Did Marciano avoid Nino Valdes?

Yes

Valdes should have gotten the title shot instead of cockell. The rest of marcianos title defenses were justifiably against number 1 rated contenders

 

Keep in mind Rocky and management wanted to see if his nose would hold up after the second Charles fight. We forget but it was a concern at the time if he would come back from that bizarre injury. Sure Valdez's size would have made for a unique match up for Rocky but he should have beaten Old Man Moore and kept his ranking.

 

Wow, a lem franklin-joe louis situation.

 

No not at all

Valdes was the number 1 contender for a period of 14 months...and most logical contender for period of 9 months. Franklin never reached number 1 status.

 

It should probably be pointed out that Valdez was a guy who lost to light heavies such as Moore and Johnson, Satterfield who fought as low as middle, and to nobodies. He was even KOd by nobodies. He was qualitatively not in Marciano's league, and fighting him would have proved nothing. I would be absolutely shocked if anyone consciously avoided him. They merely went for an ATG former champion instead, and Rocky's standing in history is better for it.

All of that being said, I am sorry for the man that he did not get a title shot that he earned.

 

I'm probably wrong, but I was under the impression that Marciano had fought Cockell mainly because of his nose injury in his previous fight and they wanted to make sure he was able to smoothly transition to fighting under the bright lights again.

I'm very confident Marciano wasn't intimidated by anyone, and especially not a hit or miss guy like Valdes. Rocky likely would've fought godzilla if given the chance.

 

Although it could have silenced some of the Marciano detractors who says he never beat a 200+ pound top contender

 

Maybe...but at the same time they would be the first to point out those who beat Valdes as a reason to state why he shouldn't be considered in Rocky's ability to take on a 200+ pound contender. Marciano's career is so debatable there will always be debates one way or the other about him.

 

Valdes vs H. Jackson, July 1954.

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Thanks for the "like."

He beat the guys who beat them. Anyone who doesn't get that is delusional. Nino Valdez was not that good, and neither was Bob Baker.

Joe Louis was a top ten guy when Marciano got him. He was 6'2", fought over 200 most of his title years, and even in his deteriorated state, the win was bigger than Valdez and Baker combined would have been.

Also, as mentioned recently, he beat Shkor on the way up, who was almost 6'5 and had been ranked top ten in '47. A decent win I would compare to someone like Ray Austin, in modern parlance.

The haters can hate. undefeated with six wins over four ATGs, all of whom were champions or top contenders.

Exactly right.

Anyone's career is debatable.

As discussed many times, Louis did not fight the black fighters between John Henry Lewis and Jersey Joe Walcott. Does have the same taint as Dempsey? How about Jack Johnson?

We know that Liston used to cheat with the liniment on the gloves, and not only Ali, but some of his best wins, such as Cleveland Williams, complained of it. Yet there is almost a cult for this guy these days.

Even the great Ali can be brought down a peg or two if you want to. Angelo Dundee admitted to splitting Ali's glove against Cooper because he had been knocked silly and needed more time to recuperate. Does it mean that he is less great because, according to his own trainer, he very well might have lost to a smallish fringe contender without a little cheating?

And on and on. Marciano was undefeated against great fighters in great fights. The haters can "debate" all they want, but basically it is foolish.

And back to the original point, Valdez, who was not that good, would have added a little more to the Rock's record than Don Cockell.

 

Interesting. Rocky's situation with Valdes then seems similar to Floyd's situation with Machen.

Both gave a shot to the guy rated right behind instead (Cockell/Harris) but then soon after took on the guy (Moore/Ingo) that had eliminated the one they had previously passed on (Moore beating Valdes/Ingo beating Machen).

The main difference is that Folley also was in the mix in Floyd's case.

 

I was looking over Valdes' record over at Boxrec and wondering why he lost his top contender status in April 54 to Charles, someone he'd defeated only eight months before, when he hadn't lost any fights. Then I clicked on the wiki link to info on Valdes' March 54 James J. Parker fight. Ah...! You don't perform well, you lose your rating. What a concept.

Sometimes you have to go beyond the simple win/loss results.

 

He never had the top contender status in '53 to lose. He was ranked top by RING MAGAZINE, which is prestigious to the guys who post here, but essentially meaningless to history. The NBA moved Dan Bucceroni into #1 until Charles regained his status by beating contenders Wallace and Satterfield. The reason Valdez never got the #1 spot is probably because he had lost four staright almost just before the Charles fight, and was still not considered a #1 type guy.

Valdes was only ranked #1 briefly in '54-'55 for about eight months before Moore beat him.

Valdes is essentially a big sleight-of-hand. He was never owed anything. He would have been a better fight than Cockell, but even that is hindsight. I have posted an article in one of these threads when SI was calling for the Moore fight because Cockell and Valdes were viewed as equally bad.

 

To add to this, Cockell was already decided to be Marcianos next opponent even before the Charles fights. It was a good money fight to make to have the British champ and the American world champ to get their scrap on. Marciano deserved a break from the #1 contender constantly anyway.

It was in no way to avoid Valdes. The fight was already set long before. If valdes was smart, he should've ducked Moore. But I'm glad he didnt, since Moore is a better win for Marciano than Valdes.

 

Valdes bet 9 Ring ranked opponents.How many did Cockell beat?
What happened when Valdes fought Cockell?