Cool Article on Rocky Marciano & Brockton, MA
 

Pfftt, he fought an old Joe Louis, an old Joe Walcott, an old Archie Moore - why do people always mention his name alongside the great Muhammad Ali?

I don't really know anybody who compares him to Ali.

He was a solid Heavyweight Champ who didn't duck anybody while he was active, beat whoever was put in front of him and knew exactly when to retire before his body gave out on him.

True, he beat mostly smaller older guys, but many of them were all-time greats and still pretty damn good when he beat them. He also wasn't any bigger then they were when he beat them.

The era just happened to suffer from a dearth of talented big guys to challenge him while he was active.

I don't think he would have stood up to a younger Sonny Liston, who was shut out from the Heavyweight title for a long time before Floyd Patterson didn't have any choice but to finally fight him. He and Ingemar had been sidestepping Liston for years.

Rocky did sign to make a comeback to fight Ingemar at one point, but thought better and walked away from it before it came to fruition.

Dave's analysis is a good one on the merits. I'd add only that from what his friend Sammy Luftspring wrote in his autobiography Marciano told him that he walked away in large part because he was sick of his management (Al Weill) stealing him blind on every purse and didn't want to take more beatings for small net money.

One other reason I'd add for his legendary status: ethnicity. It has always mattered in boxing when it comes to casual fans. Marciano was the last white American undisputed heavyweight champion. Ingo was a foreigner, and there were no white champs during the magnificent Ali-Frazier-Foreman-Norton era.