Sport: Unlucky 13th

For a few breathless moments it looked as though Jersey Joe Walcott might finish off Rocky Marciano in the first round. With unexpected boldness, the heavyweight champion moved right in on Challenger Rocky, battered his jaw with short, hard lefts and rights, then tagged him with a left hook. The spectators at Philadelphia’s Municipal Stadium let out a roar of excitement and surprise as Rocky went down, for the first time in 43 pro fights.

At the count of four, Rocky got up and fought back. In the third round Walcott gave up trying for a quick knockout, reverted to his normal counterpunching, backpedaling, hit & run tactics. Frequently looking amateurish against Walcott’s artful dodging and skillful clinching, Marciano kept moving in, shaking off one punch after another, occasionally jolting Joe with a hard one to the belly. By the end of Round Ten, Marciano had pulled up nearly even in the official scoring. But Walcott, hitting fast and hard, took both 11 and 12, leaving Marciano badly cut and bruised around the eyes.

At the start of 13. the referee and both the judges had Walcott ahead on rounds; all that Jersey Joe had to do was stay even in the last three. He retreated toward the ropes, threw one ineffectual left. Then Marciano drove home a short overhand right to the head. It was straight and true, not just a wild thrust that happened to land square. Walcott slumped as if his knees had suddenly turned to jelly. Marciano grazed him with a left, then confidently stepped back. Walcott hung on the middle rope for a moment, then slid to the canvas. The fight was over.

Though Jersey Joe had put up a good battle, Marciano’s victory was the logical outcome. Once Rocky had delivered his knockout punch, it was obvious that he would have done so sooner or later, in the next fight if not in this one. And the resounding title, “heavyweight champion of the world,” suits Rocky Marciano (43 straight wins, 38 of them by knockouts) better than it suited old (4O-plus), often beaten (15 recorded times before last week) Jersey Joe Walcott. Marciano is too awkward and too much a fighter of one talent ever to be a Louis, but the crown fits him better than passably, and it will take a good fighter to get it away from him. Probably none of the challengers now in prospect—Walcott, Ezzard Charles, Rex Layne, Roland La Starza, Clarence Henry—is good enough.