza lost to Marciano with the #1 spot left vacant. Bucceroni was a good boxer but he was very willowy being nothing more than a blown up lanky light heavyweight. He didnt have the strength to deal with heavyweights very well. He could box well but keeping them at bay was a tall order for him.

 

Yes, he really was a beanpole.

 

Any contender who gets earmarked for a title shot in that era and passes it up in order to fight other contenders would have been viewed as insane. These guys werent fighting to impress fans 70 years later. In that era a title shot changed your entire life. I think LaStarza getting the shot was a perfect storm in his favor. He wasnt horrible but he certainly wasnt great either. There was public interest in the bout, history between the fighters, and a sufficiently high rating for LaStarza for a brief time that during that small window it made sense. A lot of fights dont get made within that window before their expiration date but this one did.

 

agree with what you say in principle but in many instances only one or two big wins have landed many guys in a title ring and sometimes it didn’t even take that much as we’ve seen many examples of. Roland Lastarza was a previous foe of Rockys who gave him a great fight then went on a 16-2 streak and beat a few decent men before landing in the ring with him again. . worse things have happened.