ALI VS MARCIANO- THE FIRST VIRTUAL FIGHT

Marciano was awarded by Woroner a gold and diamond championship belt that was valued at $10,000 dollars. Ali sued for $1 million dollars for defamation of character. Woroner offered to settle the dispute by giving Ali $10,000 dollars in return for an agreement to join Marciano to film a version of this fantasy fight. They both agreed to do this for a cut in the film profits. A year before the “Fight of the Century” two former heavyweight champions, one retired, the other stripped and both undefeated, would place their reputations on the line and not even control the outcome. Rocky Marciano, the Brockton Blockbuster was alive and five 14 years retired. The idea was seen as a challenge to his record. He was much older and past his prime, yet Ali had been in mothballs during his imposed exile and was also not at his professional peak, so this appeared to even the odds somewhat.

Sylvester Stallone in “Rocky Balboa” when Rocky and present heavyweight champ, Mason Dixon were pitted in a computer fight whose result was scoffed at by Dixon and brought the Italian Stallion out of retirement. Stallone has often used real boxing events as ideas for his films. The Ali-Chuck Wepner fight was the template for his Rocky I fight between Rocky Balboa and Apollo Creed.

The ground rules were set. Punches were to be exchanged to the body with face shots at a minimum. They would spare between 70 to 75 rounds worth with the only pre-arranged sequences the knockdowns or knockouts which all would be edited according to the computer output on the night of January 20,1970. Marciano trained as if for an actual fight, losing 50 pounds and wearing a toupee. He did look very close to the prime version fans last saw in 1956 when he last fought Archie Moore in his final defense of the title. Ali looked very much how he did between fights. He was physically the same but far from battle trim. In many ways if you watch the fight scenes Marciano does look sharper.

An intriguing aspect was there were moments where both fighters just let go and instinct took over. There were exchanges that pierced time and gave a glimpse into how these two at their best would have reacted. Those fleeting moments implied that these two in their primes would have had a classic fight. Ali fought a man shorter and harder to hit than Joe Frazier was later. Ali had difficulty solving Rocky’s classic crouch and side slant posture which always presented a smaller target.

“Marciano never got tired,” Ali pointed out, “A lot harder to hit than you think watching him outside the ring.”

Ali, who at that time did not yet perfect his grabbing tactics to nullify inside fighting relying primarily on the speed of his reflexes did not have another option when Marciano worked over his body. The ring was small which favored Marciano.

Ali did show his game in rapid counters especially displaying triple left hooks in succession and combination punching to hold off Marciano’s forward pursuits. Ali bloodied the Rocky in second and again in the sixth as blood poured from eyes and nose reminiscent of his rematch with Ezzard Charles. Ali put Rocky to the mat in the 8th with a counter right almost like the one Archie Moore caught him with knock Rocky down. In both these fights the Rock came back to knock out his opponent. At the time of the knockdown Ali had a five-point lead.

Marciano got to work quick by putting more pressure hitting all areas of Ali’s upper body while Ali continued to use his movement and volume punching. Marciano trapped Ali against the ropes and landed several body blows ending with two vicious right hooks to the body followed by a left which stretched Ali on the floor like a surfboard in the tenth round. Blood continued to pour, and time was of the essence. In the twelfth round the best round of the fight presented great theatre. Ali was scoring well from outside and looking in control until suddenly Marciano walked him to the corner and unloaded a two-handed attack to the midsection until Ali crumbled. But then Ali came back with a flurry of combinations and had the Rock against the ropes taking leather to his face, which was a crimson mask by this point. This round was the closest to both men pushing the envelope as you would see throughout the filming. Marciano dug deeper and started taking it back to Ali, this time adding his famous right cross, the Suzie Q, to the mix and the fight was now even going into the thirteenth.

Both legendary champions took turns taking the initiative until again when a tired Ali was near the ropes Marciano would start to strike in tandem from his rotating crouch stance to catch Ali with counters until a left as Ali was extended forward dropped Ali for the third and final time as he was counted out on his knee trying to rise but too disoriented to continue. One can take away from this fight had both met for all the marbles and no restrictions that it could have gone either way. Ali said as much later.

“You can’t teach people to fight like Marciano,” Ali recalled, “He had his own style, he was courageous. He wasn’t as great as me, wasn’t as beautiful, But I don’t know that I would’ve beaten him like that.”

Sadly, Marciano died in a plane crash three weeks after the filming at the age of 45. The “Super Fight” grossed five million dollars overall. Ali sued again until learning that in Europe there was an alternate ending with him the victor. Marciano died still unbeaten. Ali would take his first official loss to Joe Frazier a year later but regain the title twice in the ensuing years. No matter how much Ali would ridicule the result and the film style one thing that came out of it was an enduring respect for Rocky. Rocky only comment about the fight came from his brother Peter who stated that Rocky was confident he would win the computer fight. They left the filming as friends and always respectful of each other.