Boxing day

The 56th film in the “Rocky” series recently hit screens, and the franchise seems to be as popular as ever. As I understand it, in the new movie, Rocky Balboa, still played by Boris Karloff, returns to the ring to fight Rocky Marciano.

Of course, I made up the movie plot. But, unlike Balboa, the “Marciano” Rocky was real. In fact, he retired from the ring with a record of 49-0 — and his unbeaten status was not achieved by folks like Joe Louis, Muhammad Ali, Jack Dempsey, Mike Tyson or Ezzard Charles (the latter of whom I include not only because he was a heavyweight champion but because he reportedly once, with a single punch, knocked an opponent’s brain loose from its supporting tissues. Ouch!).

Anyway, back to Rocky Marciano.

His amazing life, in which he overcame the schemes of corrupt promoters and achieved celebrity status through his athletic prowess and Everyman beginnings, has been chronicled in a new book by Pulitzer-winning journalist/author Mike Stanton. It’s called “Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World,” and Stanton will discuss the work and sign copies Sunday at the Savoy Bookshop and Cafe in Westerly. Stanton, who earlier wrote a bestselling biography of former Providence mayor Buddy Cianci, is a former reporter for the Providence Journal and is now an associate professor of journalism at the University of Connecticut.