Magnificent, dead centered, MINT PSA 9 #32 Rocky Marciano from the beautiful 1951 Ringside Boxing issue is the key card of boxing's only retired, undefeated World Heavyweight Champion. Most boxing historians rate Marciano as one of the top heavyweight fighters of All-Time. His career knockout percentage of 87.75 is the highest of any Heavyweight Champion in boxing history. Marciano was named Fighter of the Year by Ring Magazine three times with his three World Heavyweight Championship fights between 1952–54 also being named Fights of the Year by Ring Magazine
Rocky Marciano was born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts. After dropping out of school in the 10th grade he took various jobs until being drafted into the service during World War II. Just before his discharge, Marciano won the 1946 Amateur Armed Forces boxing tournament fighting for the Army. He turned professional on July 12, 1948, and proceeded to win his first 16 fights by knockout. While Marciano lacked the physical gifts of other fighters, being shorter, slower, and less graceful, he had enormous heart and spirit. He did posses a powerful right hand, an iron chin, and the ability to adsorb a tremendous amount of punishment. He was always willing to take several punches as long as he could land his powerful "Suzie Q". After going 41-0 he fought Harry Matthews in a World Heavyweight Title Eliminator, knocking him out in the 2nd round. On September 23, 1952 would finally get the chance to fight for the World Heavyweight Championship Title, meeting Champion Jersey Joe Walcott in a bout held at Municipal Stadium in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Walcott knocked down Marciano in the first round and was leading on points going into the 13th, when Marciano landed a left hook, his "Suzie Q", to knock Walcott out and capture the title. This bout would be called the "The Fight of the Year" by Ring Magazine. Marciano would hold the World Heavyweight Championship Title, defending it 6 times, until he retired undefeated at age 32 in 1956 with a perfect 49-0 record. 43 of his 49 victories came by way of knockout, including one of his idol, Joe Louis. Tragically, Marciano would die in a small plane crash in Iowa on August 31, 1969 at the young age of 45, one day before his birthday. Marciano was posthumously inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990.
Awesome card features pack fresh color with crystal clear picture registration. Snow white front borders with super clean front and back. Four razor sharp looking corners. Perfect 50/50 centering all the way around, difficult with this card in this issue. An extremely difficult card to find in high grade as evidenced by the fact that of 441 1951 Ringside Marciano cards submitted to PSA for grading this is one of only 2 MINT PSA 9's with nothing rated higher. The offered dead centered card rates tops in eye appeal as the other MINT 9 is somewhat off center towards the upper border. Listed as one of the top 200 sports cards in the hobby in the 2002 publication of the same name by Sports Market Report editor Joe Orlando, the Marciano Ringside issue remains a key to boxing collectors as one of the most important vintage boxing cards available.