He was good but not great. Would have been a junior middle had the division existed at the time. Outside of his win over Tony Zale, his biggest wins were over welterweights. Notable for his ability to stage a late round rally to win a fight he was losing.
Rocky Graziano was pure and simply coming up before Zale,the most Exciting fighter I ever saw...I saw Rocky many times,he when young ,had a tremendous right hand,vicious and explosive,very strong and brave but otherwise limited...But watching his early New York fights,was like being in the middle of a street brawl...What stories about Rocky I could tell...Loved him...
Amazing to think that you guys saw Rocky close up apart from many others.Did you see the Zale fights Burt?
He was an Arturo Gatti of his day ... not a great fighter but a tremendously exciting brawler ... I have often written Zale and Graziano were the Ward and Gatti of their day ...
Hegrant,Please dont put Gatti and Ward in the same breath as Graziano,except in courage...Rocky would have flattened Gatti and Ward,one after another, the same night.In Graziano's era,Gatti and Ward,however brave,would probably never fought main event bouts at MSG...What a tough era their was in the early 1940's when Graziano came up...Example ,Harold Green who I knew, Rocky's early rival never fought for the title, would have chased the likes of Gatti or Mickey Ward out of the ring...Five times as many pro fighters then....
Hard to believe Rocky's not here. Used to golf with him when he was in showbiz. He did everything on-the-arm. Every doctor, lawyer and dentist wanted to rub shoulders 'n invited him to golf at fancy country clubs. Always, it ended-up for money. Rocky lost one day 'n a dentist said: "Rocky, you owe me sixty-five dollars" "I'd much rather owe it to you than not pay you."
ron u.k. No I did not see the Zale bouts,as two of the fights were out of town, Chicago and Newark...Incidentally, the prime Tony Zale,pre war,would have Rocky Graziano overmatched..Tony Zale lost four prime years in the service,and still was able to ko Rocky in thefirst bout at the age of 33 years old...At Zale's peak I have him even money against Robinson as a middleweight...They did'nt call Zale "the man of steel"for nothing.Togh and a tremendous body puncher was prime Tony...Yessir....
J.G...We sure were fortunate to have watched Graziano coming up..What A rip snorting slugger he was then...I recall seeing him fight at Dexter Park,N Y in 1944.He fought Frankie Terry..In that wild brawl they dropped the referee, kicked each other, bit each otheretc. I and the crowd went crazy...Animals they were...Later on I learned that Graziano and Frankie Terry were second cousins...Amazing but true...
I did mean as courageous slugger ... while I love Rocky, actually knew him later in life and saw him for years in the neighborhood (NYC East 50's), I do not condsider him a great fighter .. I do consider him a huge puncher ..
Thanks for that Burt,i agree about Tony Zale although a well appreciated fighter, in the grand scheme of things he's probably a tad underrated.Those fights with Rocky were real brutal affairs in the third one in particular he nearly killed Rocky.
