Tony Zale vs Rocky Graziano

In the first of three meetings, Tony Zale retained the world middleweight championship by knocking out Rocky Graziano in the sixth round at Yankee Stadium in New York on September 27, 1946. Zale weighed exactly 160lb and Graziano 154lb for the scheduled 15-round contest. Referee Ruby Goldstein completed the count at 1 minute 43 seconds of the sixth after Zale drove a right hand into the challenger’s body and followed with a left hook to the head. A crowd of 39,827 paid a gross gate of $342,497. Graziano entered as the betting favourite, while Zale, 33 and only recently returned from wartime service, was defending the championship for the first time since defeating Georgie Abrams in November 1941.

Zale had resumed boxing in January and won six non-title contests by knockout before accepting the challenge of Graziano, one of New York’s most popular young fighters. The challenger’s reputation had been built upon aggression and heavy punching rather than polished defence, and from the opening bell he fought accordingly. Graziano drove forward, throwing hard punches and forcing Zale to meet him rather than attempt a measured defence. The champion responded with characteristic work to the body and short hooks at close range. Before the first round was over, Zale caught Graziano with a left hook and put him down for a count of five. Graziano recovered quickly and came back so strongly that Zale was groggy by the bell.

The second round reversed the position. Graziano pressed Zale relentlessly and began landing heavy rights and hooks. Zale injured his right hand during the round, but continued exchanging rather than retreating. Near the finish, Graziano dropped the champion for a count of three. Zale rose and was saved from further punishment by the bell. From that point the younger man took increasing command. He crowded Zale, attacked from both sides and gave the champion little opportunity to establish the body punching upon which much of his success normally depended.

Through the third, fourth and fifth rounds Graziano maintained the pressure. Zale absorbed a succession of hard punches to the head and appeared to be weakening steadily. Graziano’s style was crude at times, but it was effective because he refused to give the champion room. He forced exchanges, punched whenever Zale attempted to set himself and repeatedly drove him backwards. By the end of the fifth, contemporary observers regarded Zale as beaten. His face showed the effects of the punishment and his strength appeared to be leaving him. Graziano had recovered completely from the opening-round knockdown and seemed close to taking the championship.

The sixth produced the sudden reversal for which the fight became famous. Zale, tired and carrying the damaged right hand, began once more trying to work underneath Graziano’s attack. Graziano continued coming forward, expecting to finish a champion who had appeared near exhaustion one round earlier. Instead, Zale found the opening he had been seeking. He drove a right hand deep into Graziano’s solar plexus. The challenger was immediately affected, his forward movement checked by the body blow. Zale followed with a left hook to the chin, and Graziano went down.

Graziano heard the count but could not recover in time. Goldstein reached ten before the challenger regained his feet, and the fight was over at 1:43 of the round. Graziano later said that the body punch had taken his breath away and that although he heard the final numbers of the count, he could do nothing about them. Zale had little left himself. He had to be supported and carefully led around the ring as he acknowledged the crowd. The Associated Press described him afterwards as looking like a man who had survived close combat with a buzzsaw, an accurate reflection of the punishment he had absorbed before producing the finish.

The victory preserved Zale’s championship but did not settle the rivalry. The Ring named the contest its Fight of the Year for 1946 and later placed it fifth among the greatest title fights in its 1996 ranking. What distinguished the bout was how often control changed hands. Zale had Graziano down in the first, Graziano had Zale down in the second, and for several rounds thereafter the challenger appeared to be taking the title away from him. The champion finally won not through sustained superiority but by remaining dangerous after he had apparently been fought to exhaustion.

They met again in Chicago in July 1947. On that occasion the pattern was reversed: Zale appeared to have Graziano badly beaten before the challenger rallied to stop him in the sixth round and take the championship. Their third meeting, in Newark in June 1948, was more decisive, Zale knocking Graziano out in three rounds to regain the title. The first fight, however, established the character of the series. Neither man was inclined to retreat; both could hurt the other, and apparent control of the contest offered little protection against an abrupt change of fortune.

What I love about this fight is that neither bloke seemed capable of taking a backward step once it got going. Zale had been away from championship boxing for years because of the war; Graziano was younger, active and dangerous, and plenty fancied Rocky to take the title. You can understand why. He was rough, aggressive and could punch like hell.

Zale dropping him in the first tells you what sort of fight it was going to be, but Graziano’s response was typical Rocky. He came straight back, hurt Zale badly and put him down in the second. From there Zale looked like he was being broken up. Graziano swarmed him, throwing wide, ugly rights and forcing the champion into the sort of fight where survival became as important as skill.

Then Zale found that body shot in the sixth. That’s the bit people sometimes miss. Everyone remembers the left hook upstairs, but the right hand to the solar plexus did the real damage. It stopped Graziano in his tracks and took his legs and breath away before the hook finished it.

For me, this is exactly why their rivalry still gets talked about. Neither man was interested in nicking rounds. They were trying to break each other, and in that first fight Zale somehow found enough left in the tank to turn defeat into a knockout win.