Tony Galento's greatest hits

Tony Galento is a poster boy for Louis haters and sincere Louis critics, so I think we should examine some of his best wins. He started a fairly respectable winning streak in 1937 which continued to the beginning of 1940 when he got beaten up by Max Baer. His notable wins in this period include:

Al Ettore
Ettore was a tough contender who had recently split a close series with John Henry Lewis. His only previous stoppage losses were at the hands of the bomber himself, and the hard punching Charlie Retzlaff. Galento knocked him clean out of the ring twice en route to a TKO win.

Leroy Haynes
Haynes had been highly hyped following his two destructions of the ageing Primo Carnera. He was being set up as a possible title challenger for Joe Louis, and might have been manoeuvred into a title shot had he not taken a fateful fight against a certain New Jersey landlord.

Nathan Mann
Mann had been the #3 ranked contender when Joe Louis handed him his first knockout loss in 3 rounds. Tony Galento accomplished the same feat three months later in two rounds. This set Galento on a collision course with the champion.

Lou Nova
This guy was hyped to the hilt. He had beaten the snot out of Max Baer, and had beaten Tommy Farr more convincingly than either Louis or Baer. Some people were actually picking him to beat Louis. Then he took a routine stay busy fight against Galento.

Other fights worth mentioning:

Don Red Barry
Galento knocked him out in the first round. He would never be stopped again until he suffered a TKO loss to the bomber himself in the third round! A year later Barry would hold John Henry Lewis to a draw and beat Tiger Jack Fox.

Harry Thomas
Not an elite fighter but he was stopped 3 times in his career.

Max Schmeling TKO8

Joe Louis KO5

Tony Galento TKO3

 

The Mac Foster of the period.

 

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I do think that Galento's power was right up there with the hardest hitters of the era such as Max Baer and Curtis Shepard.