Brockton honors Rocky Marciano's legacy with showing of historical Joe Louis fight

BROCKTON — Hanging onto every jab, an audience of Brockton residents and boxing fans from near and far gathered to watch a fight of which they already knew the outcome.

Despite the foregone conclusion, in the eighth round of the famous heavyweight bout between Brockton boxing legend Rocky Marciano and multi-time world champion Joe Louis, the audience watching 70 years later in the middle of a school auditorium mirrored the excitement of the live audience on October 26, 1951, at Madison Square Garden, exclaiming loudly at the right hook from their own that took down Louis.

A public showing of the well-known Marciano vs. Louis boxing match from 1951 was screened at West Middle School to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the fight on Tuesday night.

"Whenever I watch this fight, it makes me excited, thinking about how exciting this must have been for the city of Brockton at the time," said Stephen Marciano, the nephew of Rocky Marciano. "It means the world to me."

The showing, which was organized by Mayor Robert Sullivan's office, was free to the public and attended by close to 50 people.

"This is what Brockton is, we come together as a community and we don't forget," Sullivan said. "It's historic."

The fight was shown in the auditorium, in its entirety — all eight rounds — via a historical archive of the fight available on YouTube.

After the showing, Stephen Marciano shared his thoughts and reflections on the fight and his uncle.

Stephen Marciano was born in 1971, two years after his uncle died, but still has fond memories of the history and legacy of his uncle.

"If we don't have our history, we don't have anything," Stephen Marciano said about the anniversary showing of the fight.

Stephen Marciano talked about how his uncle admired Louis growing up and shared how much mutual respect the opponents had for each other, to the point where after the fight, Rocky Marciano cried in Louis' locker room after beating his idol.

Louis entered the fight with a record of 68-2, with 54 knockouts, at age 37, while Rocky Marciano was undefeated in 37 fights — 32 of them ending in knockouts, at age 28.

The fight in itself at the time drew national attention, with former world heavyweight champion Louis fighting a young and upstart Rocky Marciano, Stephen Marciano said.

Stephen Marciano saw this as the fight that propelled his uncle into winning the heavyweight championship in 1952, before retiring from boxing in 1955 to be with his family.

Rocky Marciano was born in Brockton in 1923 and was the first man in the history of boxing to retire undefeated as the heavyweight champion with 49 victories.

Sullivan gave mayoral citations to Stephen Marciano, as well as his mother and father, in commemoration of the fight.

Sullivan said he plans to have another public showing next year, on Sept. 23, 2022, to show the fight between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott on the anniversary of  that 1952 fight, the bout in which Rocky Marciano won the world heavyweight boxing championship.

Enterprise staff writer Darvence Chery can be reached at dchery@enterprisenews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Enterprise today.