Don Cockell

Just watched his fight with Rocky Marciano, what a fighter - this guy had as much heart and balls as you are ever likely to see in a fighter.

The eighth round is pure brutality, Marciano just bounces power shots off his chin for the whole three minutes and Cockell stays upright. Unbelievable.

I'll tell you something, people make jokes about British heavyweights but Cockell is one that, although he never became champ, people of Britain should be very proud of indeed. His effort in that Marciano fight should be celebrated as one of the best examples of courage ever seen in the ring.

Yea Don showed great heart against Rocky.
I dont know if you know this , but Randy Turpin KOED Don in 11 rounds ,11 fights before he fought Marciano. It was for the British LHW title.

Yeah Al, I know - I read about him on wikipedia after I watched the fight today.

They said he was having trouble making 175 and after that fight I think he moved up... It's funny that more is not made of him, he looked really good for a few rounds against Rocky, then (as Rock had a habit of doing to people) he just got ground down.

Don never bothered to establish his jab, or maybe he couldn't. Which is another story but another thing was he would let Marciano lead. When you've got someone like Rocky in with you, you don't want to give him room. Don was just never in the fight I agree he showed a tremendous pair that night.

Wait a minute I thought Cockell was the British heavyweight champion when he fought Marciano.

Rocky was a dirty dirty fighter, and to think the yanks had the gall to moan at Benn hitting Barclay on the floor. That was nothing compared to that.