Did Marciano really have mafia ties?

Beat me to it, Herol!

 

Most of the powerful mob guys were from NY, Boston and the other states had a presence but not the power of the NY mob. Marciano was known as a clean cut kid, respectful to everyone but he would not play dirty. Winning meant so much to him and he would never give in to that and I can see him getting mad. Mobsters respect fighters and tough guys and a lot of them were ex fighters or street fighters themselves. The fact that Marciano could not be approached was respected and there were a lot of fighters like that.

I think later on when Marciano retired a lot of guys would come over as fans and the elite Italians like Sports figure Joe DiMaggio and Bernard Castro (inventor of the Castro convertible) loved to have Marciano as guest in there homes. Marciano was respected by Italians because of the man he was inside and outside the ring but his reputation as a fighter was known to be honest.

 

So...in other words...it was because of the Mob that the Rock was 49-0? Read a lot on Marciano...this has been brought up time and time again...don't think so. Marciano knew the wise guys...they took him to dinner...had suits made for him...wanted to be around him...but I've also read where the mafia said that Rocky was to stay clean...besides...Marciano didn't need any help in winning his fights.

 

What McGrain posted is what was basically said in Russsel Sullivan's biography on Marciano. The stories are very similar which leads credence to the story that the mob never had ties to Rocky. The mafioso Rocky chased out was not some big shot, but a two-bit low-level guy.
There has never ever been anything to connect Rocky to the mob directly. Not in the world of boxing. Strange but true, and unless someone can give me a reason to believe otherwise, that's the story I'm buying.

 

Of course he did,he was a loan shark on the side when he quit boxing.He had opened mob tied business's and routinely circled money that way..:noclue

 

I think the rock was a hit man for the mob paid to beat up other dudes in the boxing ring :bbb

 

..yes he had ties. mostly just social. some were in cleveland. mayfield road "group. do not ask me how i know this.

there is not the slightest suspicion.that any of his fights were not on the level. none.. he came in to win every fight. period.

 

Marciano's manager Al Weill was connected to Frank Carbo and the mobsters who ran boxing. He was IBC matchmaker at MSG during the height of mob influence in boxing, and was featured in exposés on mob-influence in boxing in LIFE magazine and other publications of the time.
Weill was shady enough and he was exposed as a "secret manager" while working as a matchmaker.
Carbo was known to have done him favours in the past and probably took cuts of some of his fighters.

 

The problem people have with the whole "mob connections" thing in boxing is the assumption that mafia are more likely to fix fights.
But that's not true at all. That's something from the movies.

Any manager, promoter, fighter or gambler is just as likely or capable /motivated to fix a fight.

The mafia guys were perhaps less motivated to fix fights since by that time they could own a piece of everything, they were racketeers, not ordinary con men or swindlers. They didn't have to hatch a plan to fix a fight if they owned a piece of everyone, including the entire sports gambling industry. They just took a big cut of the money, wherever that happened to be. They had everything tied up as a racket, a business, and anyone wanting to get somewhere had to give them a slice of the action. Cooking up fixes here, there and everywhere, was completely unnecessary for the big mobsters.

It's like saying the Las Vegas casinos must have had rigged roulette wheels and crooked dealers because of mobster influences. No, the mobsters could afford to allow a straight fair game to run because they skimmed millions off the profits, undeclared and untaxed.

 

Right. I think I'm gonna watch The Godfather tonight.

 

I don't know if that's sarcasm, but there wasn't a single boxer anywhere in either the movies or the novel.

 

Very good information in your post.

For many years Italian-American advocates made it a point of keeping up a good, wholesome image of athletes from that ethnic group. This, despite certain character flaws in those athletes. For example, Joe DiMaggio was not one of MLB's biggest sweet hearts. In fact, he was often condescending to others and his mistreatment of Mickey Mantle was well known. Yet, he maintains a squeaky clean image to this day.

Marciano was a noted cheep skate as shown in a bio I read of him many years ago. Not exactly a nice guy who often had others pay his utility bills cause he liked to hold tightly onto his wallet. It was even said that he hid his money from from family so that when he died none of them could find that money. Yet, he, too, retains that squeaky clean image despite his faults and his association with under world figures.

 

There was a boxer in it a bit part,He was in willie peps fridays heros book

 

Most fighters were "mob owned" in a roundabout way. Obviously all of the champions. At the very least they had to take on a guy in the corner to get a major fight. And most likely that guys fee had little to do with what the guy in the corner actually got.

Even as recently as the 1980s Larry Holmes claimed he was made to take on Jersey Joe Walcott on the camp payroll for one of his title fights in some kind of no show "advising" role.

Black fighters got screwed a lot. But so did white fighters.

Jake Lamotta was asked to dive against a black fighter.

Joey Giardello always said if the mafia did so much for him how come he had to wait so long and have so many fights before challenging for title? It's almost like he had to wait so long just because he had that image.

The mafia screwed their own people as much as anyone else. Their only loyalties is with the money. I think most victims of mob killings have surnames ending with a vowel. So they started with their own people.