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 the first seven rounds and staged an excellent defense, but in the remaining eight rounds, Walcott fought furiously in a close battle where the crowd could not anticipate the outcome til the referee's decision. In the third round, Langford brought Walcott to one knee with a blow to the jaw. Walcott met world lightweight champion Joe Gans in a non-title fight at Woodward's Pavilion in San Francisco on September 30, 1904, and scored a draw after 20 thrilling rounds. Many in the crowd believed Gans should have received the decision. The lightweight champion gained a lead from the second till