K.O.W. - The Brockton Brainblaster
I-berg and I watched the Rocky Marciano SportsCentury this weekend, one of the more bizarre and least interesting installments of that series I must say (although Marciano's childhood friend Izzy Gold is my new hero for providing this incisive story - "one time Rocky went up to this guy who owed him money and said give me my money and the guy said no way so Rocky broke his jaw"). Nobody had much insight on the undefeated champ other than the fact that he was a regular Joe who was pretty cheap with a buck and kept his cash stashed in grocery bags and mayo jars around the house.
About the only other piece of information to be gleaned about the man is maybe the only thing worth knowing, and something that everyone from Angelo Dundee to Steve Farhood says once in the course of the show with a sound of legitimate awe in his voice - "oh could he punch." Of course, to emphasize that they show his knockout of Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round of their 1952 bout, a KO that won the Rock the heavyweight title belt. This is probably the central fight to the Marciano myth - losing on all cards and taking a terrible beating from the crafty Walcott, he perseveres through the punishment and then ends it with one mighty punch. One MIGHTY punch. Check it out below, the No Mas Knockout of the Week, one of the greatest knockouts of all time:
About the only other piece of information to be gleaned about the man is maybe the only thing worth knowing, and something that everyone from Angelo Dundee to Steve Farhood says once in the course of the show with a sound of legitimate awe in his voice - "oh could he punch." Of course, to emphasize that they show his knockout of Jersey Joe Walcott in the 13th round of their 1952 bout, a KO that won the Rock the heavyweight title belt. This is probably the central fight to the Marciano myth - losing on all cards and taking a terrible beating from the crafty Walcott, he perseveres through the punishment and then ends it with one mighty punch. One MIGHTY punch. Check it out below, the No Mas Knockout of the Week, one of the greatest knockouts of all time:
2 Comments:
This is so much doper with the call. Who is that guy? He's so restrained and impartial about the knock out. Somehow I imagined that this punch would have made the announcer lose his cool. A different era.
The era before ring card girls even. I am presuming that the ring card gentleman idea wasn't at Rocky's request, cuz amongst other things ol' Izzy Gold made it real clear the Rock liked him some pu-say. Probably hid half his pu-say under his mattress or in the mayo jar.
Large, you are a Holmes student. Could the Rock carry his jockstrap?
I say no way. Hard to imagine Maricano getting within five feet of Holmes without eating six or seven of those pterodactyl jabs. Maybe if Rock had caught Holmes late in his career (as he did Moore, Louis, Walcott, Charles), Larry would have worn down late and the Marciano would have caught him with one of his haymakers. But Holmes in his prime wins an easy decision, maybe even knocks him out, although the Rock definitely did not go down easy.
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