Marciano - Walcott 2 ... was it a fixed fight?

[John Cameron]

In 1961 during the Kefauver hearings in which the mobster Frankie Carbo was being indicted for curroption of the fight game on a massive scale one Truman Gibson, formerly president of the IBC swore under oath that Carbo negotiated a deal with Felix Bocchichio, Walcott's manager, that on top of the $250,000 contract they had cemented, he (Bocchichio) should sell his share of the rights to the 3-D movie that was to be made of the bout to Marciano's manager Al Weill.
Weill, thinking he was being shrewd, snapped up the offer, after all this was the first time a 3-D movie had been made, the boxing public, Weill reasoned, would clamour to see the film.
However...
Carbo and Bocchichio had hatched a plan that would make them some good money off Weill whom neither was very fond. Bocchichio, it is alleged by Gibson, told Walcott to take a dive in the first round, thereby robbing Weill of a long movie to pull in the fans.
History shows Walcott going down, looking resigned at defeat, then kicking up a stink as Bocchichio decides to ham it up to the referee, even Marciano seems bemused by the swift conclusion.
The film, as suspected, flopped, and Weill lost a lot of money, so did Marciano.
In total the champion recieved just over $300,000 before taxes, managers cut, etc, etc...
Whilst the challenger cleared some $500,000, unprecedented for a challenger to get more than the champion. It seems though that Walcott saw very little of that money, for within a few years of this, his last bout, he was working nights for the Camden, New Jersey, Police.
When these allegations were made in 1961, Walcott protested his innocence in the whole affair, however he was prone to certain corruption as proven later in his life when he was found guilty of taking bribes whilst on the New Jersey boxing board of control.

[Master]

I doubt Walcott did give up he was an old fighter and rematches often have the same result but quicker.

[John Cameron]

You may very well be right, a man who has held the heavyweight title after so many years chasing the dream would certainly, in our opinion, not give up the chance to regain the title.
Yes Walcott was old, sure, but in great condition, and by the standards of todays heavyweights his age would not have counted against him, look at Holyfield!!!
But at the time there was a buzz amongst the journalists and public that Walcott could have got up, but most felt he done the right thing, last time he had fought Marciano he had thrown everything he had at him and perhaps had given the performance of his life, aside from his first fight with Joe Louis, and he had still lost, so perhaps...who knows.
Boxing was a different animal in the forties and fifties....