Invisible Italian American boxers

Nov 17, 2017 2690

BY: JOSE CORPAS

Invisible Italian American boxers – To the untrained eye, it seemed that prior to the 1920s there were few noteworthy American boxers of Italian origin—and a limited presence in the decades that followed. But behind many Irish boxing names, there frequently stood an olive-skinned, dark-haired fighter with a hidden identity.

More than one thousand Italian professional boxers went by Irish pseudonyms. Italian immigrants entered boxing at a time when the booming American economy took advantage of Italian muscle to fuel the nation’s growth. However, the ruling elites—the very ones who benefitted from cheap immigrant labor—disparaged Italians, describing them as “biologically incapable” and a “burden on America.”

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SOURCE: http://www.thesweetscience.com

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