Redemption: The Life & Death of Rocky Marciano
As reported last year, Exeter writer John Cameron is currently completing a biography on the life and death of heavyweight legend Rocky Marciano. BoxRec News correspondent Altaf Mubarik had the opportunity to catch up with John last week and learn more about his project.
Redemption: The Life & death of Rocky Marciano pretty much explains itself, it is an honest attempt to chronicle the life of the former world heavyweight champion. The project is mooted to be split into three separate volumes and released initially under the ever expanding ebook format (Untreed Reads, San Francisco). Volume One, the draft that is being completed now, follows Rocky from birth in 1923 through to his traumatic defeat of the heralded Carmine Vingo in December of 1949. The aim of the biography is to give a better understanding of the real Marciano in and outside the ring.
John Cameron told us, “According to author Robert Moss, ‘Australian Aborigines say that the big stories, the stories worth telling and retelling are forever stalking the right teller, sniffing and tracking like predators hunting their prey in the bush.’ So it seems it is with me, in attempting to tell the story of one of the most remarkable fighters in history I have taken on an obligation both to tell the truth and the entire story, for the answer is in the whole story and not merely moments as conveyed by those who went before.
“My fascination with Rocky Marciano began when I myself first donned the gloves way back in the late seventies as a child, back then ‘Marvelous’ Marvin Hagler was making his way towards greatness and it was he I wished to emulate, that is until my father, someone who was rarely moved by the feats of others, began to regale my young impressionable mind with stories of this monster who rampaged through boxing's mightiest division whilst my Dad was himself a youngster.
"The expression in his eyes as he related these tales of destruction was one I had never seen before and have never seen since, it was one of loosely concealed awe, I knew then that it was this fighter that would be the one whom I myself would try to live up to, that I myself would put before me as a torch to light my own path through the fistic firmament, but naturally no one can ever hope to follow Marciano, you’d get killed trying.”
When asked about his own boxing career, John stated, “My own star never got off the ground, I had a few fights, won some, lost some, never really had the commitment. As I grew older and discovered life was filled with great adventures I gravitated away from partaking in a sport that has left me with a face which bears the unmistakable signs of someone who has forsaken the noble art of self defence in favour of all out attack, and a voice which sometimes becomes slurred and stumbling, yet always I gravitated back towards following the sport, and more importantly wanting to know more about the remarkable Marciano. As I aged I appreciated his accomplishments all the more, for I had felt the pain of being hit, had experienced the toil of training, and I could not maintain that discipline, that commitment to an ideal which raises both he and all those who step into the ring (or any endeavour) above us mere mortals, Rocky had achieved what I could not, and I praise him for that.”
I asked John about his fascination with Marciano and he stated, “Over the years I collected material on his life, biographies, articles, evidence of his existence, devoured them all, every single word, yet there seemed so much missing, a picture was painted that seemed to be leading us into believing that he had been born, had a childhood, then bang, suddenly he was a young adult and boxing, he went from being eighteen-years old and called up into the service of his country to being almost twenty-four and being on the verge of his professional career. Where was the missing years, where those years in the service of his country, the progression from service man occasionally fighting in the squared circle for his unit through an official (however brief) amateur career? Sure there were brief glimpses, bar room brawls, defeat to a supposed superior boxer in New York, but nothing concrete, nothing definite, no lineage.
“I suspected, and now I know, that there was/is, so much more to those missing years, there had to be, a fighter of Marciano’s fortitude does not just appear, there is a chain that links his past to his future, thus I set out to piece those ofttimes rusted, mostly missing, links together and the story which emerged, and is emerging still as the project grows, is remarkable.”
I asked John to summarise the book and the story of Marciano to which he replied: “Rocco Marchegiano, the real Rocky Marciano, is far more complex, far rounder, and far more incredible than anyone yet has led us to believe. His story is one of overcoming far greater that initially conceived, and those who have gone before who have tried (mainly in an honest attempt) to propagate a certain myth of this man have succeeded in not only deceiving the reader, but have done something far more damaging, they have stolen the true identity of the man who remains still the only undefeated heavyweight champion of the world.
“That Rocky is all that many have said he is stands tall, but that he is also far more stands taller, so, it is not my lot in life to convince anyone that Rocky Marciano is the greatest fighter of them all, but it is my lot to tell you that he was far more than has been told before. As I get a greater understanding of the man himself, a certain feeling comes over me that Rocco would have wanted it that way."
All at BoxRec News wish John the best of luck with his project and we simply can not wait to see the finished article.
More information can be found on the book’s official website: http://redemptionthelifeanddeathofrocky.weebly.com/
The book's Facebook page is located at the following url:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Redemption-The-Life-Death-of-Rocky-Marciano/146087905428008
A short promo teaser in relation to the book can be found at the following url:
