Marcel Cerdan vs. Tony Zale (Should It Have Been 1948 FOTY?)

Too much clinching for me. I would give the fight of the year or the fights I have seen to Louis-Walcott. More skill shown. And a better ending.

The announcer said at one point that Zale was 30, but I think he was 34 or 35. He was older than Cerdan. Zale didn't show much in this fight.

Cerdan looks very good, but it is possible his best days were already behind him. He was 32. He seemed to be tiring in the middle rounds but then came on again.

 

^^^ I remind people of that all the time, most don't realise Cerdan too was at the end of his career, they both fought as long as each other and were 2 years in age apart.

others want to insist his 'Non American' comp was not the best. Rediculous.

2 Points - We Know, Generally Speaking the US had the largest pool of fighters, champions and contenders where other countries had some, few or next to none - yes, So What???

Every fighter with 15 - 20 year Careers and 100 - 200 fights, fight a lot of journeymen and 2cd & 3rd teir fighters, Every fighter with such numbers of fights.

But we're not talking about those fighters, we're talking about TOP NOTED Fighters, Cerdan fought atleast 20 of them, Champs, Contenders or Noted Fighters... that's a normal and accepted guage for most Busy Resumes'

if the USA produce thousands of great fighters and Zimbabwe by comparison only produce 3 TOP great fighters, guess what, their still great, when they prove themselves against other Top Noted great fighters, be they Champs, former champs, contenders and Top Noted fighters...

I always point to Robert Villemain, whom I call "the Proof Fighter", Villemain was a 5' 6" Welterweight cum middleweight, he was 'among the Best in Europe & Britain, but NOT the Best, yet he had no difficult plying his trade States side... again the Point is, TOP Men are Top Men, irrespective 'if' their homeland only produces a handful of them.

Lastly, the World was a Much Bigger place back then, travel wasn't as quick, easy and as cheap as it is today... there were only 8 Divisions and Hundreds of Thousands of Fighters competing Worldwide,

do you honestly believe that Strong, Healthy, Fit, Capable, Hard, Tough and Athletic men, were'nt a hard nights work, generally speaking... don't be rediculous,

try it with just 20 or 30 fights against them, see how well you do and that's before you get anywhere near the TOP.

acheivements, compubox and US Only has given us such 'modern' talk as poor comp and 10 or 15 type teir levels - Nonsence.

there is Only about 3 different Levels among Top Men... and there is 'little' between them.

"Seconds Out"

 

The Zale/Graziano rubber-match was probably more deserving, but the pair had received the FOTY award, two years running already, in what were more or less replica contests.

I sometimes wonder if Zale/Cerdan received the FOTY recognition, as a backdoor means to acknowledging Zale for his starching of Graziano, in their rubber-match, earlier the same year. This, along with the fact Zale had been considering retirement, during '48 (which I think he eventually announced in early '49).

 

Zale was shot here IMO. He was very stiff and easy to hit by this point. He was no longer bending the knees and moving his head like he used too
Check the Soose clips to see what I mean

 

Apparently, Zale's team absolutely insisted he retire, even though there was an attractive fee to be made from the Cerdan rematch.

 

Horrible beatdown, but Zale was shot to ****, nearly nine years past his peak. It should have been different had both been in their primes.

 

I know Robinson was being mooted as a potential Zale opponent, in '48. I wasn't aware it was a possibility in '50. Although, I seem to recall some loose talk about Zale being tempted back in '52, prior to the Maxim/Robinson match - after which, Robinson himself went into retirement for two to three years.