not a lot of footage out there on him zale totally destroys a frightened looking rocky in their 3rd fight, janiro shouldnt have been stopped after he fell over backward and got immediately up, gene burton srr stablemate took one on the chin and he was out , arnold was soundly whipping him till he got the big right so was fusari .so what is so special about rocky graziano and what did he do to get a shot at the title? he never in his life fought anyone as tough as jake lamotta and was fearful of the raging bull. supposedly so ,scared he punched a tree to break his hand to get out of the lamotta fight. so what made rocky special? he was also a very protected fighter who was brought up on stumblebums.. okay everybody im getting ready for your assults on me and this post. but i can take it. lol
Many here will agree with you. Not me necessarily, but I see some validity in some of the criticisms. But Graziano deserves a lot of respect for being a warrior. The first two fights with Zale he was competitive in wild brawls. He won the title. He had a muderous punch and in several fights he got off the deck to win - that deserves respect. Also, this whole thing about him being carefully managed and "protected" isn't really true. He burst into the rankings when he beat the much hyped Billy Arnold, a young black fighter who was being tipped to become a great one and expected to be the next Ray Robinson. Graziano was a 5-1 underdog being fed to the hungry young prospect, but he KO'd Arnold brutally in 3 rounds and Arnold never really recovered from that. It wasn't the first or last time Graziano was matched as an underdog against a young prospect or a name fighter either. A "protected" fighter isn't one who is matched against guys who almost everyone thinks will whip him. Not in my book anyway.
Graziano was a colorful character and a huge puncher ... in reality he would have been a 154 pounder if the division existed ... as a middleweight he was exciting but somewhat limited ...