Investor's Business Daily, April 26th, 2007
At 5 feet 10 inches and 185 pounds, Rocky Marciano was one of the smallest heavyweight boxers.
His short, stubby arms kept him from jabbing at opponents, for his reach was a mere 68 inches. By comparison, Muhammad Ali's reach was 82 inches.
How, then, did Marciano become world champion and finish his career undefeated at 49-0?
Marciano (1923-69) had the will and strength to take at least half a dozen punches so he could land one. He closed in on foes in a crouching style and threw volleys of punches, overwhelming opponents with powerful shots to the face and body. He targeted the arms and elbows, weakening them and deflating their ability to throw punches.
Take his sheer determination when he fought Jersey Joe Walcott for the heavyweight championship on Sept. 23, 1952. From the first round, Walcott pounded Marciano with devastating shots, sometimes unleashing five in a row.
Blood gushed from a cut above Marciano's eye, preventing him from seeing clearly and throwing accurate punches. Walcott knocked him down, too.
The battered Marciano refused to call it quits. But by the end of 12 rounds, Walcott was far ahead in points. The only way for Marciano to win was by knockout.
Marciano decided to go for it. In the 13th round, he landed a quick left to Walcott's body and followed with his patented right cross that "distorted Walcott's jaw and sent sweat beads of destruction raining from his skull," Everett Skehan wrote in "Rocky Marciano: Biography of a First Son."
Walcott plunged to the canvas and didn't rise for the count. Marciano won the heavyweight crown.
It wouldn't have happened if not for his perseverance. "Most fighters would grab on and wait for their head to clear after being hit by a good combination," boxing referee Ruby Goldstein said. "But this was where Marciano was a discouraging-type fighter. After a fighter hit him with some of his best punches, Rocky would come chasing right after him, back him against the ropes and throw seven or eight punches of his own."
Marciano's victory over Walcott was one of his 43 knockouts, an amazing 26 of which came in the first three rounds. Appropriately, the Brockton, Mass., native was nicknamed the Brockton Blockbuster. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
Marciano never let the pressure of boxing matches overwhelm him. He focused on staying calm and relaxed beforehand, taking naps, listening to the radio or joking with friends to remove his mind from the fight. A reporter once said he looked "as nervous as a fire hydrant."
He had humble beginnings. He grew up in Brockton in a poor family during the Great Depression. Money for entertainment was scarce, so he occupied his time by focusing on what he loved doing: playing sports.
He was especially crazy about baseball and competed often on the playground. But he never imagined himself being a pro boxer. Actually, it took a lot to provoke him into throwing punches. When fighting, though, he didn't mess around.
"Once Rocky was enraged, he was like an animal," said his friend Eugene Sylvester. "He really punched the crap out of guys, knocked them right down, blood all over the place. I'd be saying to myself, 'Jeez, why'd I send the Rock after this kid? I've got to be careful who I get him mad at; the Rock's really dangerous.'"
Marciano once got into a neighborhood fight that ended in a draw. Blood was oozing from his swollen lip. So his uncle, John Picciuto, showed him how to fight properly. Picciuto took an old Army duffel bag, stuffed it with rags and wood shavings and hung it from a tree in the backyard.
Marciano began punching the bag awkwardly. So Picciuto ordered him to use both hands when fighting, yelling "right-left ... right-left." Marciano listened intently and pummeled the bag that way for hours.
Marciano became a more confident fighter. "There were guys around Brockton who were bigger and better built than Rock, but they didn't have his determination and guts," said pal Izzy Gold. "The Rock was always first to take a chance at something we were trying to prove we weren't afraid of. He'd jump a river, climb a tree, swim across a lake, fight a kid three years older than him. I always knew he'd be a winner. He was the kind of kid who wouldn't allow himself to lose."
Marciano realized he'd found his calling with boxing and vowed to stick with it. To become the best, he took any advice to heart if he thought it would help him.
Starting in his late teens, he worked blue-collar jobs. In one, he was "last puller" at a shoe factory. He performed the routine at lightning speed with both hands, pumping up his arms and upper body.
But when Marciano entered the military in 1943, he began smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. When he started fighting amateur bouts in 1946, he was overweight and out of condition. He was exhausted by the third round of his fights.
That was the wake-up call. He told himself that to become a champion, he needed to act like one.
So he worked arduously to improve his physical condition. Before long he was the heavyweight champion, reigning from 1952 to 1956.
This story originally ran Sept. 7, 2001, on Leaders & Success.
