Brockton Gets Snubbed for Marciano Statue

The World Boxing Council should get its ears boxed. They have decided to build a statue honoring boxer Rocky Marciano. However, they are placing the statue in Boston, not in Brockton, where Marciano was from and where he became a legend.

Brian Ballou at the Globe spoke with the World Boxing Council president Jose Sulaiman, who verbally punched Brockton below the belt: "Boston is visited by people of the world." Does that mean Brockton is visited by people from Mars?

Just Tuesday, Maria Papadopoulos at the Enterprise wrote about Brockton residents who were getting excited about the statue, only to have their hopes dashed. Peter Marciano, Rocky's brother, told her, "Any place else [besides Brockton] really would not be to the liking of the Marciano family." With a statement like that, does the World Boxing Council really want to mess with the Marcianos?

Of course, the World Boxing Council wants to draw attention to the sport and make some money. They won't get that kind of attention in the smaller Brockton. But you'd think that, for PR purposes and goodwill alone, they would throw Brockton some sort of crumb, or at least some money so they can build their own statue.

Image of Rocky Marciano from Wikipedia.