Louis v. Ali opposition.

Don´t come with that weight-****. In his time it was normal, the average-weight for a HW was 190 lbs ca., so what´s your point? I know that he ate like a pig and didn´t train seriously, it´s hardly to overlook. Dokes also was a coke-addict and didn´t train seriously, but he was also for some years one of the best HW´s, I could name you 100 of such examples...

I never said that Galento was a great fighter or so, it would be ridiculous, but he was a serious contender who beat some good fighters...

 

Okay, you make some good points. And I hope you don't think that I'm sterotyping all Italians as being connected to the mafia. But Tony Galento was a man who both him and his career had mob written all over it. he beat some good fighters, but I have to question some of those fights, like the Lou Nova bout, where he continuously thumbed him in the eye, and the ref wouldn't disqualify him.

He was an okay fighter, but I don't know if I'd call him a " serious contender".

 

Hey, no problem, perhaps it sounded harsher than I meant it! :good
Serious contender, well, I just meant that he was one of the best fighters in his era (Top 20)...

 

It was Galento's Left hook that rocked Louis not the Mafia

 

Galento did more than enough to earn his title shot. He was coming off 11 consecutive knockouts including ones over a number of name fighters of the period.

As for him having mob conections I find it unlikley. The fact is that he never held down the same manager for more than six months.

 

Galento was so untalented, he was often laughed at by the crowd for his ineptitude.

 

...and Kenny Bugger definitely took a dive when they fought back in 41. According to his manager Blackie Smalls.

 

I think you're being over-harsh here.

You have to realise that not every boxer looks like Muhammad Ali, Larry Holmes or the technically perfect fighter that your trainer wants you to be.

Boxers have always had distinctive styles which is why opinions are so wide-spread on mythical matchups and why fights are still being bet on.


If you look at Max Baer, you have an awefully crude fighter. Yet he was linear heavyweight champion of the world and won it by dethroning a technically much better opponent in Carnera.

A guy like Marciano looked like he put his gloves on for the first time, yet he has records in KO percentage and undefeatedness that haven't been broken for a full 50 years before or after! His opponents were master boxers from a technical point of view yet they couldn't expose his "crudeness".

George Foreman threw wide looping, telegraphed shots and was wide open for straight shots, yet he went 37 fights without losing one and destroyed technically adept fighters like Frazier and Norton and was one of the top heavyweights of his era and of all time.

David Tua was able to ice top accomplished boxers like Moorer and Ruiz within a minute yet he was fat and pretty one-handed in his offense (left hook) and pretty limited otherwise. Sounds a lot like Galento doesn't it?
Vitali Klitschko looked like he was inviting right hands in the way he carried his left, yet no one ever landed it consistently on him nor outboxed him.

Calzaghe was called an unorthodox slapper and Kessler was the younger, more technically correct boxer with a lot more power. Yet Calzaghe beat Kessler comfortably.

I could go on, but you get the point. A technically or conventionally correct style never tells the whole story. Timing, will, power, finding angles etc are all just as important and Galento had some talent there. Of course i'm not saying he's off the calibre of the aforementioned fighters, but he wasn't a bum either.

 

So was Marciano.

 

Reasonable post until the last sentence, somebody gives George a bit of lolly and you think we're making him god. Of course he could be beaten, not like we didn't see it. Norton wasn't ko'ed by every puncher he faced either, Quarry was a puncher.

So what tho? He moidered Frazier, brutalized Norton and took on Ali for good measure. Good resume right there with two massacres to boot.

George was no-where near fully developed vs Peralta and bugger all weight can be put on these two fights, which George won of course.

 

You are right.

The crowd laughed at him but then he would destroy the more talented fighter who was meant to beat him.

He went through his entire career this way.

 

Tony Galento>>>>>Henry Cooper>>>>>Chuck Wepner