Rick Lewando remembers the days when boxing meant something, when he’d watch great fighters like Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier on the “Wide World of Sports” broadcast.
Later it was the likes of Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns – “big names,” Lewando, 46, said, and even bigger personalities. “We’d all chip in and rent the fights” to watch on TV, said his wife, Janice Lewando. But now, Rick Lewando said, there “are a lot of nobodies” in boxing. Instead, he and his son will watch mixed martial arts fights, which in many respects, has flown past boxing in popularity. But sitting inside Joe Angelo’s Cafe in downtown Brockton on Saturday, Lewando spoke of a return – if only for a few days – of boxing to the city’s spotlight. It will come in the form of the champion he never got to see: Rocky Marciano, whose memory will be front and center this week as representatives from the World Boxing Council visit to discuss plans to construct a statue here in his honor. “You’re talking about the undefeated, heavyweight champion from a middle-class Italian immigrant family from Brockton,” Lewando said. “He hasn’t gotten the recognition he deserves.” In what’s spanned several years and many delays, plans for a possible 33-foot-tall, bronze statue of Marciano are expected to be officially announced in a press conference Tuesday in front of City Hall. It’ll conclude a visit by WBC President Jose Sulaiman, who with other boxing officials and former boxers Vinnie Paz and Gerry Cooney will tour the statue’s prospective site, Marciano’s former neighborhood and at least two city restaurants. The statue’s arrival in Brockton was spurred by an Enterprise-led campaign in December 2007. More than 600 people wrote to Boston Mayor Tom Menino asking him to reject the World Boxing Council’s initial proposal to place the statue in Boston. Nearly four years later, the movement is expected to be made official. “It’s about time,” said Charles Elias, a Brockton resident and employee at Jack’s Breakfast on Belmont Street. “It’s about time. I think it took too long.” Sulaiman and other boxing notables are scheduled to arrive Monday evening for an invitation-only reception at George’s Cafe on Belmont Street. On Tuesday, they will take part in a tour of the city with all events open to the public. Included in it will be lunch at Joe Angelo’s, where owner Joe Angelo plans to unveil a 50-plus-pound bronze plaque honoring Marciano’s former trainer Allie Colombo that he hopes will be included with the statue when it’s built near Rocky Marciano Stadium. “I think it’s going to be unbelievable,” Angelo said of the delegation’s visit. “When I was growing up, Rocky Marciano was it. He put Brockton on the map. He was like an idol to us, and to finally have a statue in his honor. … They’re putting it in a beautiful spot up near the high school.” Charlie Tartaglia, owner of George’s Cafe, said 280 people have been invited to attend Monday’s night event. Tartaglia’s uncle served as Marciano’s corner-man during his fights in Providence, R.I. “The statue would be a culmination of a dream,” Tartaglia said.