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On Second Thought Rocky, Charles Forthright Guys By BARNEY NAGLER GROSSINGER, N, Y., June 14. Rocky Marcianos training hideaway, high on a hill, is just the right place for reflection. Man can really look back on it all and say, "Wasnt a bad training grind, really." So peaceful, so quiet, except when the minor-league planes at Gros-singer Airport are taking off or some new batch of sightseers come over the rocky road to take a look at the heavyweight cham- pion. Hes quite a sight to behold, in these relatively last hours before he goes against Ezzard Charles at Yankee Stadium Thursday night, so brown and clear-eyed and muscled and unbothered. He is not quite as becalmed as on other occasions because he is on the verge of coming face to face with a situation fraught with reality. Marciano has long: known that Charles is a tough opponent, perhaps the best he has been called upon to face in his 46-f ight career. He is not one to be blatantly over-confident at any time, even when he was knocking over the Keenes, Simmonses and the other tenpins set up for him in the normal course of matchmaking build-up. If youve read, and you have, that the champion has predicted he will knock out Charles, perhaps in the late rounds, dont be misled to believe he strode into a room crowded with newspapermen one afternoon and declaimed, "Im gonna knock the bum out." This isnt Marciano or his ways. Doubtless, Marciano was badgered, pestered, hectored and waylaid into making such an assertion, if he did. The question must have been put to him time and again before he would admit the possibility of a knockout. At that, he wouldnt be going against the price, which comes high because of Marcianos knockout ratio 40 out of 45 fights. It doesnt require a man of bold outlook to have him say he might score a knockout if he already has accomplished .the short circuit in 40 out of 45 tries. Might say Marciano knocks them out continually, if not continuously, and youd be semantically correct. Also, it would be painful news for Charles. In reality, anything put down these days, or said, doesnt matter too much. Marciano and Charles are a pair of a kind, so to speak, because neither permits himself the luxury of the ballyhoo Blow-off. Their traininsr camps Charles is finishing up just down the pike at MonticeUo, 12 miles as the car flies-have been singularly and relatively free of the contrived story. The fighters do not indulge in same. The few pieces of drivel that have come out of the camps have been conjured up by the press agents, Bob "Mr. Golf" Brumby, and Harry "Whispering Jack" Mendel. Brumby has attempted to, and has succeeded in part, in putting words into the mouths of Marciano, Al Weill, the champs curator, and Charlie Goldman, the little trainer. Mandel stuffed the oral cavities of the ones in Charles camp. For example, the decalogue of dueling the 10-point statement issued by Tom Tan-nas, Charles co-operator warning against Marcianos rough and allegedly foul tactics in the ring, were the literary step-child of the manager. Actually, Mendel put it all down to music by way of seizing a few columns in the daily press. Ballyhoo, not so pure and quite simple, thats what it was. In all, however, the build-up of this one hasnt been too brash and for good reason. For once, this is a real contest, the one coming up. It is so genuine of quality, not even the press agents could ruin it by wailing too much and too often about the injustice about to. be endured by the fighters. . This afternoon, as Marciano rested on the porch of the white house high on the hill, he was sparkling of eye. He said, quite simply, "Hell, Im going in there to win. Who isnt?" Charles, who wasnt visited, must have said something in the same vein. Honest, forthright guys, thats what they are, and thats the kind of fight theyll put on. Just thought youd like to know, thats all.
