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wrote:
I recently watched a videotape of Russ Anber's "Classic Night At The
Fights: Rocky Marciano", and after seeing it I felt I had to expose
the shocking, false statements I heard.
This is the usual unprofessional sports writing we are used to getting
from HBO, TSN and ESPN. The documentary is filled with inaccurate
statements, which I'm about to list. They believe Marciano is
overrated (and Ali, of course, was "the Greatest"), but they have done
very little research on the man. In any case, a picture of Muhammad
Ali is on the wall next to host Russ Anber, and all you hear
throughout the documentary is that Marciano hand-picked his opponents
to avoid difficult fights.
Anber keeps repeating how old Archie Moore was (39), implying that he
was hand-picked for that reason. Any serious journalist would probably
say that Marciano chose Moore because he was the light heavyweight
champion of the world at the time. Like most ignorant critics who have
done no research, Anber keeps telling us how old Louis, Moore and
Walcott were, giving the impression that Marciano only fought old
guys. He leaves out the fact that most of Marciano's opponents were
young, including his best opponents (Layne, LaStarza, Matthews).
Russ Anber also calls Don Cockell "a roly poly British heavyweight".
He forgets to mention that Cockell was the reigning British
heavyweight champion. Any serious documentarian would mention this as
the reason Marciano fought him, instead of implying that Marciano was
a coward. A quick look at boxing history shows that the world champion
frequently fought a European champion to prove he really was the
world's best. Also, Cockell had just beaten two world heavyweight
contenders, so Marciano really had to fight him to prove himself. All
of this is omitted in this so-called documentary.
Anber repeats that Marciano's manager thought Ezzard Charles' days
were over. This implies that Charles was also "hand-picked". This is
also absurd, since Charles had been champion just 2 years earlier. The
fight was a must for Marciano, not a choice. Charles was 33 years old
and still fighting great. At this point, Anber finally decides to name
names, and tells us exactly WHO Marciano ducked. Ready? The name is...
Nino Valdes! A quick look at Valdes' boxing record shows just how
incompetent Russ Anber really is. He conveniently forgets to mention
that in 1952-1953, Valdes lost 4 fights in a row. So you can decide
for yourself if Marciano was afraid of him. Also, Valdes was beaten
twice by Archie Moore, once in 1953 and once in 1955. The truth is,
for anyone who does some research, that Marciano was probably
considering a fight with Valdes in 1955, but chose Moore when he saw
him beat Valdes for the second time. That Marciano ducked Nino Valdes
is the most ridiculous sports statement ever made in public.
Still not convinced how unprofessional Russ Anber is?
In 1952, Marciano fought a fast Muhammad Ali-style boxer named Harry
Kid Matthews, who was 29 years old with a record of 81-3. This was a
title eliminator, but Anber does not show the fight in this video.
It's one of the very few fights for which film footage exists, so why
didn't he include it? Why omit this one? The fight goes like this: the
fast, dancing Matthews does the stick-and-move on Marciano, outboxing
him and easily winning the first round. In round 2, while Matthews is
moving backward, Marciano catches him with a quick, long-distance left
hook and puts him to the canvas for the ten count. I'll let you decide
why Russ Anber did not include this fight in the documentary, and
instead filled it with unsubstantiated charges, implying that Marciano
was a coward. This documentary was made by people who obviously have
never done any real research on Marciano.
Most TV stations like to keep the audience thinking Muhammad Ali was
"The Greatest", since they have so much fun, entertaining, color
footage on the guy. I myself love to watch Ali, but I separate
entertainment from talent. He was the most entertaining, but whether
he was the most talented is a completely different story. Russ Anber
is not qualified to give anyone a true account of how good any boxer
really was. You can learn more about Marciano by just watching the
fights and reading the accounts of the ones that were never recorded
on film.
A very interesting approach to stripping away the mantle of coward to
throw light on the Marciano years.
DCI
