Mayors' 1-2 punch wins it for Brockton

Rocky Marciano knocking out challenger Ezzard Charles in 1954. (UPI file)

Now, apparently, it's a unanimous decision.

After the mayors of Boston and Brockton both threw jabs at the World Boxing Council plan to erect a Rocky Marciano statue in Boston instead of his hometown of Brockton, the head of the commission relented yesterday and said the 42-member panel would "respect their wishes."

Jose Sulaiman, president of the WBC, said Mayors Thomas M. Menino and James E. Harrington contacted him early yesterday expressing their desire to locate the statue in Brockton. He said he has no objections to changing the site, despite concerns that fewer people will get to see the sculpture.

"I am disappointed," Sulaiman said by phone from Mexico City. "Boston is a city that gets visitors from all over the world, and more people would have been able to see" the statue.

But Sulaiman said that if both mayors wanted to see the pugilist piece in Brockton, the council had no choice but to "follow their advice and wishes."

The WBC had recently announced that the commission voted to erect a Marciano statue in Boston, to pay homage to the late heavyweight boxing champ. In a letter last week to Menino, Sulaiman said the WBC would pay for a large sculpture twice the size (he was 5 feet 11 inches, 184 pounds) of the Brockton Blockbuster, but it needed a site in Boston. The WBC said it picked Boston so the statue could draw attention from more visitors to a champion who "left his name with golden letters in the history of the sport of boxing."

The news drew fire from Harrington, Marciano relatives, and residents in the City of Champions, about 20 miles south of Boston. Then Menino weighed in.

"I would never want to take Rocky Marciano away from Brockton," Menino said in a phone interview yesterday. "He put that city on the map."

Harrington said he was unaware yesterday that the WBC has thrown in the towel and will plan the Marciano monument for Brockton. "That's tremendous news," he said. "People come here all the time, always looking for information about Rocky Marciano."

Born in Brockton in 1923, Marciano held the heavyweight title for four years in the 1950s and is the only champion to have retired undefeated, at 49-0. Marciano died in a plane crash outside of Des Moines in 1969.

Sulaiman said the project should be completed by the end of 2008, and he expects the unveiling to draw visitors from around the world. "We'll still have a good event, and it will be nice," he said.