Explain the adoration of Rocky Marciano to me

When you put it that way, that does sound pretty damn good……and he was also a humble and intelligent man who took his work ethic and heart to the nth degree to achieve all that he did.

As someone else said earlier in the thread - what’s not to like? He is the fact before the Hollywood fiction.

 

And in that head to head sense, he did not usually rate well in his own time against real opponents (until after he beat them, of course) and he does not usually rate well in our time against fantasy opponents. I suspect he would win more of these fantasy match ups than many think.

 

I don't know if the 2018 book titled, Unbeaten by Mike Stanton is accurate or not but if it is, Marciano was not exactly a "military guy" and he did not stay away from the mafia. The book seems to have gotten some good reviews online.
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/wordpressua.uark.edu/dist/3/246/files/2016/05/adj-rocky.pdf

"Rocco Marchegiano spent the closing months of World War II, not
in battle, not ferrying supplies to Allied troops in Normandy as was
widely reported in later years, but in a military stockade in England. He
was imprisoned after being arrested, court-martialed, and found guilty
of robbery and assault.While an investigation of the incident was under-
way, Marchegiano’s commanding officer, Major Richard L. Powell, told
investigators that Marchegiano was an “untrustworthy, unreliable and
unsatisfactory soldier” and that “his derelictions have been consistent
and numerous.” Powell concluded that Marchegiano was “of no value
to the Army.”
Marchegiano was imprisoned for 22 months."

"Also, as previously noted, Stanton does what a good biographer is
supposed to do. He breaks new ground. That’s hard to accomplish with
a biographical subject who has been dead for five decades and written
about as often as Marciano. But Stanton does it with his recounting of
Marciano’s military service during World War II.
While stationed in England, Marciano and a fellow soldier named
James Murphy robbed two Englishman, beating them up in the pro-
cess. They were court-martialed and convicted, after which Marciano
was dishonorably discharged from the Army and sentenced to three
years in prison. He was released after 22 months and then allowed
to rejoin the military for the duration of 1946 in order to receive an
honorable discharge."

"Also, Marciano was inextricably tied to the mob. Manager Al Weill
took fifty percent of Marciano’s purses pursuant to their contract and
stole more from him on the side. Weill then shared his take with Frankie
Carbo, a high-ranking member of the Lucchese crime family and the
most powerful man in boxing at that time.
Marciano socialized with mobsters during his ring career and, after
his retirement from boxing, did business with them. Carbo was a guest
for Sunday dinner in his parents’ home. When Vito Genovese (known as
“the boss of all bosses”) was dying in prison, he let it be known that he
wanted Marciano to visit him. Not only did Marciano visit, he brought
fight films to show Genovese."

 

As Charles L. "Sonny" Liston himself said it...

"Hardly no archbishops been heavyweight champion."

 

Mike Stanton is a self described Muckraker, and he seems to have made a career of it, and is very good at it.

 

He was a Pitbull in human form.

 

I'm sorry, but no. In order to become a "made man" or an AOID you must prove 100% Italian blood.
You are, unfortunately, tainted with non Italian blood and so you cannot join this select club. Personally I have an Italian passport so I can call myself "Italian " but I don't as I'm a born in the USA guy. I do not like hyphenated terms like Italian-American or Irish-American etc. Hence the term AOID.

 

Any age where Italians (Joe DiMaggio, Sonny Franzese) are banging Marilyn Monroe is a Golden Age.

 

there is a whole lot of cultural/historical context to that, ww2 era is pretty much the peak of "drunken sailor brawls", he was stationed in England and got into a drunken pub brawl, along with hundreds of other soldiers

that was also arguably the peak of the mafia's involvement in boxing, and as an Italian American it was pretty much unavoidable, I forget if it was a documentary or something I read, but he was actually revered by the mafia and they left him alone as far as trying to get him involved in corruption, they looked up to him as a true Italian hero, what his manager did with the money he made was his business, Marciano didn't give them any of his or get involved in any kind of gambling or loan sharking, he wasn't going out breaking thumbs for them, the mafia liked to be around successful Italian Americans a la Sinatra, it was more about Italian pride, and it's no secret Marciano loved his Italian food, and guess who owned and ran the high end quality Italian establishments back then, it was more social than anything to do with corruption or crime

 

If he was 46-3 I don’t think the other would matter.

Floyd Patterson came along after and was widely adored.

 

What if I bought one of those derelict houses in Italy for a Euro?

 

If they give you Italian citizenship then we will review you application in due time.

 

There’s Italian and then there’s the FBI: Full Blooded Italians.

If you do the hand gestures like flicking the bottom of your chin with your fingers or make spaghetti westerns like Marvin Hagler, they’ll accept you … but you won’t be FBI.

 

Like these Full Blooded Italians...

This content is protected

This content is protected

This content is protected

 

I was watching something with Sammy the Bull somewhat recently and he said only your father has to be Italian, because those guys fornicated with all kinds of women