Rocky fought 12 amateur fights. Unlike most fighters, who fight in local clubs and gyms as they learn their craft, he had no one to guide him other than his childhood friend Allie Columbo. As a result, his approach to amateur fighting was reckless; entering in various tournaments, always against more experienced fighters. The result was a less than perfect record of 8 wins and 4 losses. However, even so he advanced to the finals in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championship Tournament in Portland Oregon, won the Golden Gloves Tournament in Lowell to represent New England in the All-East Championship Tournament, and won the AAU Heavyweight Championship during the Olympic Trials held in Boston in 1948. Damage to his hand prevented him having a chance at fighting in the Olympics. Its been difficult to put together Marcianos amateur record, but heres what I can find. 1st Amateur fight: April 15th, 1946. Rocky was on furlough from the army at this time and in terrible shape for a fighter. He was smoking cigarettes and eating home cooking as fast as he could shovel it in. He signed up to fight for $30, the promoter assuring Allie Colombo that hed fight someone close to his experience level. But, when they arrived at the amateur boxing show, the promoter informed them he only had one heavyweight available to match Rocky with, Henry Lester. Lester had been a Golden Gloves Champion three years in a row and was runner-up in the New England Amateur Championships the previous year. Rocky agreed to the mismatch. The result was a the worst showing of Rockys fighting career. He threw tons of punches in the first round, missing with almost all of them, and was winded and gasping by the second round. In desperation, unable to lift his arms or fight back, Rocky responded instinctively with a kick as Lester came in to try to finish him off. Officially, it was said he kneed Lester in the groin. Lesters son told me that the foul was to the stomach, not the groin. However, since it sounded worse as a groin blow, thats how it was reported. Marciano was disqualified and was booed and jeered. It was a lesson he never forgot. Rocky explained to his younger brother. "I learned something from this fight ..if I ever get into the ring again, you can bet I wont be out of condition." It can be said that Henry Lester was the motivation for the fanatical training Rocky put himself through thereafter, and played a part in making Marciano the best conditioned heavyweight of all time. Back in the Army, Rocky signed up for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championship Tournament in Portland, Oregon in August, 1946. Rocky knocked out his first opponent, got a bye on the second fight, and knocked out his third opponent. The men scheduled to face him in his 4th and 5th fights refused to fight the wild, powerful brawler, putting Rocky into the finals. Unknown to them, Marciano had severely dislocated a knuckle in his left hand. Refusing to drop out of the tournament, Rocky stepped into the ring to face the other top fighter of the event, Joe DeAngelis. The story of this fight is told in Joes own words elsewhere on this site, but the result was DeAngelis won by decision. Rocky spent six week in the hospital, his hand in traction, dispelling any doubts that he was only fighting DeAngelis one handed. In January, 1947, Rocky entered the Massachusetts State Amateur Tournament. He KO'd Jim Connolly in the first round, but injured his hand and had to fight one-handed against his next opponent, Bob Girard. Rocky lost the three round decision to Girard. Girard was modest about his victory over the future heavyweight champion. "How do you think I beat Rocky? I beat him because it was three rounds. There were a hundred guys who might have stayed three rounds with The Rock. But no man in the world was gonna beat Rocky in fifteen rounds; not Dempsey, not Ali, not anybody. I knew he was going to be champ. I didn't think anybody could hurt Rocky. Every time he hit you, you saw a flash of light. You either grabbed him or you moved back, because if he hits you twice you're gone." On March 17th, 1947, Rocky fought a pro fight, his first, against Lee Eperson. He was out of the Army now, but not sure yet about taking up boxing as a career. To keep his mother from knowing he was fighting, he used the name Rocky Mack. He knocked Eperson out in the third round. Rocky took a break from boxing to try out for baseball, and in March 1947 he had a tryout with the Chicago Cubs farm team. He didnt make the team and returned to the ring. In January, 1948, Marciano entered the Golden Gloves Tournament in Lowell, Massachusetts. He scored a 1st round KO over Joe Sidlaskis, then met Charles Mortimer, a good fighter who had a record of 12-0. Mortimer had two first round KOs of his own before facing Rocky, who knocked him out in the 3rd round to win the MA-RI Golden Gloves Championship. In March of 1948, Rocky went to New York as the New England representative in the Golden Gloves All-East Coast Championships. His first fight was against a very good fighter named Coley Wallace, who had a record of 17-0 with 17 KOs. Rocky was the aggressor throughout the fight and landed all the punishing blows, but the judges announced Wallace as the winner. The fans booed and threw bottles and programs into the ring. Rocky would always say he was cheated in this fight, and would determine to take the matter out of the hands of judges by knocking out future opponents. Then, it was on to the AAU Olympic tryouts in Boston. In his first bout, Rocky knocked out Fred Fischera, but in doing so again damaged his knuckle. Still unwilling to quit for any reason, he insisted on fighting his next fight, telling Allie to leave the bandages on between fights. Fighting right handed only, Rocky hammered his opponent, George McGinnis. He knocked McGinnis down twice in the third round and took the AAU Heavyweight Championship. But, any hopes of going on to the Olympics were shattered when Rockys hand was examined by a doctor after the fight. Not only was the knuckle on his thumb out of place, but the thumb itself was broken. By the time it healed, Rocky was through with amateur boxing.
At heavyweight, not really. Larry Holmes, famously came close and lost a close decision to go 48-1. But I'm not sure of others. Louis and Ali had rather emphatic losses (Louis KO'd by Schmeling, Ali L15 to Frazier) within their first 30 fights. Tyson went 37-0 I think and missed out by being KO'd badly. Foreman was 40-0 when he was KO'd by Ali. Yes, it's timing. But you can say that about everything. Everything great fighter benefitted from great timing. In fact any fighter you've heard of or was successful was fortunate. We could throw away the whole order and say the bums are as worthy of praise as the greats they were just victims of bad timing. As for Willie Pep, his first 49 fights are better than Brian Nielsen's, definitely.
Marciano fought the best of his era Holmes did not, Holmes never rematched tough fights Marciano did, Holmes never unified Marciano was sole Champ...IMO Holmes would have lost a few of the 6 guys he avoided and navigated around. Holmes preyed on the inexperienced 10-15 fight guys
Marciano overall is one of my favorite fighters. Revisionists find every reason to say why he was not great and undermine his record but its not his record it was the man, he had a crazy will to win and he did what was necessary to be in spartan condition. I think some of his conditioning and over cardio running 15 miles and hitting a 300lb bag would be ill-advised today but it worked for Marciano, he was the best of his day, beat the men who beat the men. fought 5# 1 contenders and was smart enough to get out when he still had 3-5 fights left in him. Once he lost the desire he got out. One of the smartest fighters ever. People can undermine all they want but you can not go back in time. 49-0 Heavyweight beat all top guys,could hit hard with 2 hands rematched all tough fights, sole champion, no one left out there to fight. Rocky Marciano=one of a kind
And Marciano was allowed to bounce between being an amateur and a pro... And the vast majority of Marciano's victories were on the circuit level, similar to what a Buck Smith or Marty Jakubowski did in the 1990's. And there are those who thought Rocky was lucky to get the nod against Lastarza and Lowry. And Marciano would have lost against Charles in not much latter times... He was given a huge benefit of the doubt in that one. My point being that the 0 takes a lot of things going right besides being an excellent fighter. A lot of luck and the correct timing to get out of the game. For instance, if Roy Jones had retired after the Ruiz fight, he would be a consensus top 15 ATG. No doubt about it. But he hung on too long and became a laughing stock instead.
Larry Holmes fought Ken Norton in his 27th fight. The Rock fought Gino Buonvino at the same stage of his career. Outside of it being a lasagna making competition, do you see the difference?
Yes and no.. Holmes didn't really start cherry pickin' until about 1983. Prior to that he beat norton, shavers, weaver, Berbick, snipes, c00ney, L. Spinks.. That was basically the division from 1978 to 1982 at the end of which he had beaten the best to that point and had accumulated more title fight wins than Marciano. You can ad Tate and Coetzee to the list of men he didn't fight but Neither were highly ranked for more than several months in the early 80s and he also defeated men who they lost to within a close proximity of time... Or to out things into even simpler perspective, Holmes won the title in his 28th fight and didn't start taking it easy until about his 42nd.. Rocky won the title in his 43rd fight and was completely done by his 49th..
Seamus According to Ezzard Charles biography, the second fight was not even close to being stopped. Would you like me to quote it?
Correct. The ref had no intention of stopping the fight. I do agree that going undefeated requires an element of luck, but whatever. Only one champ never lost and however you slice it it's a remarkable feat.
My point was that the fight would have been stopped in later eras, not that the White champ was in danger of not being given every opportunity to retain his title in the 1950's.
Ok. But how does Marciano lose if the fight is stopped in a later era? The cut on the nose came from an accidental elbow. That means the fight would have been stopped in round 8 and gone to a technical decision. Marciano was ahead 6 rounds to 1 with 1 even on two of the scorecards, so he wins the technical decision
