We The Italians | The Italian American stars in US sports: Boxing

The Italian American stars in US sports: Boxing

The Italian American stars in US sports: Boxing

  • WTI Magazine #92 Jun 16, 2017
  • 9604

After the First World War, with the increase in industrialization and well-being, the American people grew increasingly interested in entertainment and sports. The newspapers of that time often titled about the "Jazz Age" and the "Golden age of sports", in an enthusiastic race towards the '20s. Many Italian Americans, especially of second generation, sought with enthusiasm and effort to get out of the cliché of the eat-spaghetti emigrant.  

Before then, only one of them had achieved a true national reputation, the tenor Enrico Caruso. Boxing was one of the shortcuts used by the Italians to jostle, often competing and sometimes defeating Irish boxers and those of Jewish origin who dominated the scene. Moreover, very often they changed their Italian names, adopting the ones most similar to their adversaries: Fireman Jim Flynn, the first to send to the mat in the first round the great Jack Dempsey in 1917, was born Andrew Chiariglione.

Pete Herman, aka Peter Gulotta, of Italian origin, was one of the greatest bantamweight of all times, world champion from 1917 to 1920. We remember his famous 5 matches against Joe Lynch (3 wins for Pete and 2 for the opponent), whom he beated again winning back the title in 1921. He retired at age 26 due to serious vision problems, and opened a club in the French Quarter of New Orleans. Herman-Gulotta is on the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

Johnny Wilson, real name Giovanni Panica, was the first boxer of Italian descent to win the title of world middleweight champion in 1920. He remained champion until 1923, and retired in 1926 after 15 years of professionalism having fought 101 matches.

Johnny Dundee (real name Giovanni  Carrora, born in Sciacca in Sicily in 1893), nicknamed the "Scotch Wop" in his long career (1910-1932), fought against all the greatest boxers of the time, claiming an impressive number of matches (more than 300!). In 1921 he became junior lightweight champion and remained champion until 1923. In the same year he became world featherweight champion beating Jack Bernstein. Dundee-Carrora is a Hall of Famer. 

Fidel LaBarba was a great amateur national champion and part of the US team at the 1924 Olympics, where he won the flyweight gold medal. After becoming a professional, in 1925 he won the US champion title against Frank Genaro and then, in 1927, he became world champion defeating Elky Clark. In 1933 LaBarba was forced to retire due to retinal detachment. He graduated in journalism at Stanford University, embarking on a new career as a Sports journalist and Hollywood consultant for boxing movies.

After a distinguished amateur career, Sammy Mandell (born Saverio Mandala in Piana dei Greci, a fraction of the town of Palermo in Sicily), also known as "Rockford Sheik", became world lightweight champion in 1926 by defeating Rocky Kansas. In the 1928-1929 biennial he kept the title beating Tony Canzoneri and Jimmy McLarnin, and then he lost it in 1930 against Al Singer. He is in the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

Frankie Genaro (real name Frank DiGennaro) won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Antwerp in 1920 and then, as a professional, won the title of world flyweight champion in 1928, retaining the crown until 1931. He too had the glory of being in the Hall of Fame.

Battling "Bat" Battalino (real name Christopher Battaglia from Hartford, CT), good amateur, American champion in 1927 and then became world featherweight champion in 1929 beating the French boxer Routis at the age of 21. He remained champion until 1932, and later induced in the Hall of Fame.

Tony Canzoneri belongs to the small circle of those who were awarded a world crown in three or more different weights. In 1928 he became world featherweight champion, in 1930 he won the world title in the lightweight and in 1931 again but in the lightwelterweight. The famous Ring Magazine named him Fighter of the Year in 1934. Member of the Hall of Fame, Canzoneri had a record of 137 wins, 24 losses, 10 draws and 3 no decisions. 

Tommy Paul (born Gaetano Alfonso Papa in Buffalo from Italian parents) was world featherweight champion in 1932, but lost the crown the following year against Freddie Miller. He retired in 1936 and took care of the training of other boxers until his final retirement.

Alfredo "Fred" Apostoli, the son of Italian parents from in San Benedetto del Tronto who tragically died leaving him orphan, grew up and started boxing by the sisters of an orphanage in San Francisco. National amateur middleweight champion in 1934, world champion among the professionals in 1938, during the Second World War he fought and was hurt in the Pacific on board of a Navy cruiser. Apostoli too has been included in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. 

Young Corbett III (born Raffaele Giordano in 1905 in Rionero in Vulture, province of Potenza), a lefty world welterweight champion in 1933 and middleweight in 1938, after retiring became a wine producer and an instructor in the gym of California's traffic police, before being included in the Hall of Fame. 

Luigi D'Ambrosio, renamed Lou Ambers. In 1929, at the age of 16, he was forced to seek work when his father (who had emigrated to America from Caserta), because of the collapse of the economy, burned up his savings and had to relinquish his family activity, a pastry shop. In addition to working at a Herkimer factory in the State of New York, he began boxing for a few unofficial clandestine cheap matches under the name of Otis Paradise. During an interview in the 1960s, Lou said that he had fought at least 136 clandestine matches in addition to the 104 official fights of his pro career. World lightweight champion from 1936 to 1938 and then from 1939 to 1940, he too is a Hall of Famer. Herkimer's hometown dedicated him a road. 

Harry Jeffra (real name Ignazio Pasquale Guiffi) a native of Baltimore, was professional from 1933 to 1950 and world bantamweight champion in 1937 and world feitherweight champion in 1939. He's in the Hall of Fame, too. 

Emilio "Melio" Bettina from Bridgeport, CT, was world heavyweight champion in 1939 by defeating Tiger Jack Fox. 

Sammy "The Clutch" Angott (born Salvatore Engotti in Washington in 1915), professional since 1935, was world lightweight champion in 1940, fighting against some of the best boxers of his era like Henry Armstrong and Ray Sugar Robinson. 

Rocky Graziano (birth name Thomas Rocco Barbella) grew up in the disadvantaged background of the Lower East Side of New York. Metropolitan champion among amateurs ("I immediately pawned the medal I won for $15"), he is considered one of the top 100 professionals of any time from every era despite his problems with the army and betting inquiries. Close friend of President Reagan, his autobiography Somebody Up There Likes Me became an Oscar-winning film in 1956. 

Sal Bartolo (born Salvatore Interbartolo, nicknamed "The Pride of South Boston") had a great amateur career. After getting pro he became national champion in 1939 and then world featherweight champion of NBA (National Boxing Association) in 1944. 

Willie Pep (Guglielmo Papaleo from Middletown, CT), hall of Famer, two time world champion from 1947 to 1950, survived at a plane crash, married six times and was nominated by the Associated Press as one of the greatest featherweight of the century. 

Jake LaMotta (born Giacobbe La Motta), famous for his fights against Sugar Ray Robinson that inspired the film Ranging Bull (eight Oscars winner), was world middleweight champion in 1949 and had a particularly lively life.

Rocky Marciano (born Rocco Francis Marchigiano): his father Querino left Ripa Teatina and landed at Ellis Island in 1912. Marciano was a world heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1956, and retired undefeated. Considered one of the greatest boxers of every age and category, he died in an air crash. 

At the bottom of this long list of true champions, we want to briefly remember a few of other Italian Americans who deserve at least a mention. Joey Maxim (Giuseppe Antonio Berardinelli), world light heavyweight champion from 1950 to 1952. Pasquale "Paddy" DeMarco, world lightweight champion in 1954. Tony DeMarco (Leonardo Liotta), world welterweight champion in 1955. Carmine "Carmen" Basilio, Hall of Famer and world welterweight champion between 1955 and 1957 and world middleweight champion between 1957 and 1958. Attilio "Rocky" Castellani, fierce opponent of Sugar Ray Robinson in the mid-fifties. The world champions in the 60s Wilfred "Willie" Pastrano and Joey Giardiello (Carmine Orlando Tilelli, also Hall of Famer); and the ones in the 80s like Vito AntuofermoRay "Boom Boom" Mancini and Vinnie Paz (Vincenzo Pazienza). 

Last but not least, we mention two great Italian American trainers like Cus D'Amato and Angelo Dundee (Angelo Mirena).