Inside Wrestling Magazine May 1969 Issue – Nature Boy Buddy Rogers vs Antonino Rocca
Inside Wrestling Magazine – May 1963
Antonino Rocca vs. Buddy Rogers
February 17, 1963 – New York City
‘My Toughest Bout”
Written and approved by Antonino Rocca
The one thing Buddy Rogers could not stand was to have an opponent twist and bend his legs. I learned that the first time I was in the ring with Rogers, and everytime I was in with him after that I centered my attack on his legs. The reason i call this particular match in NEW York with Buddy “the toughest I haver had” is because he was ready for me then as he had never been ready before. He had figured out a defens for his legs and he bugged me with it all night. Every time I even looked at his legs he took a step towards me and brought his knee up into my body. During that whole bout I was never able to touch his legs. Of course he was fooling me all the time, and I kept asking the referee to disqualify him. But the referee let him get away with it. When I got back to the dressing room my body was covered in lumps and every time I look a breath it felt like somebody was sticking a knife into me. This a bouth a want to forget.
Rogers was a master at choking opponents in such a way that the referee seldom caught him in the act. I spit blood for a whole month after this bout. I worked a lot on Buddy’s arms with the idea of neutralizing his attacks. The stragegy slowed him down only a little. I knew I had him when I raised him to my shoulders bounced him up and down a few times, spun around as fast as I could to make him dizzy, then slammed him to the mat just as hard as I could. The first fall was mine. You can see the condition Rogers was in after he hit the floor. I should have walked away with his title that night and I would have had it if it had not been for a referee whom I still say was blind.
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