At the end of a bout that featured more proper fighting among the occupants of the £100 ringside seats than inside the ropes in Manchester on Saturday night, Tyson Fury proclaimed he will regain the world heavyweight championship by the end of the year. What Rocky Marciano would have made of that boast can only be imagined.

Seventy years ago next month the heavyweight champion who would finish his career with a record of 49 wins and no defeats fought for the first time as a professional under his own name. A local paper mangled it in their report, however, and Rocco “Rocky” Marchegiano was given the name by which the world would come to know him.