two ton tony galento....

Well Jackie Gleason was doing a gig in some club but he was being constantly heckled by some fat middle aged bloke.
After a while Gleason got sick of it and told the man to step outside. Gleason swore that the man was outside in a flash. The two were out in the street and the next thing Gleason remembered was waking up in his dressing room.
Turns out the man who knocked him out was none other than Tony Galento.

 

That's funny Rebel! So perfect for those politcally INcorrect times. Thanks.

 

Galento could not out box any top ten heavyweight today. I don't think he would be ring ranked unless he upset someone, which is possible with his power. And even if Galento Upset someone, he would not stay near the top for long.

 

Yeah its a great story, Gleason used to tell it a lot in interviews apparently.

 

That sounds like him.

 

Good assesment.

Anyone with a big punch could in "theory" score an upset, but when looking at fighters across eras, we have to take a lot more things into consideration, than just the possibility of a lucky punch. There is a certain degree of probability that needs to be weighed into the equation. While boxing has seen a fair number of deconditioned top raters since the dawn of time such as Tony Tubbs, Tim Witherspoon, Samuel Peter, etc. None were as badly out of shape as Tony Galento, and what's more, most of those guys at least had other qualities to compensate for their shortcummings, other than dirty tactics and an unorthadox way of prize fighting. Not to mention, some of our more modern fighters, did not so easily get away with fouling their opponents, nor benefitting from mob connections. Had Andrew Golata been Italian, and fighting in New Jersey in the 1930s, would he really have gotten disqualified for pounding the **** out of a black man's nuts?????

 

I agree with this.

 

I love that question. It's funny. But truth is, the boys didn't give a **** if you were Italian, Irish or Belgian, if you could be got to then they wanted to sit down and have a converstation. Though I would agree that a lot of Italian fighters, especially the ones on the East Coast, probably got the first chance to sell themselves out; but if you weren't gonna play ball you could have had roots in the same Sicilian village as them, cooked up a marinara as good as their grandmother's, and had the baritone of a Caruso, you were a leper.

 

You dont actualy need to beat a top 10 fighter today either to get ranked or to get a shot at a version of the title.

Take my word for it.

Gallento would get ranked and he would fight for a title.

 

Not with his record. While non- top ten fighters do get title shots, they usually have good-looking records attached to their name. Galento record on paper has too many losses to journeyman.

Galento was fat, 5'9", and had limited skills. Unless two of those three bad assests somehow change, I can't see Galento having anything more than a puncher's chance.

 

Personally, I really can't see Galento beating any of the top 20 rated heavyweights today. Even fighters like Matt Skelton, Eddie Chambers, and Danny Williams would have my vote to beat him. Hitting people with low blows and thumbing fighters in the eye, would get Tony nothing today except a lot of DQ's. His horrible conditioning and low class persona would also be a turn off for a lot of people. He simply would not fit into the fight seen today...

 

Galento was just like david tua. both 5'9 around 240lb.....both overweight but both had tremendous durability, and devastating left hooks. galento fought more out of a crouch low center of gravity, while tua fought more upright and was faster.

 

Are you kidding?

He would butcher those guys. They never made it at world level for a reason.

I could probably pick a number of people he beat who would also take the Skeltons and Williams of today.

Certainly there would be constraints on his foul tactics but if he was likley to get DQd he would just reign them back like he did against Joe Louis.

 

It may be a stretch, but not out of the question either.

They are currently top 20, and some of them may even have breached the top 10 at sometime in the past. " World level " in Galento's day was also a tad different than it is now. Galento received big fights during his era, due to corrupt promoting, dirty fighting, and perhaps even a fixed fight here and there.

Highly speculative.

A man of his foul tactics, would possibly run the risk of getting banned from the sport today. While there are certainly fighters who have been guilty of getting away with murder in today's era, the difference between them and Galento, is that he was far more consistant about using such methods.

I will also ad, that I think its fair to assume that Galento was probably not a fighter who Louis took very seriously, resulting in him getting tagged a few times. Had Louis gone after Galento with the same intentions that he hunted down Schmeling with in their rematch, Tony's career may very well have ended right then and there.....