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Round After Round: Marciano

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  • Round After Round: Marciano

    On September 23rd 1952 Rocky Marciano climbed into the ring to challenge the heavyweight boxing champion, Jersey Joe Walcott. What followed was what many have called the greatest heavyweight championship fight of all time. In the first round, Walcott caught Marciano with a perfect left hook that dropped him for the first time in 43 fights! But The Rock was up at the count of 3. From then on it was a brutal fight, with Walcott using all his ring skills, hitting Marciano with shot after shot. Walcott’s punches would have knocked out most other fighters. But Rocky was relentless, taking tremendous punishment as he bulled his way into close range to land his own hard blows. By the 12th round Walcott was ahead on all scorecards. Rocky's corner told him he needed a knockout to win. In the fateful 13th round Jersey Joe stepped back from Marciano with his back to the ropes and Rocky delivered a right hand punch that would probably have felled any fighter who ever lived. Walcott slumped to the floor, one arm hanging on the lower rope and was counted out. It took several minutes to revive him. Rocky Marciano was the new Heavyweight Champion of the World!

    Two weeks later, on October 8th 1952, the Baha’is commemorated the start of a Holy Year. It was the commemoration of the centenary of the rise of the orb of Baha’u’llah’s most sublime Revelation. The launching of a world-embracing spiritual crusade in 1953 was also proclaimed on that same date. I was only eight at the time. I can neither remember this launching nor that famous fight of Marciano’s. The fight was not televised, nor was it on radio and so my dad and I were not able to enjoy the fight together. We had to wait until 1953 or 1954. I can’t remember now after all this time what was the first fight we watched together. My father was a boxing enthusiast, although not obsessively so.

    That year my mother had just made her first contact with the Baha’i Faith after seeing an ad in the local paper, the Burlington Gazette. I have often felt, looking back to 1953/4 that these Rocky Marciano fights I saw with my father at the start of the Ten Year Crusade were symbolic of the long fight ahead for my father and for me, for my society and the world. Little did I know then, living as the new global society did on the brink of self-destruction in a new atomic age, as a grade four primary school student, as a person who would spend the rest of his life associated with this new world Faith, the nature of the real fight, the real battle, ahead.

    Marciano became a top contender in the heavyweight boxing world following his sixth-round knockout of Rex Layne at Madison Square Garden on 12 July 1951. 1951 was the same year that saw the rise of the Baha’i Administrative Centre in Haifa. This rise, this development, this process, taking place at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa Israel, had been kept in abeyance for thirty years(1921-1951) while the machinery of the national and local Baha’i institutions of this nascent Order was being erected. Boxing experts have considered September 29th 1952 to be Marciano's defining moment. Marciano fought a rematch with Walcott on 15 May 1953 in Chicago Stadium. This time Marciano scored a knockout after just 145 seconds. This was right at the start of the Ten Year Crusade, in the first month of that Crusade.

    Marciano had trained extraordinarily hard. The Baha’i community had trained hard and would train hard in the years ahead. Rocky Marciano stood as a symbol right at the start of the first international teaching Plan. On 17 June 1954 Marciano successfully defended his title against the aged former champion Ezzard Charles at Yankee Stadium. Marciano's final defense came on 20 September 1955. He retired in 1956 and was killed in a plane crash in August 1969.-Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, July 1st 2006.

    You were a model in so many ways,
    Rocky, little did I know back then
    sitting in that little lounge-room at
    the start of a Crusade that would take
    this Cause to the earth’s far corners.

    You were like a rose amongst thorns,
    so said Jimmy Cannon in his summary
    of your life. I knew so little of your life,
    Rocky, until just the other day, occupied
    as I have been with a rose in another garden,
    a rose-garden of the spirit whose charm
    captured my heart these many years while
    I carried the fight and walked the walk
    in such a different way to you, Rocky.

    I tried to plant the rose of love in the garden
    of my heart surrounded as I was by a different
    set of thorns than the one you battled with.
    My battle was so different than yours, Rocky,
    spread out over more than 50 years in a ring,
    often on the ropes, round after round, waiting
    for the bell to toll, in my corner and many other
    corners, never taking the title, wanting to retire.

    Ron Price
    July 1st 2006

  • #2
    Originally posted by RonPrice View Post
    On September 23rd 1952 Rocky Marciano climbed into the ring to challenge the heavyweight boxing champion, Jersey Joe Walcott. What followed was what many have called the greatest heavyweight championship fight of all time. In the first round, Walcott caught Marciano with a perfect left hook that dropped him for the first time in 43 fights! But The Rock was up at the count of 3. From then on it was a brutal fight, with Walcott using all his ring skills, hitting Marciano with shot after shot. Walcott’s punches would have knocked out most other fighters. But Rocky was relentless, taking tremendous punishment as he bulled his way into close range to land his own hard blows. By the 12th round Walcott was ahead on all scorecards. Rocky's corner told him he needed a knockout to win. In the fateful 13th round Jersey Joe stepped back from Marciano with his back to the ropes and Rocky delivered a right hand punch that would probably have felled any fighter who ever lived. Walcott slumped to the floor, one arm hanging on the lower rope and was counted out. It took several minutes to revive him. Rocky Marciano was the new Heavyweight Champion of the World!

    Two weeks later, on October 8th 1952, the Baha’is commemorated the start of a Holy Year. It was the commemoration of the centenary of the rise of the orb of Baha’u’llah’s most sublime Revelation. The launching of a world-embracing spiritual crusade in 1953 was also proclaimed on that same date. I was only eight at the time. I can neither remember this launching nor that famous fight of Marciano’s. The fight was not televised, nor was it on radio and so my dad and I were not able to enjoy the fight together. We had to wait until 1953 or 1954. I can’t remember now after all this time what was the first fight we watched together. My father was a boxing enthusiast, although not obsessively so.

    That year my mother had just made her first contact with the Baha’i Faith after seeing an ad in the local paper, the Burlington Gazette. I have often felt, looking back to 1953/4 that these Rocky Marciano fights I saw with my father at the start of the Ten Year Crusade were symbolic of the long fight ahead for my father and for me, for my society and the world. Little did I know then, living as the new global society did on the brink of self-destruction in a new atomic age, as a grade four primary school student, as a person who would spend the rest of his life associated with this new world Faith, the nature of the real fight, the real battle, ahead.

    Marciano became a top contender in the heavyweight boxing world following his sixth-round knockout of Rex Layne at Madison Square Garden on 12 July 1951. 1951 was the same year that saw the rise of the Baha’i Administrative Centre in Haifa. This rise, this development, this process, taking place at the Baha’i World Centre in Haifa Israel, had been kept in abeyance for thirty years(1921-1951) while the machinery of the national and local Baha’i institutions of this nascent Order was being erected. Boxing experts have considered September 29th 1952 to be Marciano's defining moment. Marciano fought a rematch with Walcott on 15 May 1953 in Chicago Stadium. This time Marciano scored a knockout after just 145 seconds. This was right at the start of the Ten Year Crusade, in the first month of that Crusade.

    Marciano had trained extraordinarily hard. The Baha’i community had trained hard and would train hard in the years ahead. Rocky Marciano stood as a symbol right at the start of the first international teaching Plan. On 17 June 1954 Marciano successfully defended his title against the aged former champion Ezzard Charles at Yankee Stadium. Marciano's final defense came on 20 September 1955. He retired in 1956 and was killed in a plane crash in August 1969.-Ron Price, Pioneering Over Four Epochs, July 1st 2006.

    You were a model in so many ways,
    Rocky, little did I know back then
    sitting in that little lounge-room at
    the start of a Crusade that would take
    this Cause to the earth’s far corners.

    You were like a rose amongst thorns,
    so said Jimmy Cannon in his summary
    of your life. I knew so little of your life,
    Rocky, until just the other day, occupied
    as I have been with a rose in another garden,
    a rose-garden of the spirit whose charm
    captured my heart these many years while
    I carried the fight and walked the walk
    in such a different way to you, Rocky.

    I tried to plant the rose of love in the garden
    of my heart surrounded as I was by a different
    set of thorns than the one you battled with.
    My battle was so different than yours, Rocky,
    spread out over more than 50 years in a ring,
    often on the ropes, round after round, waiting
    for the bell to toll, in my corner and many other
    corners, never taking the title, wanting to retire.

    Ron Price
    July 1st 2006
    No, not another Marciano fanboy.

    Comment


    • #3
      Better than a Floyd fanboy. At least Marciano knew when to call it quits. Although I think Ali won the Superfight.

      Comment


      • #4
        Ali totally won the computer fight by being knocked out in the 8th round. ******. Ali lost. But Rocky Marciano was one of the greatest fighters to ever step in the ring. Marciano had everything that he needed to be the greatest fighter ever lived, will, power, determination, the PERFECT style for his size, and the perfect physical build. Rocky Marciano was a true gentleman. When training for a fight, which I dont remember which one it is, he came out in front of the cameras and said that he trained hard for the fight and hopefully he would come through all right. When Rocky Marciano was training for the fight with Archie Moore, Moore called him a bum. When the media asked Rocky Marciano what he thought about that, Marciano said that he would prefer to do his talking in the ring. When Floyd Patterson fought with George Chuvalo for the title shot to fight Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano was one of the men reviewing the fight. During the fight, Muhammad Ali said that Rocky Marciano would knock either of them out in the first round, they had asked Marciano's oppinion on that, and Marciano simply said that he did not like to talk about that type of thing. Rocky Marciano was one of the greatest fighters ever lived.

        Comment


        • #5
          Jack Dempsey(1895-1983)

          A belated thanks, NonpareilDempse. Any views on Dempsey? I don't get to this site very often...life is busy Downunder.-Ron in Tasmania
          -------------------------------------
          KNOCKING THEM OUT

          Jack Dempsey(1895-1983) was an American boxer who was boxing history’s 9th world heavyweight champion. He held the title from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and punching power made him one of the most popular in boxing history. On his way to the title Dempsey won nine straight fights in 1917 and 21 out of 22 in 1918, 11 of these by first-round knockouts. In 1919 he won five bouts in a row by knockouts in the first round on the way to fight for the title on 4 July 1919 against Jess Willard.

          Few gave Dempsey a chance against Willard, a big man 50 lbs. heaver and six inches taller. Many called the fight a modern David and Goliath story. Minutes before the fight Dempsey’s fight manager, Jack Kearns, informed Dempsey that he had wagered Dempsey's share of the purse. He had bet his share of the purse on Dempsey winning with a first round knockout. As a result, the first round of the fight was one of the most brutal in boxing history. Dempsey dealt Willard a terrible beating and knocked him down seven times in the first round. Willard had a broken cheekbone, broken jaw, several teeth knocked out, partial hearing loss in one ear and broken ribs.

          Some of the most intense minutes in boxing history are found in the fights of Jack Dempsey from 1919 to 1926. On September 23, 1926, at Sesquicentennial Stadium in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, the largest crowd ever, 120,757, saw the 31-year-old Jack Dempsey lose his title to Gene Tunney in a 10 round decision on points. Explaining his battered face to his wife Estelle, Dempsey said--in one of boxing’s most famous lines: "honey, I forgot to duck."

          I have taken a special interest in these seven years of boxing history for three reasons. Firstly, I have always had an interest in boxing since my father and I watched fights on TV from 1954 to 1962. In March 1962 Kid Peret was killed in the ring by Emile Griffith and my dad and I watched no more fights. Our shared interest in boxing perhaps began with Rocky Marciano’s sixth-round knockout of Rex Layne at Madison Square Garden on 12 July 1951 or with the September 29th 1952 fight between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott the then heavyweight boxing champion. This fight was what boxing experts have considered to be Marciano's defining moment. But my father and I had to wait until 1954 to watch our first boxing match since those first two famous fights in my young life were not televised. The first fights we watched took place over 50 years ago and my memory of them is naturally somewhat rusty. From about 1954 until 1962, when Kid Peret died from his fight with Griffith and on the eve of my pioneering life for the Canadian Baha’i community, my dad and I watched the big championship fights and many Friday night fights on TV sponsored by the Gillett Company.

          The second reason that I took a special interest in boxing was that just last night1 my interest was reawakened. I saw the first part of a four part television series on the history of the greatest fighters in boxing. The series was entitled 1The Fight: The Rules of the Ring1 and was being televised on SBS TV on four consecutive Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:00 a.m. beginning 29 July 2008. Thirdly, I found an interesting correlation between the history of the religion I have been associated with for 55 years(1953-2008) and boxing history during those seven years(1919-1926).2 This prose-poem explores that correlation, its comparisons and contrasts. -Ron Price with appreciation to Loni Bramson-Lerche, “Development of Baha’i Administration,” in Studies in Babi & Baha’i History: Volume 1, editor Moojan Momen, Kalimat Press, Los Angeles, 1982, pp.255-300.

          While Dempsey was knocking them out
          and heading for the title, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
          was knocking out His Tablets, getting
          them ready for their great unveiling in
          1919 just before Dempsey got the title.

          They both kept knocking them out1 in
          the ring and on paper--slowly--not so
          slowly. While Dempsey defended his
          title this movement connected loosely
          became fully organized building blocks
          of a future world government at local
          and national levels, united in doctrinal
          matters and focussed on teaching as its
          main aim in all that it did and tried to do.

          The fight was on and a national
          consciousness was emerging for
          the war with those right and left
          wings of the hosts of the world
          and a carrying of the attack to
          the very centre of the powers
          of the earth by God’s Hosts.2

          1 Some 100 tablets were revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha for the American Baha’is. See H.M. Balyuzi, ‘Abdu’l-Baha: The Centre of the Covenant, George Ronald, Oxford, 1971, p. 434.
          2 ‘Abdu’l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, Wilmette, 1977(1919), p. 48.

          Ron Price
          29 July 2008

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by NonpareilDempse View Post
            Ali totally won the computer fight by being knocked out in the 8th round. ******. Ali lost.
            There were two versions. The one shown in 'white' theatres had Marciano winning. The one shown in 'black' theatres had Ali winning.

            In the UK version Don Conkel jumps into the ring (with a thud) and decks both of them...

            ...PS only kidding

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by EzzardFan View Post
              There were two versions. The one shown in 'white' theatres had Marciano winning. The one shown in 'black' theatres had Ali winning.

              In the UK version Don Conkel jumps into the ring (with a thud) and decks both of them..
              .

              ...PS only kidding

              Thats pretty funny!

              Comment

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