Why did Rocky Marciano have such a short title run?

50-0 would have been nice.....

 

Back problems, managerial problems, family pressure to quit, and the importance of his legacy. 49-0 is light years ahead of 49-1.

 

It could be argued, rightly, that his era was weak, but Rocky defeated all the fighters he faced.
I do not think he has avoided Patterson or Liston, but it would be very interesting to see him in action against these two fighters. Rocky's fighting style and intense training regimen would not allow him a greater reign than he had.

 

As of Feb. 1956, Patterson was not rated at Heavyweight. His only noteworthy HW win at this point was fringe contender, Jimmy Slade.

After Maricano officially announced his retirement in April 1956. Patterson officially moved to HW and was paired with Tommy Jackson in an eliminator to meet Moore for the vacated belt. I believe it was a calculated move on Cus' part to wait out Maricano.

Kind of a foolish question. A little research would show that as of April 1956, Liston was a 13-1 unrated nobody about to go to prison and spend over a year barred from the sport.

Maricano didn't win the title until he was 29 years old. Contrast this to previous long reigning Champs: Joe Louis and Dempsey, whom respectfully won the title at 23 and 24 years of age.

His reign consisted of 6 defenses in 3 years. A solid 2 defenses per year. Because of Marciano's drawing power, his fights were major events in outdoor stadiums limited to fair weather seasons. Also consider that he got cut up in quite a few of these fights and as Champion had the luxury of taking proper time to heal and prepare for his next defense.

Valdez and Baker fought an eliminator in December 1955 for the right to be his 7th defense. Baker..whom already got knocked by Moore, won the fight. However, Baker's showing was so poor and lackluster, Moore was reinstalled as the #1 contender.

Nobody wanted Moore vs Maricano 2. He retired while approaching 33 years of age for the reasons listed with no major opponent in demand.

 

Rocky was 49-0 with 43 KO's....he had back problems...hated Al Weill...was champ from 1952 to 1956...beat everyone they put in the ring with him...with a style like his...you can't go on forever...and he got out with his powers still intact.

 

From what I understand Rocky put a lot of time into his training. Long training camps and living a disciplined life that he had to might of played a part in his retirement as well. He just wanted to enjoy life and eat some pasta. Why not? He was the undefeated Heavyweight Champion of the World. It gets no cooler than that.

 

He'd done all he had to at that point. Beaten all in front of him. Once Moore was defeated he wrapped it up in perfect timing. None of the coming back years later which for most boxers never ends well, so he has that perfect record. Can't argue with that.

 

That's imho the real reason why Marciano didn't stick around.

His training was brutal in itself.

The way he fought even more so. He didn't mind shipping punishment so long as he could land his own bombs. Some of the guys he fought were hard hitters and that sort of damage accumulates over the years.

By the end of his career, when he was actually exhibiting pretty good defensive skills, he was no longer fresh and had a lot of miles on the clock. In his first few, crude fights his chin was his defence and that's never healthy.

 

QUOTE="Jim Dean, post: 18454911, member: 115830"]Just curious?
Did he avoid in any way Patterson and Liston?
Do you feel Marciano should of had more world title fights? I think it is unusual to be so successful, but have so few title fights.[/QUOTE]
No Marciano avoided no one ,I don't think it would ever have occurred to him to do so.
With hindsight it would have been interesting to see Rocky against Clarence Henry and Bob Baker, but they were beaten along the way
I believe Rocky's manager was a bit wary of Nino Valdes ,but he was eliminated by Moore whom Marciano ko'd.
After the Moore fight Marciano would have had to wait another year for Patterson,and by then he was having back problems and had fallen out with his manager over $$$.
To achieve the level of fitness Marciano exhibited he had to train like a dog for months,the grind became a chore.
After defending against nondescript challengers Floyd tied up the title for 3 years ,playing pass the parcel with Ingo. Rocky had his last fight in Sept 55 Liston did not become champion until Sept 62, 7 years later, Marciano was too old to make a successful comeback by then ,particularly against such a stylistic night- mare as Sonny.

 

Yup ^ Ancient Rocky vs Liston would not have been pretty.

 

Well he was having physical issues which caused him to call it a day. Aside for Cockell he fought all first raters. No other soft touches as hwt champion. Charles, Walcott, Moore, LaStarza.....these men knew how to fight.

 

This explains it all (above). Plus,
Patterson and Liston werent near championship standard yet.

 

Not many true heavyweight champions have had longer title runs.

Tyson didn't. Holyfield didn't.
As lineal champ, Lewis didn't.
Foreman didn't.
Frazier didn't.
Liston didn't.
Patterson didn't.

And guess what ? A loss signalled the end to those runs.

 

32? 33?, He would be be considered young for a heavyweight if he was fighting today.