Hope at MSG

Silliest Ring Event in History: Rocky Marciano Versus Bob Hope, Bing as Referee

RCM Historical Boxing

By Robert Brizel, Head Real Combat Media Correspondent

Not every exhibition by Rocky Marciano, Muhammad Ali, Jack Johnson and Joe Louis is documented, as there were too many to count. Perhaps the second silliest ring event was Rocky Marciano’s ring charity appearance against Jerry Lewis.

 

By far the silliest exhibition ever record took place at the opening of the new Madison Square Garden in 1968, for a Bob Hope television special saluting the United Service Organizations (USO) with Bing Crosby as the referee. Rocky play boxed with onetime boxer Bob Hope (you now know how Bob Hope’s trademark nose wound up the way it did), then played patty cake, then danced with comedian Hope. Barbara Eden, Jack Dempsey, Gene Tunney, Ed Sullivan and Bing Crosby also enter the ring to dance with each other.

 

Among the stranger and more forgotten gems in Madison Square Garden ring history. Hope was a comedian, and managed to get three famous world heavyweight champions into the ring. If Bob could have gotten Elvis Presley, Liberace, Jerry Lewis and Joe Louis to join the ring comedy party, it could have been sensational.

And so it was. This is all worth mentioning because as Bob Hope showed us, when following any sport, it is so important to maintain a great sense of humor always!

 

Rocky Marciano versus Bob Hope at Madison Square Garden on YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M61pSYmXfbQ

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