Rocky Marciano retired at 49-0.....why?

Everyone knows Marciano retired 49-0. I like to think I have a pretty sound general knowledge of boxing but I can't recall ever hearing any story/opinion as to why he retired one fight shy of a magical 50 fights. My modern day boxing knowledge is good but more limited pre early 90's.

It seems odd to say the least that anyone would retire when undefeated on 49 fights even if it meant taking an easy fight to make 50.

I would be grateful if anyone could provide some insight into this.i.e. Was there a mandatory that at his stage of his career was unlikely to overcome?

Nobody left to fight, and an unimportant milestone obviously didn't interest him.

I think he had management problems and also he'd made enough money and got tired of the endless road work and early mornings......I can vouch that training becomes harder the older you get.

Have to remember also he tended to win the hard way...........Probably made him older than his years..

As for the 49-0..........He was always money orientated........and no harm in that.

Good move...........Wish more would follow..

Cheers, to me I would be desperate to retire 50-0 rather than 49-0 but that's me been fickle!

Valero's Conscience wrote:Cheers, to me I would be desperate to retire 50-0 rather than 49-0 but that's me been fickle!

Very nearly made a comeback to fight Ingemar Johanssen when he beat Patterson. Made it as far as the gym and found the fire wasn't there, so left it at that.

Management issues played a part I think, he had had enough of Weil scrounging money of him so as a way to combat that he retired. He was never blessed with too many options of who to fight and once he'd beaten Moore there was nothing left to scrape from the bottle of the barrel also.

As others have pretty nicely summed up, it was a combination of factors really. Marciano had intended to make it to 50 originally; there's an interview just after the Moore fight (might even have been his interview in the ring immediately after, though my memory's a bit hazy right now) in which he says he'll be looking to get that fiftieth win out of the way as soon as possible.

Remember, there was a gap of more than seven months between his last fight against Moore and his announcement of retirement, and he'd have expected to fight again within that time span, you'd imagine. However, Rocky has promised his wife that he'd retire by the summer of 1956 (his retirement, much like his relationship with Al Weil which also played a part, was on the rocks at that point) and there just didn't seem any viable challengers at that point. Valdes had had his aura smashed, Moore had been beaten and Patterson, up until that stage, had been pretty much exclusively campaigning as a 175 pounder; it wasn't until Rocky retired that he moved up to Heavy properly to fight for the vacant title (originally, they were meant to have fought for Archie's 175 lb crown).

You'll still get some saying that Rocky ducked Floyd, mind you. Just one of those built up myths that'll never die.

Getting a bit long in the tooth by that era's standards, not enjoying training anymore, falling out with his manager and wife, a lack of really big-money fights - there was just too much that Marciano was getting fed up of by 1956.