I stumbled upon this "Character" whilst looking into another matter, Does anyone remember this guy ? A one time highly-touted prospect Al was active from 1971 to 1982 and was nicknamed (by Some) the white Ali, he apparently garnered an amateur record of 28 - 0 with 28 ko's and expectations existed that Al might cause a few ripples in the Pro Ranks, Early in Al's career he boxed an exhibition with Ali himself, apparently Angelo Dundee was impressed enough to arrange for him to appear on quite a few of Brother Chris Dundee's Miami Beach Shows Al's boxing career/life in quick overview might be said to fall into three categories, The Good, The Bad, and the Downright Sad, The Good - Al Finished with a rather good statistical record (if accurate - confusion reigns ?) 41- 4-2 (37 ko's ) it certainly appears Al carried a sizeable wallop, and one victim was a know quantity, Big Dave Matthews, a former heavyweight Prospect himself, who i actually remember being outslicked by the young John Conteh in Conteh's early attempted Heavyweight career, apparently the victory got Al a "Prospect to Watch" write up in the Bible of Boxing, Ring Magazine. Al seemed to be headed in the right direction..... The Bad - When scratching below the surface...not a lot of true merit is found, Al was not adverse to going over very old ground, reversing and doing it again.. it seems, fighting the same guys, twice, three times, on the spin, James Youngblood four times, Ron Casey four on the the Spin (Ko 2/ Ko 2/ Ko 3/ Ko 2 ) and yes, Ron Casey yet another three times for good measure (maybe more if Ron had Alias's ?) What was going on here...Family friends making money with some form of Backyard Boxing ? ( a case of Mad'Son Square Garden ? ) Al Subsequently Hiccuped on a Banana Skin called Lou Rogan for a quick taste of his own medicine...Al won some and Lost some after this as his career drifted to its natural conclusion. The Downright Sad - Al, The White Ali's ability to sting like a bee, particularly against his calibre of opposition was never in doubt, however his inability to float like a butterfly was evident from his sad early demise at 40 years of age, Al it appears thought it would be a great stunt to present the match ball at his sons football game on 3rd Nov 1989 at Lake Mary High School Stadium Zephyrhills, Florida - Starting his journey from nearly 4000 feet ! - by skydiving down to the field ...clutching the match ball Al sadly came down in a neighbourhood street, four blocks away....with Terminal Impact. It seems that Als main chute failed to deploy properly, the Rip-cord on the reserve chute was not pulled when tested later it worked fine. so an element of mystery remained...but was perhaps due to a combination of errors ? This was a Night Jump, and it appears Al was not too honest when it came to his complete lack of experience of night jumping (a special licence would of been required) Al wore a pro football helmet - not a skydiving helmet, was his Vision obscured and judgement compromised ? Also Al was apparently clutching the ball shouldn't it of been in an attached holdall, leaving Al "Hands-Free" to action his reserve chute Rip-cord ? Al Migliorato seemed to of been an engaging guy, on the fistic front Al seems to of been one of those "characters" operating on the fringes of the mainstream, a sort of cross between Claude Humphrey Mcbride (minus the weight problem ) and Don "Biff" Cline, and like the aforementioned they were probably worth their few paragraphs of Boxing writers ink if for no other reason than the short "Dab" of colour they lent the more serious proceedings the sanctity of Some of this cribbed information is probably open to dispute given the confusions Does anyone remember Al Migliorato with any greater clarity (accuracy ?) Personally i wish i could of had a few beers with Al - i'm sure it wouldnt of been boring ! RIP Al Migliorato
His name pops up on the boxrec forum a lot...think his record was a very doctored one...or at least one that's hard to prove.
