Who do you think are the 10 best Italian fighters of all time

Yeah, in the '60 he was probably the best Italian BW along with Piero Rollo! He was a good boxer, technically sound, smart, not very powerfull. Probably could have done more than what he did, judging by his skill-set. Piero Rollo for example was less talented than him but with much of a stronger personality (and good power), three times European Champion.
Zurlo first lost to Burruni and then to Alan Rudkin, one of the best bw in the world by that time: in that fight Zurlo injured a knee and was forced to drag that leg around the ring for many rounds before being put to rest by the ref.

 

Your English is a hell of a lot better than my Italian. :good

 

Thanks for the insight, my dad is Alan Rudkin that's why I was asking. Curious to how Franco was remembered in his home country. I believe he was a top amateur as well. Do you know if there is any film exists of him in action. I recently saw an interview of him on youtube. It was good to see him in good health.

 

By the way, welcome to the forum!

 

haha thanks man, I appreciate.
One of the many reasons for which I want to write here is to improve it a little bit.

 

wow, what an honour! Your father was an amazing fighter. That came out of nowhere, i'm a bit stunned! haha
Yeah I believe Franco had a great amateur career, I think it was 4 time Italian amateur champion (back when it meant something), and I know for a fact that when he turned pro everybody had great expectations. The thing is he turned pro late: He came just long for the '60 olympics in Rome (the era from late '50s to very early '70s is the golden era of italian boxing, those divisions where stuck of great boxers. From the early 70s a slow decadence till now where pro boxing in Italy is virtually dead), and decided to wait till after Tokyo '64 (where he ended up bronze) to turn pro.
At this time there were a shitload of great bw, especially mexicans, and to fight for the world championship you had to go there.. probably not always worthy. He was very good at long range, and even if not powerfull still well capable of hurting with a perfect fast shot. I believe that by the time he fought burruni he was too young professionally for a fighter like that. Anyway his career went on well and he became european champion. After losing to your amazing father basically his best days were past. In the interview on youtube you mentioned he says that he then opened a restaurant and didn't boxed for 2-3 years, but then his love for boxing took over and at 37-8 yo sold the restaurant to turn back to boxing, and successfully became for the second time european champion beating Salvatore Fabrizio. He also said that even if he had to stop at 40yo (Italian federetion's rules), by then he still felt young and strong and would have loved to continue to fight.
Franco is still well remembered in the Italian Boxing community, but I have to tell you that unfortunately nowadays boxing in Italy shrunk terribly, isn't well regarded/known by the masses and hardly find it's space on minor tv network late at night. You wouldn't find many non-boxing fans that know him so easily. Probably hardly any. At least Italian Olympics National Council provide him a life annuity, and he's been nominated "Cavaliere della Repubblica Italiana" (Knight of the Italian Republic) for sport merits.
I am 100% sure RAI has plenty of Franco's fight on film, since back then italian television broadcasted boxing every week. The problem is, being they the morons they are, most of that huge amount of tapes of all those great fighters are probably in an archive taking dust, and there's no way to put your hands on them. But I will search if I find something in the next days.
Anyway I would love to know if your father talked to you about him sometimes, and of course what he said
Now I have to run, but I would love to talk to you again soon, and thanks for the welcome

 

He was but he wasnt great and he was way down on the list of great Italian fighters IMO.

 

Anyone? I really don't want to have to make a dedicated thread on Italian-American heavyweight rankings.

 

Joe Calzaghe

 

Thanks for that. I live in Spain and it's the same over here, boxing isn't as popular as it was back in the 60's-70's. You never see any on the tv these days which is a shame. I've got film of Franco against Johnny Clark in a European title fight and I've got to tell you it's a real battle of attrition. I've also got film of Salvatore Fabrizio against Clark which is another war. Unfortunately I can't post them on youtube because I promised the person I got them off that I wouldn't. I can however get them up on a private setting and send you a link if you would like to see them.

 

Decent list. I take it to qualify the fighter had to live in the USA? Carnera was born in Italy.

Give him bonus point for humor. When a sports reporter asked Carnera what he thought of Hollywood, Carnera said he'd knock him out too. Later in life he owned an Ice cream parlor.

 

yeah I would be very happy to see them, and so would my father (he was born in 1944 and I owe to him most things I know about those days, and my first contact with boxing too). Anyway, the RAI case is a typical example of italian mismanagement, it's really sad because they have an unlimited amount of material, left decaying in dust.

 

I'll sort it out for you and I'll be in touch.

 

Yeah, I'd define Italian-American as ethnic Italian but either born or naturalized US citizen.

Primo had a sense of humor but in that dept Galento is probably #1...and maybe even p4p, not just among heavies.