Here in Brockton, Massachusetts, 45 minutes’ drive from Boston, Joe Calzaghe’s
bout in the early hours of tomorrow morning is being monitored with
particular fascination. This is something to do with Calzaghe’s Italian
heritage, a little to do with the honest, hard-working nature of the way he
boxes and a lot to do with his impeccable pursuit of Rocky Marciano. Because
if Calzaghe beats Roy Jones Jr at Madison Square Garden then, arguably, he
will have caught him.
The stand-out achievement of Marciano was to retire as world heavy-weight
champion in 1955 without a defeat to sully his record. If Calzaghe does beat
Jones and then retires, as he has suggested he will, then he has a record to
match. Not a single blemish; 100 per cent perfection.
Among the clapboard houses of Brockton, they understand the meaning of such
purity. This is Marciano country, Marciano’s home town, with the same high
school in whose red-and-black colours he used to box. It is here that you
will find Marciano’s old house at the end of Marciano Way and a clan of Marcianos
in the phone book. And it is here that an uncertain hand of acceptance is
being extended to the Welsh-Italian lacing up the gloves tonight.
“If Rocky was alive today he’d probably be in the booth, commentating on
Calzaghe’s fight,” Peter Marciano, his younger brother, said. “He’d have
loved him. I don’t know that he’d have loved a lot of other fighters out
there today, but Calzaghe, I can guarantee, he would have.
“Calzaghe is one guy I’d very much like to meet. I feel an affinity – I just
feel very close to him. I’ve seen him fight. He just seems to be a really
hard-working kid. Like Rocky, he’s not a big mouth, he doesn’t really brag,
which I like in a fighter. I look at him as a throw-back to the old days.
“The first reason I like him is he’s old-time. He brings you back to the way
fighters used to be: a hard-nosed guy always forcing the fight. And it
doesn’t hurt that he is Italian. Rocky liked the guys that stuck to the
business and worked liked crazy. So I’m a big fan of Joe’s. I’m rooting for
him.”
Another reason that they like Calzaghe here is that although he may be
matching Marciano’s achievement, he will not be breaking his record.
Marciano went 49 contests unbeaten, Calzaghe is on 45.
In 1985, when Larry Holmes was on 48 consecutive unbeaten bouts, Peter
Marciano travelled to Las Vegas to see the 49th and welcome him to the club.
Holmes did not distinguish himself, first by claiming that “Marciano could
not carry my jockstrap” and secondly by losing on points to Michael Spinks.
“After that, the one I used to worry about was [Mike] Tyson,” Marciano said.
“I thought he could go past 49.” But he was undone 13 short.
“Forty-nine bouts unbeaten is unbelievable. It’s like having an undefeated
football team for ten years,” Charlie Tartaglia said, warmly turning over
the memories. Tartaglia’s Uncle Snap used to work Marciano’s corner and,
when he was old enough, Charlie was allowed to tag along, too. “My uncle
used to tell me that if you wanted to beat Rocky, you had to hit him with
the stool, the ring post and half the chairs in the place,” he said. “That’s
how tough he was.” We are sitting in George’s Café, where Charlie is the
owner and where Marciano used to come after all his early contests with
Uncle Snap and his other cornerman, Allie Colombo. Over the signature dish
of ravioli and meatballs, they would sit in the corner booth to pick over
the bones of the latest victim.
George’s is something of a monument to the city’s “Champ”. Brockton also
produced Marvin Hagler, but George’s is like a museum, wall-to-wall in
grainy black-and-whites of Marciano at all points in his career: the classic
right-hand shot he called the “Suzie Q” that saved him against Jersey Joe
Walcott, the high-street parades on his returns to Brockton after contests,
which reportedly drew more than 60,000 on to the streets. And, poignantly,
the vast crowds gathering for the wake after his death in a plane crash, on
the eve of his 46th birthday, in 1969.
Just down the road from George’s is the house where Marciano spent his early
years, where the family rented the second floor, without hot water or a bath
tub, and squeezed parents and the first five of his six siblings – Peter
arrived later – into two bedrooms.
More significantly, 50 yards from the house lies the public playing field
where the Marciano boys, the Colombos (who lived next door) and the
Tartaglias played out their entire childhood. “I saw Rocky hit a baseball
right out of the field, all the way down Winthrop Street [more than 100
metres away] and hit Dickie Reagan’s front door!” Tartaglia recalled,
misty-eyed. “I wish I had all his broken bats.”
Peter Marciano said: “Whenever he was home Rocky would be back down the field
playing ball with us. Often he’d say to me: ‘Peter, stand like this and
throw punches at me.’ Every waking hour he wanted to improve his skills, his
hand-eye coordination, his movement. The earliest fight I was allowed to go
to was Johnny Pretzie in Providence, Rhode Island [in 1949]. I was 8. Just
imagine watching your big brother doing that. I don’t have the vocabulary to
explain how excited I was.”
“Rocky went to Providence for one fight,” Tartaglia said. “My uncle Snap was
driving at the time. They had an accident – one guy got thrown out the car,
three had to go to hospital. They said: ‘We better cancel the fight.’ Rocky
says: ‘What, are you crazy?’ Rocky went on to fight, everyone else went to
hospital.” And while every recollection lionises the Champ, they also tell
of the qualities of discipline, determination and dignity with which he
channelled his awkward, nascent talents to the top of the world.
“If every young kid had a big brother like I did, the world would be a better
place,” his brother said. “He just really was a genuine good person.”
This legacy has not been forgotten. Indeed, Brockton is becoming something of
a history lesson. The high school football team has been renamed the
Brockton Boxers and they play at the Rocky Marciano Stadium. The playing
field of those early days now bears a plaque that reads: “The Brockton
Blockbuster. He beat them all because he refused to lose!”
Furthermore, next April, the town’s post office is to be renamed the Rocky
Marciano Post Office. There is also a contentious debate about whether a new
26-foot statue of the Champ with his arm aloft in victory should stand
outside the downtown city hall or outside the school playing fields.
Peter strongly favours the school. “Every kid could see it and think: ‘If he
made it, why can’t I?’ This is what we want,” he said. He has plenty of
family support to fall back on. Nearby live his three sisters, one of whom
married Armond Colombo, the cousin of Allie, who became the Brockton Boxers’
long-term coach.
More peculiarly, the Marcianos’ second family house, to where they moved when
Rocky was a teenager, has been bought and lovingly renovated in Fifties
style by a Marciano aficionado. In the garden he has hung a punch-bag from
the same tree branch that Rocky hung his; upstairs, his second-floor tenant
is Rocky’s nephew, Peter Jr.
The only obvious absentees here are Rocky’s children, who remain in Fort
Lauderdale, where they lived with their mother, Barbara, who died of cancer
five years after Rocky’s death. Kevin Marciano was not even 2 when his
father died; Mary Anne was 16 and has since been through and out the other
side of some serious drug issues. “They’ll be coming here next year for the
post office and the statue,” Peter said.
They will not be the only notable visitors to Brockton. Muhammad Ali has twice
sat in George’s Café, paying his respects to one of his predecessors as
champion. “His people kept on asking: ‘Do you have any security?’ ”
Tartaglia said. “I said: ‘You don’t need that. You’re in Marciano country.”
For the record, Ali went 31 unbeaten contests before Joe Frazier ended his
run.
“Mentally, Rocky was very much like Ali,” Peter said. “Ali thought he was good
and he told everybody. Rocky knew that he was the best. He honestly believed
that once he got in the ring it was impossible for anyone to beat him. He
just didn’t feel the need to shout about it.”
Which is similar to Calzaghe and one of the reasons that Marciano so admires
him. To be likened to Rocky is clearly about as high as compliments go in
this game. Calzaghe may be Marciano-esque in word; tonight will inform us if
he is also a Marciano in deed.
Marciano's greatest hits
v Carmine Vingo, Dec 30, 1949 Marciano finished the contest with a
short left hook to the jaw, the punch he most regretted in his career. Vingo
was taken to hospital in critical condition and Marciano joined the vigil,
where he begged Vingo's mother for forgiveness. Marciano was still earning
little but he reportedly contributed $2,500 to the medical fees. Vingo
recovered, although he never boxed again, and was a guest at Marciano's
wedding.
v Jersey Joe Walcott, Sept 23, 1952 Walcott was the world champion,
Marciano the challenger. Walcott led clearly going into the thirteenth
round, when Marciano's short right to the chin finished the bout. Walcott
would lose the return and retire.
v Ezzard Charles, Sept 17, 1954 Charles came back for a rematch, having
lost the first bout narrowly on points, and opened a deep cut on Marciano's
nose. Marciano needed a knockout before the referee stopped the contest in
his rival's favour. A combination of punches culminated in a right to
Charles's jaw, which put him down.
Words by Owen Slot
