You are right. In The Ring Magazine's Annual Ratings: 1955, he is listet as number one contender, but LHW. I don`t know about his monthly rating till April 1956.
This guy hasnt been able to pull a decent post out of his ass in years. He should stick to interior decorating.
Patterson didn't make the heavyweight top 10 till the end of April 1956 - immediately after Marciano's retirement - but even before that he was widely seen as the most dangerous challenger on the horizon. Al Weill said that if Marciano did fight again it would most likely be against the winner of an eliminator between Patterson and Tommy Jackson.
Can you imagine Rocky's "Suzie Q" versus Floyd Patterson's chin? Cus wanted no part of Marciano....and Liston was in prison when Rocky retired...and at that time..Liston had a record of 14-1. Where the hell do these stories crop up? "I heard somewhere"....or..."a friend of mine told me......!" Because Rocky was losing his hair? Unbeliveable!!!
At Rocky Marciano's press conference as champion in 1956, he announced his retirement. citing that he wanted to spend more time with his family, he missed seeing his wife and daughter. And he was starting to have issues with his back following his title defense against Archie Moore on Sept 21 1955. In Marciano's era, fighters had to stay away from their wives during training camp, not like today. Intimacy took strength away from a fighter in training. I do not think he would have feared anyone.
To be fair the OP is accusing no one of anything ,he is just posting the opinions he has seen in some magazines,and he has qualified them with his own thoughts.
I would say that if anything, the lack of a big money opponent might have precipitated his retirement. He was looking at names like Pastrano, Jackson, or Valdez when it was no longer such a good fight.
Yeah I wanted to put "I know that's an understatement" but I figured that's more really with hindsight; not through the lens of someone seeing him as an up and coming talent back in the 50's.
It has been done so often you would think we would all be experts on Marciano, due to the conflict he breeds i believe this site if you scour through the threads concerning him this is the perfect school to learn about Rocky. I have learnt so much more then any books could teach in some respects passively scouring the pages and fact checking here and there.