Unbeaten

May 1, 2018

When boxing talk turns to who was the greatest heavyweight of all time, it's usually Muhammad Ali, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, or Jack Johnson. Seldom mentioned in the first tier is Rocky Marciano, the only heavyweight champion ever to retire undefeated. Detractors say he was too much of a slow, clumsy brawler, given to profuse bleeding, to be considered great, and that his biggest "victory" in an era of undistinguished opponents was in a computer-generated bout with Muhammad Ali long after Marciano's retirement. Stanton, cowinner of a Pulitzer Prize and a professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut, follows Marciano on his journey from Brockton to the championship to the "good life" after retirement that was cut short by his death in a small plane crash. He describes Marciano's upbringing in blue collar Brockton, MA, as the son of emigrants from Italy and how the boxer developed his powerful punch to become an unbeatable champion in the ring. VERDICT This meticulously documented and well-written work should stand for both fans and scholars as Marciano's definitive biography.--Jim Burns, formerly with Jacksonville P.L., FL

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 30, 2018
In this entertaining history of the “Brockton Bomber,” Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Stanton follows Rocky Marciano’s unlikely rise from factory-town high school dropout to heavyweight champion. Born Rocco Francis Marchegiano in 1923, the firstborn son of Italian immigrants only devoted himself to boxing after his professional baseball dreams were dashed at age 19. Although small for a heavyweight and stylistically crude, he possessed relentless tenacity and one-punch knockout power. Appearing during a heavyweight talent drought, Marciano further benefitted from his marketable whiteness and a manager who was allied with the Mob that controlled the sport. After retiring undefeated in 1956 at age 32, he roamed the country as a celebrity, appearing in various television shows, until his death in a 1969 plane crash. No heavyweight champion before or since has matched Marciano’s record of 49 wins and no losses. Despite Stanton’s meticulous research, he offers little pugilistic insight, and, while no hagiographer, Stanton generally soft-pedals Marciano’s Mafia ties and obsessive cheapness, as well as his compulsive philandering. Boxing aficionados will find little new here, though general readers will find much to appreciate in this charming rags-to-riches tale that seems at an enormous remove from the 21st Century.

May 15, 2018
"I will beat Joe Louis and I will beat any fighter I ever fight": a satisfying biography of the iconic boxer, the only heavyweight champion to retire undefeated.Born Rocco Marchegiano (1923-1969) to Italian immigrants in Massachusetts, Rocky Marciano wasn't a pretty fighter. As Stanton (Journalism/Univ. of Connecticut; The Prince of Providence: The True Story of Buddy Cianci, America's Most Notorious Mayor, Some Wiseguys, and the Feds, 2003) writes, he had "short, stubby arms, clumsy feet, and a bulldozer style that opened him up to fierce punishment." He had a high-pitched voice and a gentle way outside the ring, but within it, he was lethal; his style may have lacked elegance, but he pounded his way through to 49 victories and zero defeats. Marciano also steered clear of the usual temptations of the ring--and from the mobsters that dominated the pro boxing business in those days. The author writes admiringly but not uncritically of Marciano, who, on leaving the sport, traded on his celebrity to snag free meals and hotel rooms and insisted on fat fees for showing up to events until his death in a plane crash. Stanton writes with knowing accuracy of the ins and outs of both boxing and Marciano's storied career, including the development of what has forever since been known as the "Suzie-Q" punch and his work with Jewish trainers who, having worked the circuit themselves, appreciated Marciano's ability to take a pounding and emerge the victor. As the author notes, many other fighters have held Marciano up as a model: Floyd Mayweather, a welterweight, waited for his 50th win before retiring undefeated, just to beat Marciano's 49-win record, and Muhammad Ali reckoned that Marciano was the only fighter from the past who would have given him trouble in the ring. Famously, of course, Sylvester Stallone took big chunks of his screenplay for Rocky from Marciano's life, which, overall, seems every bit as admirable as Rocky Balboa's.A sturdy contribution to the literature of the sweet science, reminding readers of a bygone era of fighting.

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May 1, 2018
A UConn associate professor of journalism who won a Pulitzer Prize as a member of the Providence Journal's investigative team, Stanton returns to the beat he covered when he started with the paper: sports. As with any number of icons, Rocky Marciano?at 49-0, the only undefeated heavyweight champ?deserves a reassessment every generation or so, and, certainly for boxing fans, Stanton delivers, tracing the champ's boyhood in Brockton, Massachusetts; his military service during WWII (checkered, since he served time in military prison for felony assault and robbery); and his development from almost irredeemably raw material into a polished fighter. Stanton is especially strong at conveying throughout the book, in brutally graphic imagery, Marciano's famously devastating punch: Every time he hit you, you saw a flash of light, said one opponent. And if Marciano is to be admired for his devotion to the perfection of his game, he fully contributed to the crooked world in which he boxed, as the author isn't shy about drawing the connections between Marciano's camp and a Mob that had embedded itself into the sport throughout the champ's era.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)