Carmine Vingo fights, including a unanimous decision over highly regarded 16-2 contender Joe Modzele on a boxing card at Yankee Stadium in August 1949. A second round knockout of Al Robinson at Sunnyside Garden in Queens, New York, propelled Vingo into the world heavyweight rankings, and a crossroads bout with rising Rocky Marciano to determine a serious 'white hope' successor challenger for former world heavyweight champion Joe Louis and world heavyweight champion Jersey Joe Walcott. On December 30, 1949, at Madison Square Garden, Vingo, then 16-1, and Marciano, 24-0, fought a slugfest. Marciano put Vingo down in the first and second rounds.
Barbados Joe Walcott five times in the first round and was the aggressor throughout the bout. Choynski, a 3-1 betting favorite before the bout, suddenly became a 2-1 underdog after the sound of the first round bell. Walcott seemed to have a slight advantage in the second, though Choynski landed a solid blow. By the third round, Walcott pressed his advantage with a superior defense, and landed blows nearly at will before the sound of the bell. The fourth seemed even, with the fifth entirely in Walcott's favor, while in the sixth Walcott cut Choynski's right eye. Walcott sent Choynski to the floor