Unbeaten

By: Mike Stanton

Narrated by: Keith Szarabajka

Length: 12 hrs and 12 mins

Publisher's summary

From the best-selling author of The Prince of Providence comes a revelatory biography of Rocky Marciano, the greatest heavyweight champion of all time.The son of poor Italian immigrants, with short arms and stubby legs, Rocky Marciano accomplished a feat that eluded legendary heavyweight champions like Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Muhammad Ali, and Mike Tyson: He never lost a professional fight. His record was a perfect 49-0.

Unbeaten is the story of this remarkable champion who overcame injury, doubt, and the schemes of corrupt promoters to win the title in a bloody and epic battle with Jersey Joe Walcott in 1952. Rocky packed a devastating punch with an innocent nickname, "Suzie Q", against which there was no defense. As the champ, he came to know presidents and movie stars - and the organized crime figures who dominated the sport, much to his growing disgust. He may have "stood out in boxing like a rose in a garbage dump", as one sportswriter said, but he also fought his own private demons.

In the hands of prizewinning journalist and biographer Mike Stanton, Unbeaten is more than just a boxing story. It's a classic American tale of immigrant dreams, exceptional talent wedded to exceptional ambitions, compromises in the service of a greater good, astounding success, disillusionment, and a quest to discover what it all meant. Like Suzie Q, it will knock you off your feet.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2018 Mike Stanton (P)2018 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Superb book: the full story in great detain

Wonderful book covering Rocky’s life from birth to his premature death in a small plane crash. The fight descriptions make you feel like you are there. Masterful Storytelling. Only complaint is that I wish the reader had more voices in his repertoire. A must for anyone who loves the “sweet science”.

Rocky

The narrator Keith Szarabajka of this Audible book "Unbeaten" was great. Like a great movie it starts off a little slow but keeps building into a great story as the story of Rocky Marciano continues into an epic true story of Rocky's life. Definitely worth the time and money spent!

A Great champion!

Told the story the way Rocky would have liked, about a true, honest and compassionate man.

Enjoyable

Really enjoyed listening to the history and legacy of Rocky. Especially the parts about his sparring with Ali.

Drives you to look up the fights

I couldn't move forward at times until I watched the fights online. Amazing that even seeing it he seems to have untold power. Really a great listen.

Good work

This is a nicely written book performed very well. I’m always amazed when the person I’m learning about seems to become a friend and I begin empathizing with their story.

Good but Disillusioning Too

If you’ve ever seen films of Rocky Marciano’s fights you’ll know that the book didn’t do justice to his amazing punching power. It’s really startling to actually see. A powerhouse boxer who never seemed secure or comfortable with himself or life, the book weaves kind of a sad picture of Rocky and his odd quirks. Driven by poverty and the knowledge that without boxing he really had no other driving forces in life and not much ability or desire for anything. Perhaps that’s what makes the great ones though, and it surely helped propel Rocky’s hunger for the ring. It is sad how people took advantage of him for money and how he became more of a wanderer in life than anything else. Good research though but the narrator used pretty much the same NY accent for all of the characters. They all basically sounded the same. It was a good listen though about an interesting life.

Great book, terrible accents in the reading

A great book is nearly marred by the caricaturistic reading, especially of Black people. The reader should just read the book, not act badly and stereotypically.

Wow .. times have changed .

I've been a big boxing fan for many decades. This was a great read. Many many things that I did not know about Rocky. I did notice a couple of small details that were incorrect, but that did not take away from the story.