I wasn´t sure whether I should post it here or in the general forum but there are too many trolls and I guess nobody would have answered it seriously. I didn´t know too much about him. I only know that he was one of the most popular german boxers besides Maske and Michalczewski (I know, polish, but he fought here and was very popular in Germany). I just checked Rocky on boxrec and saw that he has some decent wins and even was world champion in two weightclasses. I also saw that there were a few close decisions. I was too young by the time when he was active and held the titles so I don´t know much about him. I saw that he fought Michael Nunn, when Nunn was almost 35 back then, the first time he fought Michaelczewski, he was in front on two scorecards and one judge had it 58-58 when Rocky lost by dq. I also saw that he fought Eubank in 94. The scores are ridiculous: 115-113, 118-109, 114-113. Was it a close fight? Was it a "german" decision, although he didn´t win? I´d like to know if he was a good boxer, if he had gift decisions etc. Or was he protected and not a worthy champ?
Rocchigianio was very good. He had the problem that he was affiliated with shady people, something that the people who ran boxing in Germany at the time wanted to get rid off. IMO he won the first Maske fight but got robbed. The DQ in the first DM fight should have won him an Oscar. Rocky was beating him. The Eubank fight was close and could have gone either way. He was a bit like Winky Wright stylewise. He defintily was a worthy champ. My favourite German fighter outside of Schmeling, Trollmann and Scholz.
Maske and Dariusz M. were great champions in their time. but Gracci was, in my opinion, better than both. He was definately underrated, and he should be rated as one of the best Polish/German Champs to have ever fought.
The Nunn/Rocky fight was a fair decision. I scored it at a time I was very high on Nunn but Rocky won it on activity and aggression. Nunn more or less laid on the ropes and tried to counter three quarters into the fight and just coasted, losing those important, fight deciding rounds. Think a very poor mans Jirov/Toney, except Nunn wasn't countering nearly as well off the ropes.
Tough mother****er. Met him more than few times, saw him fight live. He beat Maske, no doubt. And I think, legit, he could have given Roy Jones, Jr. the best fight of the three (Maske, Michal, Rocchi).
He was robbed against Maske. DM milked the DQ for all it was worth. I think DM would have found a way to win but he definately looked for the easy way out. Rocky was a tough dude.
