Tony Zale, original name Anthony Forian Zaleski, by name Man of Steel (born May 29, 1913 Gary Indiana US; died March 20, 1997, Portage, Indiana), American professional boxer, world middleweight (160 pounds) champion during the 1940s.
Zale began his professional boxing career in 1934, but to make a living he spent much of 1935 and 1936 working in the steel mills of Gary. For the first seven years of his career, he did almost all of his fighting in Chicao. After winning the National Boxing Association (NBA) middleweight title with a 13th-round knockout of American Al Hostak on July 19, 1940, Zale defended that championship twice. On November 28, 1941, Zale won a 15-round decision (a fight whose outcome is determined by judges’ scoring) over American Georgie Abrams for the vacant world middleweight title. Zale lost a 12-round decision in a nontitle bout with American Billy Conn on February 13, 1942. Following this loss, his only fight in 1942, Zale enlisted in the US Navy.
Zale won his first six bouts by knockouts after coming out of the Navy following World War II. He then defended his middleweight title by knocking out American Rocky Graziano in the sixth round on September 27, 1946. Zale won five more bouts by knockouts in 1947 before defending his title again. This time he was knocked out by Graziano in the sixth round on July 16, 1947. On June 10, 1948, Zale and Graziano met for the third time with the title at stake, and Zale regained the championship with a third-round knockout. In his next fight, on September 21, 1948, Zale relinquished the title, losing to French-Algerian Marcel Cerdan in a 12th-round knockout. Zale retired following the Cerdan fight. His career record was 67 wins (45 by knockouts), 18 losses, and 2 draws. Zale was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1991. Encyclopaedia Britannica online article
[8.6] ROCKY GRAZIANO 77-67(52)-10-0: Rocky Graziano - The Independent online -
I quit school in the sixth grade because of pneumonia. Not because I had it, but because I couldn’t spell it. Rocky Graziano
Ma, your bad boy did it. Somebody up there likes me. Rocky Graziano, post-fight microphone second Zale fight
Rocky Graziano, the former middleweight boxing champion whose life was turned into a movie, died of cardiopulmonary failure last night at New York Hospital. He was 71 years old.
Mr Graziano had suffered a stroke before being hospitalized on April 8, Diana Goldin, public affairs director for the hospital, said.
In the ring, Mr Graziano was a primal force. While he lacked finesse and did not trouble himself much with defense, he had a taste for action that made him a crowd pleaser.
‘He was not a great fighter,’ Harry Markson, former president of Madison Square Garden Boxing, said recently, ‘but he was a good puncher and a tremendous competitor. He could knock you out with either hand. And when you knocked him down, he always got up. He put on a good show.’ As W C Heinz, a reporter who covered Mr Graziano for The New York Sun, put it in an interview: ''You could louse Rocky up if you wanted him to jab and move. So what you did was get him in shape and turn him loose.’
With his brawling style, Mr Graziano compiled a record of 67-10-6 from 1942 to 1952. His three bouts with Tony Zale in the years after World War II are considered classics of brutal action.
Zale knocked out Graziano in six rounds in September 1946 – their first battle – but the next time they fought, in July 1947, Graziano stopped Zale in six rounds and became world middleweight champion.
‘Afterward,’ Mr Heinz observed, ‘he told the press: ‘I wanted to kill him. I like him but I wanted to kill him.’ Which is so true of the fight instinct.’
Graziano lost his second rematch with Zale in June 1948 on a third-round knockout.
He would get one more shot at the middleweight title, but that came very late in his career, in April 1952, when Sugar Ray Robinson knocked him out in three rounds. After Graziano lost his next match, a 10-round decision to Chuck Davey, he retired.
He was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1971. The Independent online article 23 May 1990, ‘Rocky Graziano, Ex-Ring Champion, Dead at 71’
60) Tony Zale Lost KO3: US Fight Commentary
v Zale III: June 10th 1948 Newark New Jersey KO3 [r1] ... Rocky Graziano is down. A flash knockdown, he is up without a count ... [r2] Zale comes out with a sizzling right to the jaw ... [r3] ... A left hook to the jaw and Zale is on him with a flurry of punches ... He is knocked out and Tony Zale has regained the Middleweight championship of the world. (Boxers: Zale & Boxers: Graziano) US fight commentary
82) Sugar Ray Robinson Lost KO3: US Fight Commentary TV -
v Sugar Ray Robinson 16 April 1952 Middleweight Chicago [r1] … A good right over the left [Robinson] … Robbie hurt just a little bit … Very fast first round … [r2] … Graziano with heavy punches … Robinson is content to counter-punch … [r3] … Rocky’s hurt. US fight commentary
[8.6] SAM LANGFORD 256-178(128)-32-40 [Heavyweight & Light-Heavyweight & Middleweight & Welterweight & Lightweight]: Boxing Historian – Ring magazine – Ultimate Boxing Results online – Boxing News online - Daily Telegraph -
Experienced as a heavyweight James Toney with the punching power of Mike Tyson. Boxing historian, cited Wikipedia
#2 100 Greatest Punchers of All Time. Ring magazine
One of many top boxers denied a chance to fight for a world title largely because of racial discrimination that existed during the early twentieth century, Sam Langford was one of the greatest of all time.
A fine boxer, he combined skill with terrific heavy punching power, intelligence and courage. Standing only 5 foot 7 inches he gave away considerable height and weight to opponents but still knocked out leading heavyweights like Fireman Jim Flynn Gunboat Smith and Harry Wills. Had he been white Langford would surely have won at least one world title as he boxed from lightweight up to heavyweight, and beat several world champions.
He invariably made little money and often did not get paid at all by the promoters who conveniently did a disappearing act after the fight.
When Langford was boxing opportunities were rare for good coloured boxers, and Langford spent much of his twenty four year career facing the same coloured opponents over and over again, such as Harry Wills eighteen times, Sam McVey fifteen times and Joe Jeanette fourteen times. ‘What could I do’ he would explain to boxing scribes. ‘I had to fight someone. I had to make to some kind of living.’
One of Langford’s most famous victories was over Jack Johnson, who outweighed him by a stone and a half, in 1906, but when Johnson won the world heavyweight title from Tommy Burns in 1908 he wanted no part of Langford. Ultimate Boxing Results online
Sam Langford was deprived of a shot at a world title on the grounds of his skin colour. While this reasoning sounds nonsensical today, it was the sad truth during the colour bar era in which the ‘Boston Tar Baby’ fought.
With a 32ins waist and a chest measuring 44ins, Langford was an athletic and powerfully built physical specimen. Emanating from the small community of Weymouth in Nova Scotia, Canada, he stood at only 5ft 7 1/2ins and seldom weighed more than 11st 6lbs. Nevertheless, this did not prevent him from rising through the divisions during his illustrious career; he achieved notable success at every weight from lightweight to heavyweight, striking fear into the hearts of many of those he encountered in the squared circle. Boxing News online article
Sam Langford was the greatest fighter never to win a world title – he was a victim of the infamous ‘colour line’, which prevented black boxers from fighting for the title.
Langford fought in every class from lightweight to heavy, usually against larger and heavier men …
Most of his loses came when his vision deteriorated – poor eyesight forced him to quit boxing aged 43, in 1926. Daily Telegraph article