#OnThisDay: The beating Rocky Marciano handed Don Cockell broke every rule in the book

Every rule in the book????? This was a pretty clean fight lol. Not Marciano's fault that Don fell so fast that the Rock hit him when he was down lol.

 

I remember reading about this fight in my Uncle Joe's scrapbooks as a kid and I've watched it since. Poor Don was pitiably brave. It's nice to know that Rocky gave him credit for it.
Don had a horrible life. Raised in an orphanage after being given away by his Mother, his Wife deserted him for another man and due to the UK's then arcane divorce laws, Cockell was left financially wiped out.
He went back to his old trade of blacksmith and later, drove a truck delivering concrete sleepers. Don died of throat cancer in 1983.
RIP Champ.

 

Two things were very evident in this fight: 1. Rocky Marciano put one heck of a beating on Don Cockell. 2. Don Cockell was a heck of a brave fighter.

Wikipedia has Don at 66-14-1, with 38 KO's. Not too shabby. He held the British and Commonwealth Heavyweight titles, which likely means (if they all had existed then), he probably would have picked up one of the 4 Heavyweight alphabet belts out there. The pounding he took from Marciano seems to have led to the end of his professional career, since he never won another fight after that.

 

As this man says!
Don had heart, no one can deny that. He was in over his head, but he didn't quit.
He was in against a human tank that day.

 

Just as laughable as your thread calling Marciano "the biggest cheat in boxing history" or whatever it was you said.

 

yeah I agree, he was just roughed up & beat up, sure there may have been an infraction here and there, but it wasn't anything like Pro British/English invested scribes & parties state. The same thing was claimed about Turpin, Robinson and Buchanan and Duran.

Pumped into your brains, until you see the fights that is, and the British fighters were & did genuinely beaten in spite of 'any' incident, intentional or unintentional.

the worst thing about it is, many still spew it, but if you watch all of these fights, our lads simply lost those fights, albeit good fights, though the C ockell one was all Rocky.

 

Don Cockell wasn't nearly as bad as people make out, and his record was pretty good.


In his last 22 fights going back to 1950, Co-ckell has gone 20-2, losing only to the former champion Turpin and the in the top five Slade.


He had beaten 9 fighters who were rated at one time or another, and beat four who had fought for the heavyweight championship.


Lloyd Marshall, Albert Yvel, Freddie Beshore, Nick Barone, Albert Finch, Tommy Farr, Johnny Williams, Harry Matthews, and Roland LaStarza.


Nothing awe-inspiring, but only Don and Marciano defeated Matthews since 1943, with Harry running up an unbeaten streak of 52 bouts and a winning streak of 35 bouts. LaStarza was one fight past being the #1 contender. Yes, I know. Marshall and Farr were old. But most contenders have fights like that.

There’s a lot of talked up title challengers with far less credentials than Don Cockell.

 

exactly and he wasn't a True Heavyweight either, and as you say, EVERY Fighter Loses to other Top Fighters, and have Wins & Losses to end of Career fighters and likewise there own loses when their end comes around.

there is NEVER any shame losing those matches or losing to BIGGER Men, never, losses to such are 'expected'... some Good/great showing losses are just as valid as many a win.

 

Tyson did the same thing. Are we going to penalize him as well?

 

He did against quick Tillis

 

He sure did whoop him