BoxRec

Has anyone read the book out about heavyweight Harry Haft? Apparently its a great read about his life where he was in Auschwitz and forced to fight bare knuckle to the amusement of the SS guards. Worringly some of the fights were said to be to the death !!!

Interestingly the book states that Harry Haft was 'visited' in his dressing room prior to his fight with Marciano, by three men and told him in no uncertain terms that he was to loose the fight. He was stopped in three and never fought again.

If anyone has read it or has anything to add I'd be interested to hear.

this fight was not fixed, if that whats ur getting at. youve been a huge marciano basher in the past, and i wouldnt be suprised if the title of this thread is trying to devert the main point of your post!!!!! i know you would do something like that.



i have a picture of harry haft. he was wuite chizzled. theres a great clipping on him on youtube. type in harry haft. great pictures.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:this fight was not fixed

Sorry I forgot you were there

Actually I am interested in getting the book and was wondering if anyone had read it. Who knows if the claims were true or not, I wouldn't be surprised if they were as match rigging was rife in those days, and of course there were close Mob ties with Marcianos manager Al Weill. Plus Marciano died in the company of a Mob member so it hardly beyond the realms of possibility.

You believe what you like, how can you ever get an unbiased opinion about Marciano from someone named 'BrocktonBlockbuster49' ?

buddy, ur claiming marcianos fight was fixed. how bias can you get?

Sorry I forgot you were there

who are you to say that? what do you contribute to this forum? jack shit. you could leave this forum and no one would even notice you were gone, or would even care for that matter. shove it up ur ass. why dont you stop with your marciano trolling and start actually bringing useful info to this forum.

Actually I am interested in getting the book and was wondering if anyone had read it. Who knows if the claims were true or not, I wouldn't be surprised if they were as match rigging was rife in those days, and of course there were close Mob ties with Marcianos manager Al Weill. Plus Marciano died in the company of a Mob member so it hardly beyond the realms of possibility.

i have. i know all about harry haft. the reason this was not a fix based on ur "al weill" opinion is quite simple, al weill was barely following marcianos career at this point. marciano was still fighting in providence and had little to no training from charley goldman. it wasnt until after marciano beat lowry and vingo that weill started to really take control of marcianos career. but when he fought harry haft, weill wasnt even in marcianos corner for the fight, he wasnt even in the arena that night. marciano was not protected at all early in his career for al weill didnt pay much attention to him until he racked up 20 wins in a row.

2nd, harry haft was a 5'9 174lb fighter who had lost 6 out of his last 7. im pretty sure he wasnt exactly a feared fighter, the type 3 mob guys would go into his dressing room and tell him to lay down against a 17-0 fighter!


haft was built like a tank, and had a lot of heart. but that was about it. he overcame alot of obstacles, very tough man.

Marciano's 'ties' with the mob were miniscule. Mob men baked his career with money and opprotunities, but none ever laid a finger on his fights. It was once said that people had asked Marciano whether or not he needed 'help' with his fights, and Marciano went bullshit hot and said that nobody was ever going to help him out---and it was left at that.

The first LaStarza fight was thought to have been a fix, but it's more than likely Marciano was holding back, as he wasn't the same for a time after almost killing Bronx HW Carmine Vingo.

In the rematch with LaStarza, he left no doubt. He butchered him so much so he broke his arms and LaStarza urinated blood after the fight from the tremendous body shots from Marciano.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:buddy, ur claiming marcianos fight was fixed. how bias can you get?

No I think your find Harry Haft claimed it. As I guess he was there and actually fought Marciano he's the best person to comment.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:

Sorry I forgot you were there

who are you to say that? what do you contribute to this forum? jack shit. you could leave this forum and no one would even notice you were gone, or would even care for that matter. shove it up ur ass. why dont you stop with your marciano trolling and start actually bringing useful info to this forum.

Actually I am interested in getting the book and was wondering if anyone had read it. Who knows if the claims were true or not, I wouldn't be surprised if they were as match rigging was rife in those days, and of course there were close Mob ties with Marcianos manager Al Weill. Plus Marciano died in the company of a Mob member so it hardly beyond the realms of possibility.

i have. i know all about harry haft. the reason this was not a fix based on ur "al weill" opinion is quite simple, al weill was barely following marcianos career at this point. marciano was still fighting in providence and had little to no training from charley goldman. it wasnt until after marciano beat lowry and vingo that weill started to really take control of marcianos career. but when he fought harry haft, weill wasnt even in marcianos corner for the fight, he wasnt even in the arena that night. marciano was not protected at all early in his career for al weill didnt pay much attention to him until he racked up 20 wins in a row.

2nd, harry haft was a 5'9 174lb fighter who had lost 6 out of his last 7. im pretty sure he wasnt exactly a feared fighter, the type 3 mob guys would go into his dressing room and tell him to lay down against a 17-0 fighter!


haft was built like a tank, and had a lot of heart. but that was about it. he overcame alot of obstacles, very tough man.

What do you mean 'who am I to say that?'. You cannot make bold statements that something is definetely not true when you weren't there, and as you weren't you don't know for sure. I don't know if they are true or not either, like I said match fixing was common place in those days so it could be. Haft kept it quiet for many many years so why say it? He also speaks of the corruption throughtout the sport so he wasn't just picking Marciano out.

I didn't say any of Marcianos fights were fixed, one of his opponents did. All I stated was its not impossible as the 50s were full of stories of match fixing. I used Al Weill as an example of someone closely linked to Marciano that had Mob ties. Marciano also had Mob ties, one of the top Mob guys died on the same plane as him.

I think I contribute well to this site. At least Im not biased that I have to resort to name calling when someone 'dares' to question or contradict something. And I dont have to announce 'Hey I'm Back', like we give a shit. You should get some real friends.

I bet if Harry Haft said Marciano was the hardest puncher he ever fought you would soon be dropping that into your Marciano posts but because he insinuates something bad about him its all lies.....funny that.

BrocktonBlockbuster49 wrote:

Sorry I forgot you were there

haft was built like a tank, and had a lot of heart. but that was about it. he overcame alot of obstacles, very tough man.

Yeah and also, according to you, a liar.

i really dont care. i feel like talking about sonny liston

what more can be said of Liston that hasn't been said?

face it Brock, the losses to Ali, no matter how unfair it is, will never ever be erased from people's minds. Like Liston, Foreman is severly under rated, because he lost to Ali as well. Ali started his career with a Liston and topped it all off with beating a clone of Liston when he was older.

He beat Machen, beat Williams, beat alot of guys; and had Ali never existed Liston probably would have been champion up until the time he actually fought Leotis Martin, and that would have been an unbelievable championship reign.

But he didn't. You can't judge a fighter on the what if's, only with what they done, and Liston lost to Ali twice embarassingly and never ever was the same again; because outside of his good skills and powerful punch, his aura of invincibility, his snarl, his glare, his mere presence was exposed for what he really was all along: BULLY.

Though a world class one.