Rocky Marciano by John Jarrett

Author:John Jarrett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pitch Publishing
Published: 2018-03-14T16:00:00+00:00

14

THE INQUEST AND THE REMATCH

SO WHAT on earth happened in that Chicago ring the night of 15 May 1953? Look, the guy was 39, and while 39 is fine for a shoe salesman or a cab driver, it is not fine for a professional prizefighter going up against the undefeated heavyweight champion of the world, who is looking for his 39th knockout. Rocky Marciano throws rocks in his training camp and he throws rocks in the ring. The few rocks he threw that night in Chicago didn’t look hard enough to render Walcott unconscious, and they didn’t. Walcott wasn’t knocked out, he was counted out.

Red Smith wrote in his ringside report, ‘After 23 recorded years as a professional fist fighter, the former champion went out in a total disgrace which no excuses can relieve. If he was truly knocked out by the only real punch of the bout, then he didn’t belong in the ring. If he was not knocked senseless and did hear the count of referee Frank Sikora, then it was a disgrace because it was apparent through the last several seconds that he was not going to get up, or even to try. If he did not hear the count, then he was befuddled by Marciano’s blow or else his hearing is no better than might be expected at his age, for the toll of seconds was clearly audible in the press rows half the width of the ring away. By the time the count reached “eight”, it was clear he would not get up before the toll was completed. He didn’t stir until the referee had cried “nine” and he was not off the floor until well after “ten”.’

Red Smith’s colleague at the New York Herald Tribune, Jesse Abramson, rubbished the wild claims of Walcott and manager Bocchicchio that they had received a short count. ‘There was no doubt at all in the minds of those watching the knockdown scene, hearing and seeing the knockdown timekeeper, Mike Murphy, and the referee counting ten in unison amid the sudden din that Walcott got the maximum count of ten.’144

Reporter Tom Branagan was in Walcott’s dressing room to hear him say, ‘I wasn’t hurt at any time. I guess it was a left hook and a punch-push or something that knocked me down. I could have gotten up at the count of two.’ Bocchicchio claimed, ‘Joe knew what he was doing. He waited for me to tell him to get up, and when I told him to get up he was counted out.’ Bocchicchio’s words were literally spat at reporters as he ridiculed the manner in which referee Frank Sikora had counted out his 39-year-old protégé.’145 The belief here is that Walcott’s sit-down strike was orchestrated months previously, just after the first fight with Marciano, when Bocchicchio and his adviser, Uncle Frankie Carbo, convinced promoter Jim Norris that a return fight would sell like hot cakes, but as old Jersey Joe would be 40 next birthday, he couldn’t possibly fight Marciano again for less than a $250,000 guarantee.

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