Tony Galento. How good?

See, to me, calling Galento the era's Tua would be like calling Greg Page the era's Muhammad Ali.

 

Tony "Too Fat" Galento was more of a wicked punching bartender who took a damn good shot to the chops, but was too fat and normally ran outta gas after 6 hard rds....... Galento could catch and KO the typical "Ham & Egger" of the early 1940s to post wins on his record, but he failed miserable in light of decking Joe Louis' ass in circa--'42....... Louis arose to butcher Galento's fat ass.......

STILL! Galento was a tuff cookie who liked his steak and beer a little too much.....
:shock::yep:scaredas:

MR.BILL

 

Can't remember who I heard it from, must be someone on here who has more information on it.

 

He put Louis down, so was definitely a live underdog.

 

Usually I've heard that Dempsey beat him up, some say KO'd, but I doubt it. It's one of those stories that gets exaggerated to make it sound better. An old Dempsey giving Galento a beating in sparring to teach Galento a lesson is a good enough story as it is.

 

This is from a preview of the Louis-Galento fight in The Ring, June 1939-by Dan Daniel

"Two-Ton Tony is no recent development. He has been in and out of the ring for the last 12 years."

"Jack Dempsey had him, and could not see any material with which to work even in a picture which begged for human interest in the heavyweight class. Jack laughs at the whole thing, and, of course, derides the idea that Galento can fight."

"It has been the contention of this magazine that Galento has not shown enough fighting skill and a record sufficiently impressive to warrant his being matched with Joe Louis."

"You have the New York commission relenting. You have Mike Jacobs changing his mind. You have the public accepting. You have the Louis vendetta angle. You have the results of perhaps the most astonishing ballyhoo in the entire history of the kniuckle industry."

"As a matter of fact, is this Galento match so much worse than the Dempsey affair with Carpentier? The Gallic Orchid Man was much too small and light for Jack. Carpentier was hidden away at Manhasset, Long Island, in a training camp closed to the writers. They would deride the match into a flop if they knew Carp scaled little more than 165 pounds."



*Louis vendetta--Louis was supposedly outraged that Galento had called him a bum.

**Much of the article details how a gag writer named Harry Mendel had been hired to make Galento over into a "colorful" character by inventing quotes, and how this tactic, plus feeding Galento a steady diet of set-ups, had gotten him into the position of being accepted as a contender.

 

It was common knowledge that Dempsey who was a trainer for young galento,got angry at Tony for not listening to him.Leaving Galento in the ring Dempsey put on a pair of gloves,and flattened Tony with a left hook, that Lou Stillman in interviews said "was the hardest punch he ever saw".
Ray Arcel, Whitey Bimstein and others were there as well...
On a personal note..I must have been in Stillmans gym in the 1940s 100
times, and I would hear from spectators who I talked to, telling me of this event that afternoon, as they were there...They were casual about that event, as well as older than I was..This event was told to us in the gym
from people who did not know each other...Lou Stillman was a tough old ******* and saw thousands of fighters and had no reason to fib years later...

 

Tony Galento had talent but wasted it with his bad attitude towards training. If he had been in shape he could have been a Marciano-type fighter, or at least a lot closer to that level of consistency than he actually was.

As it was, he was dangerous and tough, and a nightmare opponent with all his foul tactics, good enough to KO several contenders and knock down Joe Louis, but he was a bum when it came to training himself into shape. He lost lots of fights because he wasn't in condition to overcome serious athletes who could outbox him.

He certainly wasn't the buffoon the publicity made him out to be. He was a vicious puncher and tough as they come. He should also be commended for his willingness to take on everyone, including several good black fighters at a time when many white boxers steered around anyone who was good and black.

 

http://news.google.co.uk/newspapers...IBAJ&pg=1830,6892324&dq=dempsey+galento&hl=en

 

nice find, does not mention a KO, which is odd, always thought he got KO'D. Its clear Dempsey loves to fight though.

 

Thanx. I still have yet to see a source that Dempsey flattened Galento deader than a doorknob with one hook. I think that is a myth that has been sensationalized over the years.

 

Like the one about Marciano dropping Ali with a body-shot after Ali repeatedly messed with his wig.

 

Yep. Which has been dispelled for quite some time.