Dec 6, 2007 10:03 am US/Eastern
Rocky Marciano Statue Going To Brockton Afterall
A Rocky Marciano statue planned for Boston is instead headed for Brockton after Boston Mayor Thomas Menino stepped in and said the statue should be built in the boxing champ's hometown.
A Rocky Marciano statue planned for Boston is instead headed for Brockton after Boston Mayor Thomas Menino stepped in and said the statue should be built in the boxing champ's hometown.
Menino weighed in with Jose Sulaiman, president of the World Boxing Council, whose board last month voted to build the statute in Boston, where it believed more visitors would see it.
"I would never want to take Rocky Marciano away from Brockton," Menino told The Boston Globe. "He put that city on the map."
Menino and Brockton Mayor James Harrington both contacted Sulaiman on Wednesday, who said that if both mayors wanted to see the statue in Brockton, he would recommend that the council's 42-member board of governors vote in favor of locating the statue there.
The original plan drew protests from Marciano's family and residents of Brockton, which bills itself "The City of Champions" and takes great pride in Marciano's roots there.
"I am disappointed," Sulaiman said. "Boston is a city that gets visitors from all over the world, and more people would have been able to see" the statue.
Marciano was 49-0 in his career, with 43 knockouts, reigning as world champ from September 1952 to April 1956, when he retired. He died in August 1969 in a plane crash in Iowa.
Sulaiman said the statue should be completed by the end of 2008.
