I was Marciano, before there was Marciano, kod 65 out of 79 wins, who was I ?

I hit as hard as Rocky Marciano, and flattened 65 opponents out of 79 wins. Fighters avoided me as a coming champion. Until I met a HOF heavyweight who upset me, and ruined me forever. I am ?...

 

EM are you a mind reader ? You answered this query quicker than any question I ever posed. Yes the brave Tommy Gomez of Tampa Florida who was 4 years older than Rocky Marciano, and flattened 65 opponents out of 79 wins. Gomez was a WW2 hero who was wounded in Germany 16 times and awarded the Purple Heart. He recovered in a hospital returned to the ring with loads of shrapnel still lodged in his back and arm, and resumed
his ko punching.Fighters were avoiding him much like GGG today, and he was considered the successor to a chap named Joe Louis. But fate intervened and in a bout I saw in MSG in 1946, the wily Jersey Joe Walcott kod Tommy, and he was never the same after that. His life has all the ingredients of a great
Hollywood movie, I think...

 

C, Tommy Gomez was built along the lines of a Rocky Marciano in weight and height. I only saw Tommy fight ringside one time as he fought most of his bouts in the Southern part of the USA. He tagged Joe Walcott early in the losing bout, but Joe Walcott then was 32 years old and FIVE years younger when at the age of 37 he almost beat Marciano... I think that were Tommy Gomez and Marciano hooked up together it would have been a fight for the ages, but Marciano was at about 185 pounds a rugged monster...But oh what a bout that would have been...