I heard this fight was an eliminator and that the winner were to meet marciano . if so, how come bob baker didnt get the shot at rockys title with this win? rocky didnt retire until 1956 so this fight could have been made sometime after the moore fight. the only report i got on perhaps why baker didnt get a shot is that he fought so poorly in the valdes fight that preformance did not earn him a shot and the fight wouldnt draw because baker was not a big name and fans wouldnt even think a fight with rocky would be a contest.
(AP) -- Bob Baker of Pittsburgh methodically prodded to a unanimous decision over Nino Valdes of Cuba tonight in a dull ten-round match that probably eliminated both heavyweight contenders from any chance of a title shot with Rocky Marciano.
was a baker-marciano fight ever considered?
Bob Baker W 10 Nino Valdes 1955
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
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Re: Bob Baker W 10 Nino Valdes 1955
I always thought that it was Valdez and Moore who fought the eliminator. Archie won and got the fight, right?BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:I heard this fight was an eliminator and that the winner were to meet marciano . if so, how come bob baker didnt get the shot at rockys title with this win? rocky didnt retire until 1956 so this fight could have been made sometime after the moore fight. the only report i got on perhaps why baker didnt get a shot is that he fought so poorly in the valdes fight that preformance did not earn him a shot and the fight wouldnt draw because baker was not a big name and fans wouldnt even think a fight with rocky would be a contest.
(AP) -- Bob Baker of Pittsburgh methodically prodded to a unanimous decision over Nino Valdes of Cuba tonight in a dull ten-round match that probably eliminated both heavyweight contenders from any chance of a title shot with Rocky Marciano.
was a baker-marciano fight ever considered?
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 4900
- Joined: 29 May 2005, 00:32
Re: Bob Baker W 10 Nino Valdes 1955
Nero3000 wrote:I always thought that it was Valdez and Moore who fought the eliminator. Archie won and got the fight, right?BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:I heard this fight was an eliminator and that the winner were to meet marciano . if so, how come bob baker didnt get the shot at rockys title with this win? rocky didnt retire until 1956 so this fight could have been made sometime after the moore fight. the only report i got on perhaps why baker didnt get a shot is that he fought so poorly in the valdes fight that preformance did not earn him a shot and the fight wouldnt draw because baker was not a big name and fans wouldnt even think a fight with rocky would be a contest.
(AP) -- Bob Baker of Pittsburgh methodically prodded to a unanimous decision over Nino Valdes of Cuba tonight in a dull ten-round match that probably eliminated both heavyweight contenders from any chance of a title shot with Rocky Marciano.
was a baker-marciano fight ever considered?
ya ur right
however, after marciano fought and disposed of moore, the boxing world searched for a deserving opponent as there were not many out there. so from what i hear to determine a liable opponent for marciano, baker and valdes were scheduled to fight an eliminator to see who would fight marciano.
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BrocktonBlockbuster49
- Heavyweight
- Posts: 4900
- Joined: 29 May 2005, 00:32
i just found the ring magaizine article
"Had it been billed as just another heavyweight bout, Bob Baker and Nino Valdez might have turned in a real battle in Cleveland. But the mistake was in advertising the winner as Rocky Marciano's next opponent in a world championship bout. That must have scared off both rivals. Neither apparently wanted to be Marciano's next victim. So, instead of fighting to win, Bob and Nino acted as though they were doing their utmost to lose and get eliminated. Valdez was the more successful. He managed to lose. But Baker in, winning, also did a good job of eliminating himself as a prospective Marciano opponent. It was a dull, uninspired, drab, no-account affair which bored the 8,380 onlookers to distraction and evoked catcalls.... How, with so rich a prize at stake, Baker and Valdez could produce so horrible a bout is beyond all conception and calculation. They didn't punch, they pushed gloves at each other with incredible imperturbability in so far as the Marciano match and the reaction of the crowd were concerned."- Ring Correspondent Joe Smith, The Ring, February 1956, pp 9, 66.
so it appears perhaps this was an eliminator. if so, shouldnt baker have ended up fighting rock? i mean u cant deny a fighter a shot based on the grounds of poor preformance
"Had it been billed as just another heavyweight bout, Bob Baker and Nino Valdez might have turned in a real battle in Cleveland. But the mistake was in advertising the winner as Rocky Marciano's next opponent in a world championship bout. That must have scared off both rivals. Neither apparently wanted to be Marciano's next victim. So, instead of fighting to win, Bob and Nino acted as though they were doing their utmost to lose and get eliminated. Valdez was the more successful. He managed to lose. But Baker in, winning, also did a good job of eliminating himself as a prospective Marciano opponent. It was a dull, uninspired, drab, no-account affair which bored the 8,380 onlookers to distraction and evoked catcalls.... How, with so rich a prize at stake, Baker and Valdez could produce so horrible a bout is beyond all conception and calculation. They didn't punch, they pushed gloves at each other with incredible imperturbability in so far as the Marciano match and the reaction of the crowd were concerned."- Ring Correspondent Joe Smith, The Ring, February 1956, pp 9, 66.
so it appears perhaps this was an eliminator. if so, shouldnt baker have ended up fighting rock? i mean u cant deny a fighter a shot based on the grounds of poor preformance
Last edited by BrocktonBlockbuster49 on 14 Feb 2006, 03:42, edited 1 time in total.