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HOW
DID ALI AND MARCIANO COMPARE AS FIGHTERS?
The fighting
styles of Ali and Marciano could not have been more different.
Marciano wanted to cut the distance between himself and his
opponents, whereas Ali preferred to keep his opponents outside,
at a distance.
Marciano's assets were toughness, power, determination and
his crouching aggression. With a record of 49-0-0, Rocky had
the distinction of being the only heavyweight champion in
history to retire undefeated. A crowd- pleasing slugger with
the shortest reach in heavyweight championship history, Marciano
needed to work in close to get the maximum leverage on his
power punches. This rough-and tumble style worked well for
Marciano, as he knocked out 46 of 49 opponents, but it undoubtedly
contributed to the many cuts and bruises he received throughout
his career.
Stylistically, Ali was the exact opposite of Marciano. He
shied away from the inside, preferring to control the action
from the outside with a long left jab and quick lateral movement.
It was speed rather than brute power that separated Ali from
the rest, speed so great that it allowed him to dispense with
conventional boxing wisdom. Fighting with his hands down around
his hips, Ali pulled his head back to avoid punches rather
than duck or block them with his gloves. According to the
experts, these tactics should have gotten him killed. But
when it came to his own style, Ali knew best. At the time
of the computer fight, Ali had compiled a record of 29 professional
victories without a defeat, including nine title defenses.
Both men had incredible endurance, the will to win, and both
could take a punch.
TRAINING
FOR THE FIGHT
Marciano,
retired, 300 pounds and out-of-shape, took the fight seriously
and trained hard. He wanted to be ready in case Ali tried
to make him look bad. Before he could climb into a ring again,
Rocky had to get back into some semblance of what he had been.
He began running again, working out in the gym, eating right;
in truth, he trained as hard or harder than any fighter preparing
for a real fight. The result was a loss of almost sixty pounds.
To cover his balding head, he was fitted with a wig.
In Marciano, Biography of a First Son, Everett Skehan
said, "When Rocky went to the dingy gym on the North
Side of Miami Beach he was thinking tough, expecting things
to go smoothly, but prepared for anything. He had been briefed;
he knew that the punches were to be pulled. However, Rocky
would not go into the ring that way. Even at forty-six, he
had to feel that if something went wrong, if suddenly the
punches became real, he would be ready to win."
About Ali, Marciano said, "I never saw a fighter with
hands that fast. He is certainly the fastest man on wheels."
Ali, 27 and at the prime of his ability, did not train seriously.
He did not think that a bald, 300-pound guy nineteen years
older than him would be any trouble.
Ali often looked past some of his opponents. Marciano never
did. Marciano always entered the ring in top shape; Ali only
trained hard if he was facing a fighter who was a threat to
beat him. Marciano soaked up everything that his trainer,
Charles Goldman, passed along to him between rounds during
a fight. Ali, more improvisational and intuitive than Marciano,
sometimes did not follow the instructions of his trainer,
Angelo Dundee.
THE
SUPERFIGHT
The filming took place
in a small gym on the North Side of Miami Beach over a two-week
period during the summer of 1969. Only about 20 people were
allowed inside the gym during the filming, which was kept
as secret as possible. Angelo Dundee was on hand as Ali's
trainer, but Rocky had to use Mel Ziegler instead of his former
trainer Charlie Goldman, who had passed away the year before.
Ferdie Pacheco was the ring doctor, Chris Dundee, Angelo's
brother, was the referee. Both fighters agreed that the headshots
were to be pulled, but body shots were fair game. Behind the
fighters was a black backdrop and no crowd of cheering spectators.
Ali actually looked less in shape than the retired Marciano.
Seventy one-minute segments were filmed, which were later
spliced into three-minute rounds. Crowd noise and the sound
of blows being struck were dubbed in during the editing process.
Though determined from the outset that the computer fight
would be pure theater, complete with carefully crafted choreography
and pulled punches, it has been alleged that things occasionally
got out of hand, with playful taps turning into punches of
real power.
THE
WIG INCIDENT
Ali's people told him
that Marciano was wearing a wig to cover his baldness. He
decided to have a little fun with Rocky. He danced around
and threw a high jab, which just clipped Marciano's wig and
knocked it to the canvas. The filming was stopped while the
wig was refitted, amid bemused smiles from several observers.
Marciano was embarrassed and angry. "He did that on purpose
to make me look stupid. He doesn't have have respect for me
at all." Rocky was assured it was an accident and the
filming resumed. Ali again jabbed high and sent the wig flying.
Rocky was mad this time. "You better not do that again!"
They began once more and immediately Ali flicked the wig off
Marciano's head. Without hesitation, Marciano dug a vicious
body shot into Ali's mid-section, doubling him over. Pacheco
said Muhammad actually dropped and was completely helpless.
Quickly, the trainers separated the fighters. Dundee remembers,
"The fight was stopped until Rocky's temper cooled off."
Marciano offered to turn it into a real fight immediately
if Ali was game. Only after Muhammad apologized did Rocky
get over his anger. Ali's attitude was different from that
point on, as it was obvious to all that Marciano would rather
fight than be disrespected.
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