Rocky Retires as Undefeated Heavyweight Champion
"I intend to fight only as long as I feel I have it, only as long as I still have a zest for it. But when I start getting hurt too often, when training is no longer fun, then I will quite. And there will be no comeback." Marciano, 1953 Fight magazine.
On April 27, 1956, Rocky Marciano announced to the world his retirement from boxing. It was something he had been considering for quite some time. He wanted to spend more time with his family, but he was also disillusioned with the fight game. Always taken advantage of by his manager, Al Weill, who was taking 45% of Rocky's income, he now learned that an investigation proved that Weill had skimmed $10,000 off of money he had earned on promotions.
Further, there seemed to be no real money fights in the near future. He had defeated all the top fighters in the heavyweight division and the public was not going to pay big bucks to see him fight the men he had already defeated on his way up.
At his retirement press conference he said. "I didn't ever really get hurt in the ring and I feel perfect physically and probably still had two or three good fights left."
A reporter asked, "Who gave you the toughest fight?"
"Jersey Joe Walcott in the title fight," Rock replied.
"I like to profit by other's mistakes and if Joe Louis could not make a successful comeback, I will not try it."
When boxers retire it is primarily because of the terrible rigors of training, not the risks of
defeat, injury, or even death in the ring. (The boxer who is generally credited with having trained hardest is Rocky Marciano, who commonly spent upward of two
months preparing for a fight. And when Marciano
decided to retire, undefeated, at the age of thirty-three,
it was because the sacrifices of the training camp
outweighed the rewards of celebrity: "No kind of money
can make me fight again," Marciano said.)
Joyce Carol Oates Life Magazine,March 1987
He would go down in boxing history as the only undefeated champion in any weight class. James Jefferies had retired undefeated and foolishly been talked into coming out of a five year and 50 pound overweight retirment to fight Jack Johnson, who defeated him. Gene Tunney had retired as heavyweight champion, but he had one loss to his record(Complements of Harry Greb).
A few years later, Rocky would say of his boxng career, "I enjoyed it. I never really knew fear and I never was really hurt...I just think that in my prime, I could have fought with anybody alive."
"And there will be no comeback."
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