In Skehan's biography of Marciano he recounts the first Lastarza fight and how close a fight it was between the two undefeated boxers.Sam Silverman had tried to make the match earlier but Al Weill, Marciano's manager had vetoed it. Weill was not only Marciano's manager he was the matchmaker for Madison Square Garden via the IBC controlled by James Norris. Weill stated that Norris forced him to take the match or lose his job. Lastarza outboxed Marciano in the first three rounds as Marciano was uncharacteristically cautious and the crowd began to boo the lack of fireworks. Marciano began to find the range in the 4th round and dropped Lastarza with a right hand, for an 8 count. Lastarza kept away in the 5th jabbing when he could and clinching when Marciano got close. Lastarza recovered his form in the 6th&7th rds winning then clearly. Marciano Dominated the 8th but lost the round because of a low blow. Marciano forced the action in the 9th and 10th rds but Lastarza was boxing well too. One judge gave it 5-4 1 even Marciano the other 5-4 and 1 even Lastarza,the referee scored it 5 rounds each but in points Lastarza 6 Marciano 9. Then the fun began .Lastarza was managed by Jimmy" Fats" De Angelo he was enraged at the decision feeling that Weill's role as IBC matchmaker had influenced the verdict. Weill went to Lastarza's dressing room after the fight to congratualte him on making such a great fight but De Angelo slammed the door in his face. The Marciano vLastarza fight had drawn $53,723 the second largest gate of the year[1950] .An immediate rematch would have been a big draw but it didn't happen, Weill knew Lastarza was a big risk and he had set Marciano on course for bigger things. Norris wanted a return match but Weill would not consider it. Furthermore he was not inclined to use Lastarza on Garden bills, of his next 10 fights Lastarza fought in NY only twice and neither were at MSG. Weill had another 2 years as MSG matchmaker and he only booked Lastarza for the Garden once a decision loss to Dan Bucceroni. My point is did Weill deliberately sidetrack Lastarza because he was an unnecessary risk and because of De Angelo's lack of respect in his temper tantrum? Skehan certainly thought so.
No 1. Lastarza could have fought anywhere against a number of big name fighters joe Louis Ezzard charles archie Moore jersey Joe Walcott Clarence Henry Bob Baker Nino Valdes. Lastarza fought none of these men. Marciano did going 6-0 with 5 knockouts, seems to me Lastarza was steered clear of the dangerous black heavyweights of the era. 2. Marciano improved after the first Lastarza fight in January of 51. Lastarza claimed "marciano improved 5000 percent" by 1953. Lastarza did not improve. He plataeud. Watch the rematch Marciano broke blood vessels in Lastarzas arms before knocking him out of the ring in round 11. Brutality. 3. I think Jimmy Fats Deangelo knew Marciano would give Roland a rematch for the title so he kept Roland away from the best heavyweights in the division so Roland wouldn't lose out on his big pay day. Lastarza showed very fine counter punching skills on film, but Marciano was too much of a beast
The point is Lastarza missed out on several big pay days because he could not get dates at MSG to showcase himself,he was fighting in: Valley Arena Mass Waterbury Conn Long Beach Rhode Island St Nicks Coliseum Baltimore I'm not a fan of Lastarza's and I do think he avoided the best guys but he sure didn't get dates in MSG when Weill was in charge of match making .
you posters have given me some insight on his venues, or lack of, which I didn't know. I think he was the 'real deal' with all the tools, lack of a huge KO punch. As the 'eras guy' on board here, it's hard to match different eras but I've always thought a LaStarza-Young match-up would have been a chess-match doozie!
At that stage of their development Lastarza was ahead if Rocky. He was 37-0 to Rockys 25-0, Roland had been steppped up already too making the grade at the next step by beating 22-2 Cesar Brion another prospect who had won his first big fight beating Tami Mauriello. Actually at this point Lastarza, Brion, Bernie Reynolds and Rocky were roughly speaking coming through together and had reached the stage where the power players wanted to establish who was really the best of them in order to get behind whichever one was going to be the next champion. Because at that point nobody stood out and they were roughly the same, each groomed to be a future champion beating on the same guys. You could argue Lastarza was best placed at that point but it was obviously decided after Rocky knocked him down even in a difficult fight that this was the kid who was going to get the breaks and brightest future. To be fair to Rocky he proved he was worth it exceeding expectations after a few more learning fights to sensationally beat Rex Layne in good style. Had Lastarza got the nod in that close fight with Rocky do you think he could have knocked out Layne and made that kind of splash? I am certain that the power players felt that the guy who could knock out Layne was going to be the next champion. This was the real break through fight for Rocky.
Lastarza never carried the power Rocky did, if Marciano had lost the verdict in the first go,I think he would still have made a big splash.
Yes if the decision went the other way and the Rock did not get the benefit of the doubt he still would have became Rocky Marciano. Would a 48-0-1 record or 48-1 make any difference to the fighter he became? I don't think so. Perhaps people who need to believe Rocky was invincible don't understand career timing or that even the best fighters need to develop into a champion.
