Most Overrated and Underrated heavyweights of patterson/Listons era

"Valdes should have gotten the title shot over Co'kell"

But not over Moore.

 

If marciano defended three times a year he would have fought Valdes. As it was he would have fought Valdes if only he could beat Moore. If anything it was the IBC making Moore jump through the most hoops to get at Rocky. I think they actually wanted Valdes over Moore as the softer option.

Incredibly They set Moore a virtual mission impossible before fighting Marciano. making Moore first beat #1 and #2 heavyweight contenders and drop weight to fight a middleweight or lose his LH crown before he could get the shot at Rocky. By comparison Valdes was bottom feeding to maintain his rating.

 

He probably isn't.

 

I don't think Valdes was any higher regarded outside of Miami, Europe and Cuba than Cokkell at that particular time. In the states Valdes had already lost to guys who Charles and Moore beat and had been handed back a $5000 bond for "not being good enough to challenge for the title" after a pathetic lumbering display against James J Parker in the Garden. Charlie Doc Williams also gave him too hard a fight just before as well as a unsatisfactory Archie McBride outing too.

Obviously later Valdes destroyed the remains of Cokkell but before that the authority's had to sell a fight between the guy who beat Lastarza who had a "European" angle or the former journeyman Cuban who beat erratic Tommy Jackson and had already been officially classed "not good enough" by Christenberry of the NYAC.

 

Yeah the " Marciano ducked Nino Valdez" argument has been done to death around here over the years. while I agree that he would have been a formidable opponent for Rocky, the timing of his rating and the brief nature of it along with the fact that he lost in his eliminator to Moore pretty much negates any valid case that he was wrongfully ducked.

 

:deal

:good

It's all about landing the right fight at the right time and producing the right kind of performance that forces automatic title shots.

Cokkell and Harris don't look like good challengers now but the sequence of events at the time prevented better contenders actually looking any more worthy.

 

The Valdez argument has never held water. Charles was Marciano's #1 when that fight was made. It was so good and so close they had a rematch. In the rematch Marciano's nose was injured and needed time to heal during which Valdez was #1. Marciano opted to fight ****ell to test his nose out (and ****ell was rated #2 by the NBA just behind Valdez so he was hardly a gimme. As all of this was going on Archie Moore was trying desperately to get a shot at Marciano. He had already defeated #1 ranked Valdez and #3 Bob Baker. He reasoned, rightly so, that he had as much right to challenge as anyone so while Marciano was scheduled to fight ****ell a match between he and Valdez was made as an eliminator. Moore won just two weeks before Rocky faced ****ell and just afterwards was made the #1 contendder. After he defended his title against Bobo Olson the following month he and Marciano were signed. There was a very short period where Valdez was #1 for Marciano and he couldnt sustain it. The idea that he was ducked is ridiculous.