[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VH9bdloBRGk[/ame] This is a fun bit I've had saved for a while. I thought I'd post it. Baer seems like he must have been one of the most amiable guys outside the ring. Good stuff. It's too bad movies need a bad guy because Baer was never the way they made him out to be on Cinderella Man as far as I'm concerned (Loved the movie anyway). From the page: "Lou Costello was the 'funny man' to his 'straight man' partner, Bud Abbott. But prior to entertaining in vaudeville, burlesque, radio, movies and TV, as the comedy team "Abbott and Costello," Louis Francis Cristillo fought as amateur boxer "Lou King" in Paterson, New Jersey in the 1920s. He won 32 straight fights before being knocked out, a loss which ended his boxing career. Lou never lost his keen interest in boxing. In some very rare footage, Lou interviews Max Baer following his win over Tony Galento. Max's pal, Joe Louis lends shy support." PS: Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere.
Ray Arcel once said of Max Baer ''I loved the big guy, he was a big kid who never grew up and every time I was with him I felt twenty years younger'' Baer never quite took boxing seriouly, but when he was at his best and focused, he was a determined, ruthless and one of the hardest punchers of all time, his right hand was a sledgehammer. Bear almost liked everyone he fought and never held a grudge, but there was one fighter he cound't stomach. ''Two Ton'' Tony Galento. Nobody ever really liked Galento, except the guys who worked at his saloon. Tony was a crude guy to put it in a light manner, who would resort to all sorts of fouls to win a fight. At the weigh in of Galento and Baer, Galento shouted his extremly abusive mouth off. He would call Max a yellow bum and prosimed to make him quit when he got him into the ring. Baer's face was flushed, Ray Arcel would dig his his fingers into Baer's rib saying ''Don't let him get your goat, Max take care of him later tonight'' But Baer was riled up and he growled at Galento ''No you won't you fat slob, you're the one who's going to quit'' And Max kept to his word. In the fight Galento was as foul as ever, he butted, heeled, bit and ripped at Max's face with the lace of his gloves. But Baer fought with a savage fury and chopped ''Two Ton' to pieces. Baer really did want to kill Galento that night. Galento had also angered Baer leading up to the fight, by sending him a postcard showing to scraggy, unkempt bears pawing for one another, across which he had written, ''Max and Buddy and this goes for your whole family, you bums''! The grudge fight drew 22,711 fans to the ball park and Galento was actually the favourite going into the fight, due to the strength of knocking Joe Louis down in there title fight and his savage victory over Lou Nova, Baer had been stopped by Nova 12 months earlier. Galento also claims to have had trouble with his brother leading up to the fight, saying his brother threw a beer glass at him, due to a ticket dispute. The fight ended with Galento, a bleeding, chopped down hulk sitting in his corner refusing to come out for the 8th round. And if you watch the fight, you can see Baer and Galento cursing each other constanley through out the fight. Galento never really had no interest in training, Galento's idea of roadwork was to sit in the car and smoke a cigar while his sparring parthers got themselves into shape. Why he asked reporters who came upon the scene ''should I pay these bums all that good folding money and do all the work myself''? When one bored writer referred to the not-too distant preference of Gene Tunney for reading Shaw, Samuel Butler and Shakespeare while in training camp, Galento frowned, thought for a moment and said ''Shakespeare? I aint never hearda him. He must be one of dem European bums, sure as hell I'll moider that bum''
