he was approaching 40 and had suffered one of the most savage knockouts in the history of the sport 8 months earlier, he was just done
It's a strange one. Part of me thinks old Joey had had enough and thought screw it. It certainly seems strange when you think of the fight he put up in the first one. Only Jersey Joe really knew.
No, he was old and took a bad uppercut. He maybe tried to wait a moment before the ten count ends, but didn't get up on time.
It was indeed strange. At first Walcott seemed to accept that he'd been floored for the ten-count in round one. But after the crowd started booing, and probably yelling "Fix", he suddenly started stamping his feet and making a display of his objection to the count -- as if the disgraceful performance wasn't his fault. By contrast his performance in "The Harder They Fall" starring Humphrey Bogart and Rod Steiger was more convincing.
Dive is a strong word and I hesitate to use it. I think, either way, he was done. He had enough, and the uppercut convinced him, if he was not convinced before that. Having had enough is almost the definition of a knockout, so I will leave it at that.
The irony is that Walcott was the referee for the infamous Lewiston fight between Liston and Ali. It's kind of eerie how both bouts ended so suspiciously.
His cornermen related that they tried to get him to talk tactics but he wouldn't speak,they said he was like a ghost in the dressing room and just froze up.A J Leibling watching it live said,Walcott seemed quite content taking the count and only evinced objection after the crowd started booing,when he then began pantomiming outrage,insisting he got a short count. Later on he said he blacked out half way through the count and lost track of it. I think after the first fight in which he put up such a great performance,he got clipped and just decided he didn't want to go through all that pain again.A sad end to a career. It's on record that Marciano and Goldman were practising that short right inside uppercut in training.
I like it that you quoted the excerpt from "The Sweet Science", and a good one it is. Walcott had a shady manager and a checkered career. I suspect he "did business" more than once. I love this quote of yours from Liebling. Joe Walcott had a shady manager and a checkered career. He was too great a fighter to lose so many fights against no-names and ham-and-eggers.
