Puncher from the Past Roland LaStarza

Name: Roland LaStarza
Born: 12 May 1927 The Bronx New York
Died: 30 September 2009 aged 82
Career: 1947 to 1961
Record: 66 fights, 57 wins (27 by KO/TKO), 9 losses (2 by KO/TKO).
Division: Heavyweight
Stance: Orthodox
Titles: None
Major Contests
Scored wins over: Cesar Brion, Ted Lowry (twice), Vern Mitchell, Dan Bucceroni, Rocky Jones, Rex Layne
Lost against: Rocky Marciano**, Dan Bucceroni, Rocky Jones, Don Cockell **, Charley Norkus, Julio Mederos, Monroe Ratliff
**Past/ future holder of a version of a world title
* Unsuccessful challenger for a version of a world title
Roland LaStarza’s Story
LaStarza was born in The Bronx and reportedly served in the US forces late in the second world war. He was an outstanding amateur winning the New York Golden Gloves sub-novice light heavyweight title in 1944 at the age of 16 and in the same year the Alternate Class at the Intercity Golden Gloves Championships. In 1945 he won the Eastern Golden Gloves and New York Golden Gloves open title and was runner-up in the Intercity Golden Gloves Championships.
He had his first professional fight on 7 July 1947 and won all twelve of his fights that year. The 6’0” LaStarza was fighting in four and six round fights and at 180 to 190 lbs making him a heavyweight in those days.
He won all 16 of his fights in 1948. They were still only six and eight round preliminaries but he was meeting more experienced opponents even having to climb off the floor twice to beat Gene Gosney in his first Madison Square Garden (MSG) fight.
His first ten round fight came in February 1949 when he floored Italian Gino Buonvino twice on the way to a sixth round stoppage. Buonvino was based in The Bronx and was in good form having lost only one of his last seventeen fights.
In December 1949 LaStarza was back at MSG facing Argentinian Cesar Brion who had a 25-2 record and had beaten world title challenger Tami Maurelli in October. LaStarza won a close unanimous decision to move his record to 37-0. Four weeks after LaStarza had defeated Brion another young unbeaten heavyweight was featured in a ten round fight at MSG as Rocky Marciano knocked out 16-1 Carmine Vingo in the sixth round. The fight took place just one day after Vingo’s twenty-first birthday but Marciano gave Vingo such a brutal beating that Vingo never fought again. The plan had been for both LaStarza and Marciano to win to set up a match between 37-0 LaStarza and 25-0 Marciano. That fight came about on 24 March 1950 in MSG. LaStarza was the favourite with the feeling being that his better skills would give him the edge. Marciano was largely unknown with 19 of his 25 fights taking place in the boxing backwater of Rhode Island against mostly unknown opposition.
The fight was close with LaStarza the boxer and Marciano the banger. LaStarza was floored in the fourth and Marciano lost a point for a low punch in the eighth. At the end of the ten rounds the three judges each came up with different scores of 5-4 for LaStarza, 5-4 for Marciano and 5-5. It would have been a split draw today. Under the New York Commission supplemental scoring system in effect then if the judges rendered a tied result the referee’s score was also used to decide a winner and the referee had Marciano as the winner .
LaStarza was convinced he should have had the decision and both he and Marciano stayed busy. Marciano scored 17 wins beating Rex Layne, Joe Louis, Lee Savold and Harry Matthews before knocking out Jersey Joe Walcott in September 1992 to win the world title. LaStarza had a couple of bumps on his road going 16-2 but reversing his points losses against Dan Bucceroni and Rocky Jones. That run set up a return with Marciano for the title. They met again on 24 September 1953 at the Polo Grounds in New York with Marciano’s title on the line for the first time. Defence was LaStarza’s strong suit and he frustrated Marciano by blocking Marcian’s attempts to land his big punches and despite the referee letting Marciano away with numerous fouls at the half way point LaStarza was reckoned to be in front. Marciano was told by his trainer Charley Goldman, “Bang his arms until he brings them down”. Marciano followed the instructions and gradually began to weaken LaStarza’s defence allowing him to land thudding head punches and hooks to the body. The fight was still close at the start of the tenth with one judge having it tied and another having it 6-4 for Marciano but LaStarza already had hematomas on his arms and could hardly lift his hands and Marciano connected with two booming rights to the head at the end of the round. In the eleven LaStarza did not have the power to keep Marciano out and a series of hooks and uppercuts sent LaStarza down through the middle and bottom ropes. He climbed through the ropes and to his feet but when the action continued the referee came in as Marciano unloaded on LaStarza. After the fight LaStarza was hospitalised requiring surgery to repair the damages done to his arms. He had chipped bones in his elbows and ruptured blood vessels that turned to hardened clots in his forearms. The fight was Ring Magazine’s “Fight of the Year”.
LaStarza’s record was now 53-4 but Marciano effectively ruined LaStarza as a fighter. After six months out of the ring he returned but suffered three losses in a row. He was outpointed in London by Don Cockell and in Cleveland by Charley Norkus before being floored three times and knocked out by 16-7-2 Julio Mederos in Miami in March 1955. He was inactive in 1956 and scored a couple of low level wins in 1957 but went 2-1 in fights that were not even main events before losing a close decision in San Francisco in May 1961 to Monroe Ratliff who had lost his last six fights.
That was the end of LaStarza as a fighter but he went on to have a successful career in television. He had moved to California and appeared in a World War II series The Gallant Men and had parts in 77 Sunset Strip, Perry Mason, Batman and in the film Point Blank. He eventually moved to Florida where his family had a cattle ranch and lived there until his death in 2009.