Rocky Graziano - Professional Career

Professional Career

As he grew older, Rocky was scouted and seeing no other way to raise his standard of living, he signed a few boxing contracts. But the rigmarole of training disgusted him and he and his early managers went their separate ways. Rocky finally wound up with Irving Cohen, who had the sense to give him a long leash. Cohen changed Rocky’s name from Barbells to Graziano (his grandfather’s name) and lined up a fight. Refusing to train much, Graziano nevertheless showed his killer instinct and won by a knockout. Other fights were lined up with Cohen trying, in his subtle way, to overmatch Rocky, get him defeated, and thereby show Rocky the value of getting into condition. Yet it was impossible to overmatch him. He even demanded a fight with Sugar Ray Robinson which, fortunately, he didn’t get for a good many years.

In March 1945, at Madison Square Garden, Graziano scored one of the major upsets in boxing over the phenom Billy Arnold. Arnold's style was similar to that of Sugar Ray Robinson; he was a slick boxer with lightning-fast combinations and a knockout punch. The Ring Magazine and various newspapers across the United States touted Arnold as the next Joe Louis or Sugar Ray Robinson. Arnold was a heavy favorite to defeat Graziano, and then to go on to fight for the world title. However, in a brutal battle, Graziano absorbed a beating in the early going, before going on to batter and knockout Arnold in the third round of the scheduled eight round bout. Following his defeat to Graziano, Billy Arnold was never the same.

Graziano went on to become the world boxing champion, and he fought Tony Zale in one of boxing's most storied rivalries. He also fought Sugar Ray Robinson, losing by early knockout in three rounds.

He is most famous for his three title bouts with Tony Zale, all for the middleweight title. In their first match (September 27, 1946), after flooring Graziano in the first round, Zale took a savage beating from Graziano, and was on the verge of losing the fight by TKO. However, he rallied and knocked out Graziano in the sixth round to retain his title. The rematch, a year later in Chicago (July 16, 1947), was a mirror image of their first fight. The referee almost stopped the second fight in the third round because of a severe cut over Graziano's left eye, which would have awarded the victory to Zale, but Graziano's cutman, Morris ("Whitey") Bimstein, was able to stop the bleeding to let the fight continue. Graziano was battered around the ring, suffered a closed eye and appeared ready to lose by a knockout, then rallied and knocked Zale out in the sixth round, becoming middleweight champion of the world. Their last fight was held in New Jersey the following year (June 10, 1948). Zale regained his crown, winning the match by a knockout in the third round. The knockout blows consisted of a perfect combination of a right to Graziano's body, then a left hook to Graziano's jaw. Graziano was knocked unconscious.

His last attempt at the middleweight title came in April 1952, when Sugar Ray Robinson knocked him out in three rounds. He retired after losing his very next fight, a 10-round decision to Chuck Davey.