RIP Tiger Ted Lowry

The clip of the fight shows very little of the drama of the fight.NADA!
We went to the fight curious to see Rocky Marciano, the new Ko artist from Brockton,Mass..I followed his exploits in the Ring Mags, but I remember being skeptical,thinking of many balleyhood out of towners,who fizzle out when they come to MSG...Vingo I saw on my small tv ko a few guys ,and because of his size and punching power, I thought he might be a champ someday.
I recall in the first round Vingo who towered over Marciano hit Rocky with a poiwerful uppercut flush on the chin, but to our surprise Marciano shook off that blow, and in the second round went to work..He was like a concrete battering ram hitting Vingo with tremendous barrages of punches, and the tall brave Vingo took this terrible punishment til the fatal sixth round,when he collapsed unconscious...They rushed Vingo to Polyclinic Hospital across the street from the old MSG, where they saved his life...I heard he walked with a cane for a long time after leaving the hospital...Worst sustained beating I ever saw a heavyweight take for five agonizing rounds...I'm glad he [and I] are still around....

 

Thanks for sharing Burt, My uncles are no longer around but were big fans of Vingo and although at that stage of their career it was early all felt Carmine could be a champ someday, he showed heart and power and was learning. They were still rooting for Lastarza for fight 1 vs Marciano but my uncles all felt Rocky deserved to win. With heavyweight the harder punches mean a lot and it was ovious that Rocky was landing the power shots and the KD of Lastarza sealed it. It was proven that Marciano was the better man but Roland beat every man that beat him(except Marciano) going into fight 2 with Rocky and was 53-3...wonder how far he would have went in another era.

 

amazing stuff Burt - just out of curioristy, I know weights and size can be a bit deceptive especially when taking into account fighters from the 50's generally trained down to the leanest weight possible, but who would you compare Carmine Vingo with size-wise - I'm mean I know he weighed in the 190's but he was a big guy - how big did he seem physically - who would you compare him with physical size wise just to give us an impression??

 

Rocky,you NAILED it, by saying in the 1950s, and before of course,fighters trained down to the "leanest " weights...Carmine Vingo at 6.2-3", was a lean 190-200 pounds. He hit very hard for a young heavyweight...He was a "comer ", but so was Marciano...Who knows how far Vingo would have developed into if not for that ill-fated matchup ?
But Carmine Vingo survived that ko, and that is what counted in the game of life...b.b