Rocky Marciano with only 3 months of fighting experience gets robbed against one of the best amatuer heavyweights to ever come up through the ranks in boxing history, 17-0(17kos) Coley Wallace, who appeared the virtual clone stylewise and lookswise to Joe Louis. Wallace had recently beat top amatuer heavyweights Bob Baker and Clarence Henry. Rocky Marciano, with only 3 months of fighting experience, gets robbed against one of the best amatuer heavyweights in the world, 17-0(17kos) Coley Wallace. Wallace appeared the virtual clone stylewise and lookswise to Joe Louis. Wallace would go on to beat top amatuer heavyweights Bob Baker and Clarence Henry. This content is protected This content is protected This content is protected
Coley Wallace's This content is protected Amatuer Record WALLACE, COLEY Born April 5, 1927, Jacksonville, Florida Partial Amateur record: 1947 Feb. - New York Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Did not participate. Mch. - Eastern Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Did not participate. 1948 Feb. 16 - Kenneth Gilbert W ko 1 Wallace iced Gilbert with a solid left to the mid-section (New York Daily News 2-17-48:48). Attendance: 18,577. Feb. 16 - Gil Newkirk W ko 1 Won New York Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Wallace doubled Newkirk over with a left to the stomach and then dropped him on his side with a right flush to the jaw. Newkirk got up at the count of nine, but collapsed against the ropes to bring the fight to a close (New York Daily News 2-17-48:48). Attendance: 18,577. Feb. 28 - Record: 17-0, with 17 KOs Mch. 1 - Rocky Marciano, who W pts fought under his real name, Rocco Marchegiano. Wallace met a real tartar in Marchegiano. He unloaded all of his dynamite on Marchegianos body and chin, but Marchegiano refused to go down. In fact, he roared back and staggered Wallace in the second round with a right hand." (New York Daily News 3-2-48:46). Mch. 2 - Terry Teague W pts Wallace sagged Teague with a smashing right-hand uppercut in the first round and Teague just made it to his feet at the count of nine. The bell rang right after and no doubt saved Teague, but Wallace gave Teague a solid trimming (New York Daily News 3-4-48:73-74). Mch. 3 - Jim Hillard W pts Wallace scored a close victory over Hillard, ... [although he] was wild with his rights and was extended considerably by Hillard (New York Times). Attendance: 17,926. Mch. 3 - Bob Baker W pts Won Eastern Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Wallace did not encounter too much difficulty in outpointing [Baker], but ... [even though] he had [Baker] in serious trouble two or three times, [he] failed to floor him. Wallaces left hooks did most of the damage, his rights being wild (New York Times). Attendance: 17,926. Mch. 22 - Clarence Henry W pts Won National Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Wallaces win was as close as your next breath. Henry, putting up a clever defense and counter-punching prettily over Wallaces leads, but Coley kept moving in and scoring with left jabs. He only landed one of those patented rights of his, a right cross to Henrys jaw that rocked Henry back on his heels midway through the final round. That one must have registered heavily with the judges (New York Daily News 3-23- 48:47). Attendance: 18,359. Apr. 6 - Robert Cobb W ko 1 Attendance: 4,941. Apr. 6 - Junius Emerson W ko 1 Attendance: 4,941. Apr. 7 - Jay Lambert W pts Attendance: 12,452. Apr. 7 - Bill Bangert W ko 1 Won National AAU heavyweight championship; Boston. Wallace brought down Bangert in 2:37 of the opening round. He softened Bangert with a left hook and a few moments later sent him down for keeps with a terrific right cross (New York Daily News 4-8-48:82). Wallace knocked out the 65 240-pound Bangert with a terrific two- fisted barrage to the head (AP). Attendance: 12,452. June 16 - Mike Alfonso W rsc 2 Won Regional Olympic Trials heavyweight championship; Albany, New York. Wallace recovered from the verge of a knockout to stop Alfonso [5 8 243 pounds] in the second round. The boys came out slugging and Alfonso quickly dropped Wallace for a count of eight with a whistling right to the jaw. After Wallace got back on his feet, Alfonso belabored him with several left jabs and missed another right. Wallace changed his style in the second round and went after Alfonsos broad basket, dropping him for two counts of eight before the referee stopped the bout after two minutres and 35 seconds (Albany [New York] Times-Bulletin 6-16-48:20). June 28 - Art Saey W ko 1 June 28 - Charles Norkus W ko 2 Norkus had Wallace down twice for nine-counts in the opening round. Then Wallace tossed a wild right hook that put Norkus down for nine at the bell. Norkus was groggy at the opening of the second round and finally was felled for the full count at one minute and 47 seconds (New York Daily News 6-29-48:46). June 29 - Norvel Lee (Washington, L pts DC). Semifinalist, Olympic Trials heavyweight championship; Boston. Wallace threw everything he had at Lee, but wound up the worse for wear and was practically out on his feet at the final bell (New York Daily News 6-30-48:77). 1949 Feb. 2 - John Neugebauer W ko 1 Neugebauer was a willing but unskilled opponent. He came out swinging, but Wallace thumped him a few times in the mid-section to let off steam and another left and right finished Neugebauer for the night (New York Daily News 2-3-49:67). Feb. 7 - ( - ) W Feb. 14 - Johnny Orgen W pts Wallace struggled to a hairline decision over Orgen. Out of fighting trim, slow punching and off in his timing, Wallace had a full run for his time, despite a first round in which his heavier punching gave him an edge. But in both the second and third, Orgen gave as good as he took and parked his stinging right on Coleys jaw several times. Wallaces vaunted knockout punch was missing and neither man was in serious trouble (New York Daily News 2-15-49:46). Feb. 21 - Vincent Gambino W pts Won New York Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Wallace had to fight hard for victory, but the conquest came unmistakably.... Taller, stronger, with a longer reach than his opponent and a better boxer as well, Wallace won every one of the three rounds, leaving only the solace of a fight well and bitterly waged by the roly- poly Gambino (New York Times). Gambino [5 10 225] lived fully up to advance notices and gave Wallace his stiffest opposition in two years of Gloves campaigning. Wallace unloaded his heaviest shots, but the kid absorbed them all and still came back swinging. They were both weary, punch-tired boys when the bell ended the bout and Wallace, because of his heavy firing, justly earned the decision (New York Daily News 2-22-49:46). Attendance: 18,533. Mch. 8 - Pete Fuller W ko 3 Fuller was no match for the sharpshooting Wallace, but gave a tremendous display of fighting heart until a crunching left hook, followed by a terrific right, drove him to the floor (New York Daily News 3-9-49:78). Attendance: 3,112. Mch. 9 - Bob Baker L pts Eastern Golden Gloves heavyweight semifinalist; New York. Baker cleverly boxed his way into the finals. A lightning-fisted countepuncher, he built up points in the first two rounds and then fought off Wallaces determined third-round rally to win a hard-earned decision. It was Bakers counter-punching which won him the match. Wallace forced the fight throughout, but Baker beat him to the punch with his left jab or jarred him with his right as he moved in. In the third round, when Wallace lashed him with several solid blows to the jaw, Baker stood up to all of Wallaces dynamite and twice scored with rapid-fire counter- punches (New York Daily News 3-10-49:80). Attendance: 2,528. Mch.10 - Jim Hillard W pts Won Eastern Golden Gloves heavyweight consolation championship; New York. Attendance: 11,546. 1950 Feb. - New York Golden Gloves heavyweight championship; New York. Did not participate. Mch. 15 - Turned pro; first bout as pro.
I appreciate your efforts, Suzie! BTW, I really enjoyed your in-depth analysis of Marciano vs Louis, recently. I also fondly remember that thread a while back when you gave me, in great detail, precisely how Marciano could have demolished every heavyweight contender of his era...names (Valdes, etc) and dates. Keep up the good work!:good
That article is great find. I laugh at how they keep mispelling Marciano's origional name--with a 'k" Wallace was a top amateur, and I guess even then favoritism was given to fighters like him who were considered future moneymakers or champs when they turned pro. Wallace did look like Joe Louis, and after boxing playe dhim as an actor in movie 'The Joe Louis Story"
Marchegiano was robbed. That shows natural fighting ability, toughness and punching power. Wallace was a fine amateuer, and a 221 pound, 6'3 guy. An excellent athlete. Marchegiano had only had about 8 amateur fights, (and one pro fight under the name "Rocky Mack") and he was ridiculously raw at this point.
On Coley Wallace--A few years ago after getting home from work at about 1 in the morning, I turned on the TV and watched the classic game show network. They had a game show of some sort from 1953 with Wallace as a guest. He was pumping THE JOE LOUIS STORY. Joe Louis came out from behind the curtain as some sort of special surprise guest. What impressed me was that Louis was not at all gracious to Wallace. When questioned about what he thought about Wallace playing him, Louis said that he hoped Wallace could act better than he could fight. Wallace was embarressed and I think hurt. It seemed a different and not very pleasant side of Joe Louis.
:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: are you sure this wasn't a coked up joe louis having one of his bad comedowns?
I hope it was meant as a joke but was one of those jokes that goes wrong. I didn't think Louis should have put Wallace down on TV though. Wallace came across as a personable young man. By the way, side by side, if I remember, Louis was slightly taller.
That is funny, I have Ezzard Charles vs Colley Wallace on film, Wallace looks at least 3" taller than charles, and the announcer describes wallace as 6'3. I dont think people realize how big a guy louis was, even marciano commented that he was shocked at how bigger louis was when they were standing off in the middle of the ring to get their instructions than he looked on TV. - That was a very unclassy thing for louis to say, but Ill give him a pass
