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On Second Thought Rockys Services VV ill Come High By BARNEY NAGLER NEW YORK, N. Y., June 29. Jim Norris is meeting with Rocky Marcianos man, Al Weill, Thursday afternoon, maybe for lunch. The price is 2- to-1 that Norris will take the tab. Weill is a fast man at the bank wicket, putting,- not taking. At the dining table hes slower than F; Carbo reaching for an ethic. The conference is not purely culinary. Norris wants to buy the services of Marciano for a defense against Archie ! 1 Moore in September. The price will come high, including the luncheon check. Weill reportedly wants the International Boxing Club to come up with everything but Mush-ky McGee. He already owns a leasehold on McGee. It isnt likely that Norris will be able to announce the time and place of the Mar-ciano-Moore fight after talking with Weill. Marcianos owner doesnt sign easily. He doesnt believe in doing anything today that he can do as well tomorrow. Besides, he has a gimmick going for him. ."I cant do anything: without talking to Rocky," he says. This is nonsense of pure gossamer. Weill doesnt ask Marciano, he tells him. As manager, he runs his fighter with the whiplash of success. He has brought Marciano all the way and the fighter is the first to recognize that he might still be a shoemaker in Brockton, Mass., if Weill hadnt taken him on as a chattel. Weill has never won a fight for Marciano by slugging the opposition, but he has scored in all of Rockys bouts by picking the right man at the right time. This was best illustrated vis a vis Roland LaStarza. Relatively early in his career, Marciano managed a close decision over LaStarza in Madison Square Garden. Pressure for a return was instantaneous and constant, but Weill bided Marcianos time and made the match only when he was convinced that LaStarza had gone downhill. Rocky knocked out LaStarza. The same temporizing was applied to Ezzard Charles. Weill put Marciano in with the Gizzard not when the match was hottest but when it best suited his own purpose, at the moment he .felt Charles was used up. He had hoped to apply the same treatment to Moore, but the ancient light-heavyweight champion wouldnt permit Weill the luxury of doing things in his own good time. He put the pressure on Weill by doing everything that was asked of him, up to and including a soft-touch thwacking of Bobo Olson, Not even Weill could duck this one. In the past, Weill was able to slip suggestions by one stratagem or another. After Marciano was sliced by Charles the first time around, Weill insisted he couldnt sign for a return until he was assured of the condition of Marcianos wounded brow. After the second bout with Charles, he said he couldnt sign for a bout with the harmless Mr. Don Cockell until he was confident that Marcianos split beak was healed. This time there is no platform for speechmaking. Marciano came out of the one with Cockell in one piece, not cuts, not bruises, no money. Weill couldnt even suggest that Marcianos tax problem for 55 precluded a September bout. The San Francisco shindig hadnt enriched Marcianos corporate set-up to the point of diminishing return. So Weill is taking the fight with Moore for Marciano, but not without insisting that his fighter is entitled to fees beyond the comprehension of even the most acute of business men. Weill will latch onto at least 40 per cent of all net receipts and hell seize a large block of the best tickets for the bout. Hell tie Moore down to a return bout, to be sure, with the precent-ages at 30-30 for the rebuttal. And when he sits down with Norris at the groaning board, Jim will have to pick up the check. "Dont do that," Weill will say as Norris reaches for the tab. Hell pause and insist, "You shouldnta done it." It will have been done.
