66 years ago: Rocco Francis "Brockton Rock" Marchegiano vs. Archibald Lee "The Old Mongoose" Wright

The Old Mongoose retired before I was born, but he’s on the short list of guys I most wish I could have seen live, along with Roberto Duran, Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns.

 

And then came

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More I watch that fight more suspicious it looks. Even his manager thought Archie threw the fight (Moore denied it). I wouldn’t think Archie would but the knock down looks fishy for sure

 

I see nothing suspicious about this fight.
My takeaway is that Moore was outboxing Marciano, & if it was unusual that he won, especially considering all the punches he was missing & the old Mongoose was slipping. Had he had not gone into extreme overdrive he would have been outpointed.

But all credit to Rocky for throwing continual power punches-nothing shocking about non-stop power punches, even when not landing flush, taking this toll on anyone, certainly an opponent a modern day LHW size in the ring.

You can make an excellent argument that Moore was greater, given all he accomplished.
If you consider how long he SHOULD have had the title/a LHW shot, & how successful he was forever.
If Rocky had been given the one loss he deserved against a likely handcuffed Ted Lowry, we would view him differently. Also retiring in your early 30's makes it easier to appear unblemished.

And he was fortunate that ALL the best fighters he faced (Louis was too far past his prime to count)-Moore-Charles & Walcott-had a favorable boxer style for him! And none were very large at all.
NO near excellent sluggers were encountered-although this was not his fault.
Someone like fellow Paisano Carmine Vingo? He was a stringbean & just barely out of his teens.

Both great fighters, & Moore an educated, altruistic person to boot.

 

Marciano v Moore wasn’t suspicious. Was referring to Moore v Patterson

 

Rocky Marcinao really was Charley Goldman's gem.

 

It looks like the affects of a temple shot I suppose. It’s just odd that he fell the way he did. And knowing how he gets up from shots wasn’t able to on this occasion.
It was so odd his trainer screamed at him when everyone left something accusing him of fixing the fight. Considering he never was known to throw a fight I just take it as an off night

 

I dunno if it was an off night, or he was caught in precisely the right places with just the right punch combinations by an extremely fast fellow ATG.
As could have & at other times did happen to Patterson.

 

Wasn't D'Amato at odds with the Mafia? (Though I guess that's exactly what a Mob controlled manager would WANT you to think...)

Who would have been arranging the fix, and to what benefit?

I was unaware of this suspicion of a fix for Moore-Patterson, and am now curious.

 

It was in one of his biographies have the book at home I can source it later. He obviously states he didn’t fix it but from watching every Moore fight available I think it looks off and even his own trainers did at the time. I take it as everyone has an off night. Had they met earlier in his career I think Moore wins.

 

Terrific fight between two terrific fighters.......Truly terrific! Terrific I tell ya!

 

Kessler started to give Rocky the benefit of a standing count forgetting that standing counts were waved in title fights.Marciano stated he blacked out momentarily, and when he got up he can be seen heading for the ropes anticipating a standing count which Kessler began but did not finish.The count can clearly be heard on the film ,nothing slow about it ,but once Marciano was on his feet Kessler should have gotten the hell out of the way because Rocky was then a legitimate target.Did it affect the fights result? I don't think so,though Moore despised Kessler for the rest of his life.