Rocky Marciano vs Oscar Bonavena

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...WBIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sQQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4496,1820087

But it's now a moot point. Valdez was #1 for less than a year. A lot of what you guys have claimed is just plain made up.

I intend to get his biography and delve deeper into some of this stuff, but you have been spinning a fiction.

 

They were in talks:

https://news.google.com/newspapers?...WBIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=sQQEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4496,1820087
Again, we will delve deeper into this, but Valdez was number 1 for less than a year. You have been spinning a fiction all along.

 

Oscar was a fighter who fought in turns he fought when the other guy stopped - see how that could be an issue against Rocky?

 

That is NOT an offer, serious or otherwise for Valdes to fight Marciano.That is a promoter and a manager talking. Weill had no intention of putting Marciano in with Valdes.
In that chat it's confirmed that Valdes would be the better draw which directly contradicts all your spin about he was lightly regarded.We know Cockell got the shot in Kezar Stadium and we also know only 18,000 turned up to watch it ,so dismissive [and rightly so,] were the press regarding his chances!
You are full of it!

 

"Weill was worried too, enough that he wasn't about to send Marciano into the ring with a heavy hitter like Valdes,or an accomplished sharp shooter like Archie Moore.
Instead the ideal opponent for the champion's re built nose was a boxer who had some credentials,but neither the power or sting to inflict heavy damage,someone against whom Marciano could afford to gamble if the nose did fail to hold up.
Cockell fit the bill on all accounts.,
He was,Budd Shullberg noted in SI," "a manufactured opponent,
hand picked by Weill as the least menacing of the heavyweight contenders".
"Rocky Marciano The Rock Of His Times" by Russell Sullivan.
There was talk of matching Rocky with Nino Valdes,a hard hitting Cuban,or Archie Moore,another old warhorse , the Light heavyweight champion who still packed danger in his fists.
"But Weill was taking no chances." Weill booked him instead to fight Don Cockell, the British heavyweight champion,who had recently beaten Roland Lastarza and Kid Mathews,but was a slow pudgy,stand up fighter ,and had recently been knocked out by a middleweight"

"Unbeaten" by Mike Stanton.


"

 

I respectfully do not agree. Furthermore, we never saw Marciano vs a man as strong and hard punching as Oscar. We never saw RM vs any over-205-pound ranked contender. Jose Torres once sparred with Bonavena and said, that if Bonavena had punched as hard as he could, he (Torres) would get killed.As much as I like Rocky, who had life and dead battles vs blown up old lightheavyweights, I just don't think he would have a chance vs Bonavena, and for that matter any ranked tall, heavy 'real' heavyweight.

 

There were ranked 205+ pound contenders, it just so happens that the "shopworn" light heavyweights that Marciano fought (being Moore and Charles; Walcott, LaStarza Layne were not light heavyweights) beat them. Similarly men before Marciano defeated plenty of 205+ers such as Dempsey, Langford, Jack Sharkey. All of which Marciano is regarded as better than

Marciano didn't particularly struggle in many of his fights either. He struggled against Charles in their first fight, but Charles was a heavyweight champion and is the light heavyweight goat. He struggled against Walcott, but Walcott was the heavyweight champion at the time, and it was primarily only because Marciano was blinded for the second half of the fight. Marciano avenged both of these lmao.

Do you really believe Bonavena is better than Walcott or Charles?

Are we suddenly going to devalue every heavyweight for losing or struggling with someone from the weight class beneath? Is Sugar Ray Leonard bad for losing to Duran, a blown up 135er?

Bonavena was physically gifted but he simply is not good enough to beat Marciano. Why would he be too strong for Marciano when he wasn't even too strong for Frazier, whom Archie Moore directly stated that Marciano was stronger than. And Ali, Frazier and Foreman all firmly believed Marciano was better than Frazier in their primes.

 

Ahem, Marciano good? He was a diciplined small contender with willpower and guts, but not elite. He fought old small over the hill men. He never met Valdez, and I don't believe for a moment that Moore beat Valdes legitimately. Do remember who ruled boxing at that time. I think Valdez was 'convinced' to hold it a bit back, or else! Valdez didn't fancy the chance of taking a dive in the local harbor with both feet planted in cement.

 

Bonavena was strong and tough, but he's facing someone who hits at least as hard (and I'm being very charitable to Ringo here), and who is his superior in terms of skill and defensive awareness. Plus, the fact that Bonavena was dropped twice by a blown up middleweight in Jimmy Ellis (who weighed in at all of 194 for their fight) leads me to believe that he's not going to be able to walk through the shots of someone who hits a whole lot harder.

As for Valdes somehow tanking the fight with Moore, he lost clearly the first time around and would go on to lose to the smaller (5'10, 183lb) Bob Satterfield in his next outing. Plus, he'd barely scraped by Archie MacBride in a rematch during his best run. The idea of Moore defeating Valdes a second time certainly isn't outside the realm of possibility.

Anyway, Maricano UD Bonavena seems like the appropriate prediction for me.