Time Tunnel: Did Rocky Marciano Lose a Pro Fight Under Another Name?

by B. R. Bearden

27.12 - A rumor I've seen come up before, and most recently on the Eastside Forum, is that Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, actually lost an early pro fight under the name of Rocky Mack. The legend builders covered up this obscure match, so the story always goes, in order to preserve the Rock with a perfect 49-0 record. How they had the foresight to gloss over this loss early in his career before it was known by anyone that he'd go undefeated, much less become heavyweight champion, is never discussed.

However, like all good legends, there is a basis in fact. It is true that Rocky fought one pro fight as Rocky Mack. It's even true that he returned to the amateur ranks after the single pro fight. What's not true is that he lost as Rocky Mack. He did, however, lose after his first pro fight. In fact, he lost twice.

Here's the true story of the early days of the fighter who would become a legend:

While home on furlough from the Army in April, 1946, Rocky learned of a local fight club offering money for amateur bouts. A friend of his talked him into giving it a shot and for $30 he signed up. He was assured he'd be put in with someone of his level of experience, but the night of the amateur boxing show he was informed the only heavyweight available for him to fight was Henry Lester. While this was Rocky's first fight, Lester was very experienced, having been a Golden Gloves Champion three years in a row and runner-up in the New England Amateur Championships in 1945. Shrugging off the one-sided nature of the bout, Rocky elected to fight anyway.

Not only was Marciano not a trained boxer, he was also smoking heavily and much overweight. The mismatch showed a slow, bloated, Rocky wheezing his way around the ring, trying to land his wild punches against a polished fighter. Driven against the ropes, completely done in, Rocky lifted a knee in protection as Lester pummeled him. He caught Lester in the stomach, resulting in a disqualification. A knee to the belly doesn't sound bad enough to some folk, so it was reported that he'd kneed Lester in the groin. (Untrue, as Lester's son himself told me the knee was to the stomach).

Though a humiliating loss for the young Italian-American, Rocky learned a valuable lesson. As he told his younger brother, "I learned something from this fight. if I ever get into the ring again, you can bet I won't be out of condition."

After his furlough ended, Marciano decided to try this boxing thing out again. He signed up for the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) Championship Tournament in Portland, Oregon in August, 1946. Rocky knocked out his first opponent, got a bye on the second fight, and knocked out his third opponent. The men scheduled to face him in his 4th and 5th fights refused to fight the wild, powerful brawler, putting Rocky into the finals. Unknown to them, Marciano had severely dislocated a knuckle in his left hand. Refusing to drop out of the tournament, Rocky stepped into the ring to face the other top fighter of the event, Joe DeAngelis, who won by decision. Rocky spent six week in the hospital, his hand in traction, dispelling any doubts that he was only fighting DeAngelis one handed. It was his second loss as an amateur.

When he got out of the Army the following year, Rocky took a local fight to make a few bucks. This time it would count as a pro fight, and be reported in the Brockton papers. His mother had forbid him to fight, so to keep her from finding out, Marciano signed up as Rocky Mack. His opponent was Lee Eperson and in the third round Eperson became the first of 43 KO victims for the Brockton Blockbuster. The date was March 17th, 1947. (He wasn't yet Rocky Marciano. That name would come about when he signed with Al Weil in 1948, who found his family name of Marchegiano too hard to pronounce)

Finding the pay low for the effort involved, Rocky decided to try his hand at another sport before committing to boxing. Marciano and a couple of friends went down to North Carolina for a tryout with the Chicago Cub's farm team. During the tryouts he threw out his arm and was cut, even though he'd shown noticeable ability at hitting the long ball.

Frustrated at his failed baseball bid, Marciano entered the Golden Gloves Tournament in Lowell, Massachusetts, in January, 1948. He scored 3 KO's in a row. The 3rd was against a good fighter named Charlie Mortimer who had a record of 12-0, and two first round KO's of his own in the tournament before facing Rocky.

After his strong showing in the New England Golden Gloves Rocky was sent to New York as the New England representative for the Golden Gloves All-East Coast Championships. This was in March, 1948. His first fight was against a very good fighter named Coley Wallace, who had a record of 17-0 with 17 KO's. Rocky was the aggressor throughout the fight and landed all the punishing blows, but the judges announced Wallace as the winner. The fans booed and threw bottles and programs into the ring. Rocky would always say he was cheated in this fight, and would determine to take the matter out of the hands of judges by knocking out future opponents.

Also in 1948 Rocky lost an amateur fight to a six-foot-plus heavyweight named Bob Girard. Again Rocky's hand had been injured in an earlier fight and again he fought one handed. Girard was able to outbox the brawler and win a decision. He was modest about his victory over the future heavyweight champion:

"How do you think I beat Rocky? I beat him because it was three rounds. There were a hundred guys who might have stayed three rounds with The Rock. But no man in the world was gonna beat Rocky in fifteen rounds; not Dempsey, not Ali, not anybody. I knew he was going to be champ. I don't think anybody could hurt Rocky. Every time he hit you, you saw a flash of light. You either grabbed him or you moved back, because if he hits you twice you're gone."

It was Rocky's 4th loss as an amateur, and the last time he would ever lose a fight in his life.

Later in 1948 Rocky knocked out Joe Sidlaskis in one round, then went into the AAU Olympic tryouts in Boston. In his first bout Rocky knocked out Fred Fischera, but in doing so again damaged his knuckle. Still unwilling to quit for any reason he insisted on fighting his next fight, telling his friend and handler, Allie Columbo, to leave the bandages on between fights. He knew his hand would swell too much to get into the gloves if the removed the bandages.

Fighting right handed only, Rocky hammered his opponent, George McGinnis. He knocked McGinnis down twice in the third round and took the AAU Heavyweight Championship. But, any hopes of going on to the Olympics were shattered when Rocky's hand was examined by a doctor after the fight. Not only was the knuckle on his thumb out of place, but the thumb itself was broken. By the time it healed, the Olympic team was already chosen and Marciano missed a chance to become the first Gold Medalist to become heavyweight champion.

Marciano's amateur career was a haphazard affair with no professional guidance. He didn't have a gym to train in, nor anyone to train him other than his childhood friend Allie Columbo. In fact, he didn't have a professional trainer until his 5th pro fight, when Charlie Goldman was assigned to train him under the management of Al Weil. He simply signed up to fight in major tournaments and did surprising well against men who were fighting very often as amateurs. He had 12 fights and lost 4, two because of hand injuries, once for disqualification, and one on a questionable decision.

Long after he became famous as heavyweight champion, fight fans from the New England area confused some of his amateur losses with his pro fights, going so far as to insist that he'd been beaten under the name of Rocky Mack. The confusion is understandable, considering how he mixed in that single pro fight under the name of Mack with his amateur fights. But the record is clear on who he fought as Rocky Mack and who won the fight. Nat Fleischer investigated the fight record of Marciano and had no doubt that all his pro fights were on record and all were victories. Likewise, the losses he suffered as an amateur were all in sanctioned amateur tournaments, dispelling any suspicion that they were really pro fights.

Only a couple years ago Ring magazine did an article about Marciano with some of the men he fought, including Coley Wallace, who made clear again that their match was an amateur bout.

Finally, here is what I've been able to piece together of Marciano's amateur record:

1. April 15, 1946 Henry Lester DQ

AAU Championship Tournament
Portland, Oregon August, 1946

2. unknown KO 1
3. unknown KO 1
4. Joe DeAngelis L 3 August 23, 1946

Golden Gloves Tournament
Lowell, Massachusetts January 1948

5 unknown KO 1
6 unknown KO 1
7 Charlie Mortimer KO 1

Golden Gloves All-East Coast Championships
New York, New York March 1948

8. Coley Wallace L 3 March 1948

9. Bob Girard L 3
10. Joe Sidlaskis KO 1

AAU Olympic tryouts in Boston
11. Fred Fischera KO
12. George McGinnis W 3

Sources:
Rocky Marciano: Biography of a First Son by Everett M. Skehan
The 100 Greatest Boxers of All Time by Bert Sugar
My own Marciano web site:
http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/Arena/1047/Rock.html