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Originally posted by ragin
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Rocky was reputed to have also fought his brother who was using different names.
R's first 10 opponents -excluding Ross and Quinn-, had a total of 14 wins and 19 losses. 6 were much lighter and # 1,2,6,8,9,and 12 had NO wins and almost NO fights. Ross was 10-0, but of his eventual 22 fights 21 were in Quebec and only 6 rders.
Ross's opponents in his 10-0 had 0 wins, 1 loss and 1 draw. Quinn was even worse.
Rocky's next 8 fights had 103 wins, 67 losses, and were all palookas, Then Rocky had his first 10 rounder. Rocky's next 4 opponents had 153 wins and 62 losses, and they were all very shopworn. Then he fought his first "good" opponent, Carmine Vingo.
Carmine was 20, a kid, 6'4" very weedy, under 190, record of 16-1. and his 17 opponents had 88 wins-105 losses. Carmine had only 7 KOs. His fight just before Rocky was a 0-0. Rocky then was squat, solid a hard, grown man.
Rocky then fought La Starza, a better fighter, still a kid 21. It was a draw, but the ref then gave Rocky an extra point to give him the win. ???? La Starza's record up to the Rocky fight (except for Cezar Brion) # 1,6,7,10,15,17, 23, had ZERO wins. #23 was 0-0. # 9, 14,16 had ONE win each. La Starza's opponents up to Rocky totalled 376-277, either novices or well washed up, not a single live one.
Now to Cezar Brion. HIs first 9 opponents had 1 win and 26 losses. His first 20 opponents had 26 wins and 65 losses. #24 was 4-3, His record up to the La Starza fight...#30 was 5-3, #29 was 0-1, #25 was 0-0, #23 was 1-7, #21 was 4-2, #23 was 1-9, #19 was 3-7, #18 was 16-1, #17 was 0-2. No need to detail THEIR opponents.
Then Rocky fought Lee Savold ,36 years old, and retired, . He was really held together with baling wire. His previous 4 fights totalled only 14 rounds His record was 87-36. In 3 of his last 4 he lost 2 (1 by KO 1 CQ) and 1 win KO4, against horizontal British heavyweight Champ Bruce Wood****. British #2 was 39 year old Jack London....Hmmm. There was talk of a fix that time. And Savold had un-retired again to fight Wood****, retired permanently after Rocky.
Now he fought Oscar Bonavena, who lost KO 1 in his immediate pre-Rocky fight. In his previous 7 fights had lost 4, 3 by KO with 2 wins and 1 draw. Then Rocky fought Harry Kid Matthews a lt.heavy who was the first good fighter so far.
Then he fought the Over-The-Hill Crowd, All very good fighters but also very well used up...and OLD and battered. They was good fights, but well below their best, What made them good, (but not great fights) was their worst level matched Rocky's best....
There will always be questions as to whether Archie Moore, age 39, the old Light heavy champ, who KD'd Rocky, was hindered by the ref, from going for the "kill" when Rocky got up. The KD was in rd 2, and Rocky got up at count of 3, but the ref continued to count to 8, although in those days it didn't apply in Title fights, This was Rocky's last fight. Archie was GOOD, a real throwback to earlier days,, record at that time 149-20-8. He went on to have over 40 more fights.
Al Weill, was "connected", and in my opinion, Rocky was a Mafia manufactured Champion. He always denied any connection, hut his fatal plane crash was when he was with "Frankie Farrell", (Frqncesco Fratti) the son of Mob boss Louis Fratti..It was a free trip, and he'd got a refund on the plane ticket the host of his just finished personal appearance, had given him. His friends were all "connected", or fringe underworld figures. They told many stories about his obsession with ***, walking out of an affair if a woman had not been provided, and never the same woman twice. Many fighters have been like this, maybe it helps their testosterone levels....??
A very interesting side note is, that after retirement (his "bad back") he went down to Mexico and had 3-4 "Exhibitions". He said that it was because with these fights he didn't have to give Weill his 50% of his purse. That huge cut, was rumoured to be because Weill had to share it with "you-know-who".
Rocky loved money and distrusted banks, always got paid in cash, and hated paying for anything. He buried his over $4 million in his property, (a couple of friends testified that he would roll up a lot of bills into a jar, but would wait until they left before hiding them). The money has never been found although many treasure hunters have dug holes around the place.
Maybe it had already been dug up by his wife or relatives...........
As I have written before Nat Loubet of RING published an interview with Rocky where he says he had no intention of retiring , and had many more fights to go. ONE week later he suddenly retired, and 6 months later the top ranked Lt-heavy, Floyd Patterson KOd Archie Moore for the Title.
All in all, a bizarre story, but only one of many that can be told of the corruption that was boxing, then ruled by the Mob.
I may have made a small error or typo, but just won't go back over it, so, if so, apologiesl.
GhostofDempsey
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