Rocky Marciano

Rocky Marciano: THE ROCK OF HIS TIMES (Sport and Society)
$19.95
Every boxing fan should know about The Rock, the only undefeated heavyweight champion of the world in history. So is he really better than Louis, Ali or even big ol' earbiting Mike? No one can ever tell.

What can be told is the sole story about Rocky Marciano. This book covers as much fighting, personal, social and cultural details one could ask for. After a while, some repetitive statements get boring. Sullivan also takes away some of his glamourous stats by stating in great detail how his fights were fixed with lesser opponents. I personally just think he filled the void between Louis and Ali, but nevertheless was a great champion.

You want to relive the 50's and have a good time about reading one of the world's greatest boxers of all time? This is your book.

Undefeated: Rocky Marciano Fighter Who Refused to Lose
$27.95


As a collector of boxing biographies, I had never read a really great one on Rocky Marchiano, the legendary heavyweight champion of the 1950's. With this book, I now have a GREAT Marciano book! And this is a great book for many reasons. First, the Author, Everett Skehan, pulls no punches in recounting the real life of Marciano. Rocky was no angel, especially in the sexual realm, and the reader gets an unbiased view of the "Rock". Autobiographies often ignore or gloss over the darker side of being a human being. This book is balanced in its approach to Marciano, explaining the personality traits that made Rocky a true champion, yet, not shying away from the gritty reality of being a boxing champion. About half teh book is devoted to his years as a boxer, and the last half is about his life after the ring (which is interesting and gives insights into the man).

The lay-out of the hard-cover edition is truly visually pleasing. the book is 8 x 11 with larger print (easy reading and handling), and is profusely illustrated (there are 24 pages of black and white high quality photos), many of which I had never seen before. The book's slipcover is magnificent in itself, having the full-body view of the Rock in boxing trunks, foreshadowing the famous KO right cross delivered to the chin of the cunning Jersey Joe Walcutt, round 13, 1952. The back cover has a the quintessential picture of the young champion.

Excellent writing and excellent format make this a great book. (By the way, this book (2005) is an expanded version of the original publication (1977), "Rocky Marciano: Biography of a First Son"). This edition has more photographs and more detain into why Marciano refused to be beaten, (he was the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated), and why he was one of the greatest boxing champions of all-time.

My interest in boxing began with the 1971 Ali-Frazier "Fight of the Century". Since then, I have always wondered what drove a man to choose a career where he got hit in the face every day for a living! This book gives valuable insights into the human/athlete who becomes a boxing champion. I greatly enjoyed reading it and recommend it highly.

Rocky Marciano
$14.98
I caught this movie through On Demand a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to like it but found three issues that took away from the experience. The first being I found the depiction of my hometown of Brockton, MA as a combination hellhole/Village of the Damned as a bit (how can I best say?) unfair. The central conceit for Rocky's motivation to pursue a boxing career was his deathly fear of ending up in the shoe factory where, presumably, he would live his life at constant risk of being maimed or his soul would despair and die over time. In fact, at the time depicted, the late Forties into the Fifties, the local economy was moving away from the manufacturing base toward service industries. As the population grew, those smoke stack business were moving down south or oversea being replaced with more white collar professions. People of my parent's generation were just as likely to be insurance salesmen, nurses or teachers as factory workers. The city has always been resilient and the Rocky was embraced as an emblem of local pride, but he was not the only thing it had going for it.
Secondly, the structure of the movie seemed more akin to a `TV movie', as a series of staged vignettes full of fortunate coincidences tied together to reach an ending, rather than expanding one's appreciation of the subject and gaining insight into the human condition, as boxing movies do better than most other subjects. Post `Raging Bull', the stakes for boxing movies is higher. Throwing in the occasional F-bomb to make it seem more `edgy' just made the problem worse.
Thirdly, the casting was a little off. While I enjoy Jon Favreau's work as an actor (best Friends gueststar ever) and as a director (loved Ironman) he was not, dare I say, entirely believable to someone who grew up with the legend of Rocky being told at the dinner table. Penelope Ann Miller was her usual reliable self but George C. Scott seemed way miscast, was Vincent Gardenia not available?

Boxing's Best - Rocky Marciano [VHS]
$9.98
I feel as a Marciano fan this is a great tape. Yes I would have liked to have seen the fights in their complete form, but this is good enough for me. I would like to let the person know that is looking for footage of the marciano-Ali super fight, U can get the dvd at best buy, or tower records, or if u want U can order it on-line.