[1980-06-25-Joint Promotions] Marc Rocco vs Mal Sanders

[SAMS]

1980-06-25
Joint Promotions
Marc Rocco vs Mal Sanders
Combat Challenge Shield Semi Final Match
Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
★★★★

This is the other heat of the aforementioned Combat Challenge Shield tournament. Rocco, being the GB Heavy-Middleweight Champion, outweighed Sanders, the European Middleweight Champion, by 1 ¾ stones and was the favourite going in.
The first round was a showcase for Sanders, allowing him to work some escapes off of Rocco’s holds. Rocco was reasonably well behaved early on but it only took him until midway through the second round before he began his antics. Rocco really had an ability to rile up a crowd. This was the same crowd as the David/Jones match and they were pretty quiet throughout that one apart from the high spots. Throughout this match they were consistently loud and a lot of that had to do with Rocco. As per usual he would bend the rules, often getting in extra shots when he should break or when his man was grounded, and his offense really looked brutal considering they were usually simple kicks or knee drops. 
Over the next few rounds he built up a series of unfair advantages with these attacks and picked up his first public warning. Eventually Sanders had had enough and he retaliated and really showed a lot of fire, enough to justifiably earn a public warning of his own as he unleashed a punch right at Rocco’s throat. Sander’s really started going at Rocco and the crowd were going mental in support of him. His performance here was miles better than when he matched up with Bobby Barnes earlier in the year and would justify his “Superstar” nickname.
In the fourth round Sanders was able to capitalise on his momentum and catch Rocco in a pin, going 1-0 up, and backing him into a corner with only two rounds to go. The fifth round had Rocco continue pushing the limits, picking up his second public warning after a series of late shots, and he really was on the brink of a disqualification. Sanders at one point sold a late elbow drop onto his back like absolute death and this extra damage he was accruing illegally looked like it would surely give the round to Rocco. Instead of merely winning the round and tying things up, a desperate attack by Sanders allowed him to get caught and Rocco literally spiked him into the mat with a devastating Piledriver for the KO victory.

[tcg91]

Thanks for recommending this! This was great. The match started with very clean and polished sequences of mat wrestling, but the announcer was spot on when he predicted that Rocco would change his behaviour once he got frustrated and cornered, as that is exactly what happened. Rocco got two warnings and kept bending the rules as much as he could, getting Sanders so frustrated that he started striking his opponent with fury and got a warning of his own (but the crowd exploded, which is perfect build and climax). Sanders sold everyting quite well, but took a few risks to stop Rocco's attacks and got hit by a piledriver. Rocco is smart not to cover, instead winning by KO due to the match rules
***1/2