Zale Bypassed Lamotta & Took Graziano

I have always felt that the pre,WW 2 middleweights of Tony Zale's time was as great an era as anytime...Look at the talent they had. At random...
Fred Apostoli
Freddie Steele
Tony Zale
Billy Conn
Charley Burley
Georgie Abrams
Al Hostak [could he hit!]
Billy Soose
Teddy Yarosz
Ken Overlin
Marcel Thil
Solly Krieger [non tougher]
Jock McAvoy
Anyone of these guys would be MW champions today, but IMO Gennady
Golovkin might someday be included with this package of pre-war middleweights...

 

Don't forget Holman Williams, Eddie Booker and Archie Moore!

- Chuck Johnston

 

That era was incredibly bad ass. More needs to be written on it and on that division specifically.

 

pre war and war years which Zale lost most of, Zale was the better man and fought some top boys and bigger too, post war I would still give him the odds in a series with Jake. LaMotta was a great of course, but benefitted from Welters cum Middles and the film the Raging Bull 35-40 years later!

great fight yes, but Zale didn't have to worry as he faced, beat and lost to bigger greater foes!

 

Zales old sparring partner, my friend Leon Thompson, felt LaMotta would have beaten both Zale and Cerdan (as did Allen Rosenfeld who wrote a good book on Burley and saw both guys live several times) at any time and admitted that Zale avoided LaMotta. Thats coming from a guy who was a lifelong friend of Zales.

 

Yes these guys certainly were in the mix....:good

 

Jake LaMotta was a beast.

 

Looks to me that with the titles frozen there was a whole circuit of over due contenders ready for a shot and the promoters gave the public the biggest fight they could make.

The public wanted graziano and they got graziano.

When Joe Louis came back they made the Conn rematch for the same reason.

Lesnavich got the Mills fight because the money was huge.

There are times in history where the public demand the wrong fight for the right reasons. I say "right" because the majority dictates what is deemed right. Louis should have fought Bivins, Lesnavich should have fought Charles, same as Larry Holmes should have fought Greg Page but the public demanded Cooney...

It is easier to make a superfight if the challenger is not strictly the most outstanding contender.

 

Page, nor Dokes, was definitely not ready for Larry Holmes in 1982.

 

Nobody was, not in 1982.

 

For whatever it's worth, here's what Tony himself said concerning the subject of La Motta according to his nephew Ted:

"Clay… he said he would have been happy to fight LaMotta anytime but (his) management wanted the biggest draw when they put the title on the line. Rocky was definitely that as well as a knockout artist with that big right hand and a favorite in NY city. Tony said he had heard of both of them fighting back in New York when he was stationed in Puerto Rico but figured they might not even be around when he was released from active duty... Thought his management would know best where to get the largest pay day and was satisfied that they chose the Rock… From Tony’s view all he ever wanted was a match and an opportunity to prove who he was in the ring and why he was the champion. Never minded going toe to toe win anyone at any time…"

 

Interesting quote from Zale and his management Pian and Winch about Hostak.
All said young Al, had he bypassed Zale, a fighter he wasn't ready for, and got another yr or so development would have been one of the great middles.

 

But Hostak was already 24 years old with over 50 professional fights under his belt when he faced Zale the first time. What is the source of these quotes from Zale, Pian and Winch that you refer to?

 

http://fultonhistory.com/