Marciano v Valdes

MONEY!

Solomons was an International Figure, British fighters were a great draw in the States 'adding' to an already busting partisan fervour for America's own boys, well International super fights so to speak meant more Money & Interest, whether the opponent might not have been the best choice or not.

It's a racket at the end of the day!

 

The answer is a bit of both.

Marciano and his team knew that his nose might still be vulnerable.

His #1 contender was a puncher, and his #2 contender was a technician who did not hit that hard.

Cockell was also a very marketable fight, due to the British angle, which was a money spinner even then.

when you put it all together, Cockell became the obvious choice.

Valdez definitely had a better case for a title shot, but this was the sole occasion in Marciano's title reign, where he did not defend against the current #1 contender.

this makes me reluctant to judge him too harshly.

 

The C*ckell defence wasn't a big earner, it only drew 18,000 at the gate the second smallest of his defences, only the rematch with Walcott did less and that had live TV.
What input do you think Solomons had on this fight?

 

The rematch with Walcott was hotly anticipated!

That is enough to put it in the general zone!

 

Bigger in the US or Cuba Nino would have been the first quality, big punching, young 200lb s plus, heavy Rocky faced.As such he would have been a big draw.The C*ckell fight was a try out for his nose.C*ckell was conceded no chance at all and the fight was held in a postage stamp ring to help Rocky get to him quicker.The referee was a disgrace and so was Rocky.Having said that C*ckell would never have won, fouls or not.

 

This isn't supported by the figures it did.The live gate was only13,266.Rocky received $177,425 Walcott,$250,000!

The first Charles fight had 47,585 paying customers at the gate! Rocky's share of the gate was $275,691 plus a % of the film rights

He earned twice more from the first Charles fight than he did from the second Walcott fight,the guy who had the cash result in the second Walcott fight was Walcott, a quarter of a million dollars flat fee for two minutes.

 

It was a poorly attended heavyweight championship fight nobody gave C*ckell a realistic chance and in that they were correct he got his shot on the back of wins over two guys Rocky had already beaten, Mathews in double quick time and a Lastarza whom Rocky had ruined.Had Lastarza,[ who wasn't much to begin with ,]fought C*ckell prior to challenging Rocky, C*ckell wouldn't have been a challenger because he wouldn't have gotten past Roland,imo! Rocky got 40% of the gate which came to just $101,428 .The promoter ,who short changed both Rocky and C*ckell ,made a profit of $17,000.Small potatoes.

 

I think Marciano would have beaten Valdes had they fought ,but Archie doing the job for him put a smile on Al Weill's face.
Marciano retired because he was having back trouble that seized up on him.His manager was skimming off the top and he wanted away from him. Retirement was the only option.

 

It's a real pity Nino was not good enough to get past Archie Moore in their Eliminatior then.

It was that result which stopped Nino getting his shot.

Later, (after Moore lost to Rocky), in another eliminatior, Nino blew a boring rematch with Bob Baker a guy Moore knocked out, which left him nowhere to go. The Nino v Baker fight was such an appalling snooze fest that it was decided That neither looked like a logical challenger to Marciano. Fans were left disgusted.

Heavyweight boxing needed a contender to break through with an exciting, high profile win right after Marciano disposed with Moore. but Nino Valdes could not produce one, and neither could Bob Baker so Rocky retired.

I found this on another site. Which kind of compounds the belief Rocky was more than enough for big heavyweights before the PED era.

"Archie moore fought a rather large amount of heavyweights campaigning as the Light Heavyweight champion. He also kayoed Bob Baker -- the same Bob Baker who went the distance twice with Nino Valdes. Archie, in my mind, was quite possibly the best heavyweight around, despite being LHW champion as well. Archie had a tremendous resume--- but he knew, and would later admit, that Marciano was just too strong and powerful for him; which is amazing considering Valdes and Baker towered over Moore."

 

Neither Valdes or Baker used their size particularly well imo.Marciano beat Moore with incessant pressure that wasn't either of those guys style.Personally, off his record I think Baker deserved a shot more than Valdes,but the Mongoose stymied that.