Showing posts with label Boxing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Boxing. Show all posts

26 October 2018

Primo Carnera - boxer

Heavyweight’s career dogged by ‘fix’ rumours


Primo Carnera became world heavyweight champion in New York in 1933
Primo Carnera became world heavyweight
champion in New York in 1933
The boxer Primo Carnera, who was world heavyweight champion between 1933 and 1934, was born on this day in 1906 in a village in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.

After launching his professional career in Paris in 1928, Carnera moved to the United States in 1930 and spent many years there, returning from time to time to Italy, where he had a house built for himself and his family, but not permanently until he was in declining health and decided he would like to spend his final years in his home country.

He won 89 of his 103 fights, 72 by a knockout, although there were suspicions that many of his fights were fixed by the New York mobsters who made up his management team, even including the victory over the American Jack Sharkey that earned him the world title.

Physically, he was a freak.  Said to have weighed 22lbs at birth he had grown to the size of an adult man by the time he was eight. By adulthood, he was a veritable giant, by Italian standards, standing 6ft 6ins tall when the average Italian man was 5ft 5ins.  His fighting weight was as high at times as 275lb (125kg).

Born into a peasant family in the village of Sequals, around 45km (28 miles) west of Udine, at the northern edge of a plain bordering the Friulian preAlps, Carnera had little option but to leave the area as soon as he was strong enough to work.

Primo Carnera, who stood 6ft 6ins tall, towered above the average man of his day, as this news cutting shows
Primo Carnera, who stood 6ft 6ins tall, towered above
the average man of his day, as this news cutting shows
In the aftermath of the First World War, Sequals was a place of devastation and deprivation, with no prospect of finding employment.

Carnera left at the age of 12, finding his way to France where he did labourer's work, carrying bags of cement, laying bricks or cutting stones. At 17, he joined a travelling circus, where he was variously paraded as a freakshow giant, a strongman, and a wrestler.

He entered the fight business after a journeyman French heavyweight came across him in a park and recommended him to a boxing manager called Leon See.  Within two weeks, he was in the ring and within less than 18 months had a wins to losses record of 16-2.

Even then, given Carnera’s lack of technique, there were suspicions that See’s underworld connections were playing a big part in his success. His physical size made him a money-spinner in terms of tickets sales and it was in the interests of both his own camp and his opponents’ for his reputation to grow.

Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll, an Irish villain who was part of Carnera's management team
Vincent 'Mad Dog' Coll, an Irish villain who
was part of Carnera's management team
See took him to the United States, where it was not long before his management team was populated by characters with such dubious names as Vincent ‘Mad Dog’ Coll and Owney ‘The Killer’ Madden, both of whom were involved in organised crime.

In his United States debut at Madison Square Garden, Carnera’s opponent fell in unlikely fashion only a minute into the fight and over the next four years Carnera’s bouts followed a similar pattern.

The press nicknamed him ‘the Ambling Alp’ because of his slow movement around the ring and his poor technique yet he remained a major draw. It has been suggested that he even believed his own publicity, convincing himself that his fists somehow packed superpowers.

His winning of the world title came as a major surprise because Sharkey had beaten him comprehensively only a year before.  However, when it was not in the interests of his mobster connections for him to win, Carnera often took a heavy beating.

For example, when he defended his world title against Max Baer in June 1934 he was knocked to the canvas 13 times before losing on a technical knock-out.

Yet he was allowed to continue his career and retired only when a combination of kidney failure and diabetes made it impossible for him to continue.

Carnera ahead of his 1935 fight with future world champion Joe Louis, who knocked him out
Carnera ahead of his 1935 fight with future
world champion Joe Louis, who knocked him out
His post-retirement life was carefully planned, Carnera announcing in 1930 that he wanted to build a luxurious house in Sequals to which he intended to retire.  The project was completed in 1932, when architect Mariano Pittana unveiled a cutting edge design featuring Anglo-Saxon and Art Nouveau features. Carnera remained in the United States but returned to Italy for holidays.

Carnera holds the second-most victories of all heavyweight champions with 88. His 71 career knockouts is the most of any world heavyweight champion, yet his legacy will be forever tarnished by the accusation that many of his fights had pre-arranged outcomes.

In addition to boxing, Carnera enjoyed an acting career in which he appeared in more than 10 films, and wrestled professionally as well.

His story entered popular culture in several ways, with his life depicted in a number of books and films, notably Budd Schulberg’s 1947 novel, The Harder They Fall, which was about a giant boxer whose fights are fixed.

It was made into a film by the Canadian producer and director Mark Robson in 1956, starring Humphrey Bogart.  Controversially, it featured Max Baer, playing a fighter the mob could not fix, who destroys the giant in his first fair fight.

There were obvious parallels with the real-life Baer-Carnera fight two decades before. In response, Carnera sued the film company, but was unsuccessful.

Married since 1939 to Giuseppina Kovačič, a post office clerk from Gorizia, Carnera became an American citizen in 1953, when he and his wife opened a restaurant in Los Angeles. They had two children, Umberto and Giovanna Maria.

Carnera died in 1967 in Sequals from a combination of liver disease and diabetes. He was 60 years old.

The Villa Carnera in Sequals is open to visitors
The Villa Carnera in Sequals is open to visitors
Travel tip:

The Villa Carnera in the pleasant village of Sequals can be found in the Via Roma, set back from the road near the junction with Via San Giovanni.  In what was then a relatively poor community, with simple houses built from local stone, Carnera’s large art Nouveau house, equipped with running water, electric light and heating, seemed like a fantasy palace.  Since 2012, the villa, which was sold by the Carnera family to a private individual in 1972, has been open to the public on Sunday afternoons from May to the end of October, displaying an exhibition about Carnera’s life.

The Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Pordenone
The Corso Vittorio Emanuele II in Pordenone
Travel tip:

Pordenone, in whose province Sequals falls, is an attractive small city of around 50,000 people with a rich history reflected in many beautiful palaces, churches, frescoes and monuments. The city centre has many elegant pedestrianised streets, including the historical Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, linking Piazza Cavour with the Gothic-Romanesque cathedral, which contains among other artworks a painting attributed to the Venetian artist Tintoretto.

More reading:

Vito Antuofermo, the farmer's son who became world champion

How Giuseppe Curreri became Johnny Dundee

The Sicilian boxer whose son was the legendary Frank Sinatra

Also on this day:

1797: The birth of mezzo-soprano Guiditta Pasta

1954: Trieste becomes part of Italy


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3 October 2018

Alessandro Mazzinghi - boxing champion

Tuscan fighter held world title twice


Sandro Mazzinghi won the world light middleweight crown in 1963 and 1968
Sandro Mazzinghi won the world light
middleweight crown in 1963 and 1968
The boxer Alessandro 'Sandro' Mazzinghi, who won the world light middleweight championship twice in his 64-fight career, was born on this day in 1938 in Pontedera in Tuscany.

Mazzinghi won the title for the first time at the Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan in September 1963, defeating the American Ralph Dupas, defending his title successfully in a rematch in Sydney, Australia in December of the same year.

He lost the crown to fellow Italian Nino Benvenuti in 1965 at the San Siro football stadium in Milan but regained it at the same venue in May 1968, defeating  the South Korean Ki-Soo.

He did so after recovering from an horrific car crash in January 1964 that claimed the life of his young wife, Vera, only 12 days after they were married.

The couple had been on their way home to Pontedera from a gala dinner in Montecatini Terme in Tuscany when their car slid off a muddy road in heavy rain and collided with a tree.  Vera was killed instantly and Mazzinghi, who was thrown from the car, suffered a fractured skull.

He was in a critical condition for several days but recovered. Amazingly, though, he was back in the ring within weeks and by the end of that year had made two more successful defences of his world title, against the American Tony Montano in Genoa in October and an Italian fighter, the European welterweight champion Fortunato Manca, in Rome in December.

Sandro Mazzinghi (right) in the ring with Nino Benvenuti in the 1964 title fight in Milan
Sandro Mazzinghi (right) in the ring with Nino
Benvenuti in the 1964 title fight in Milan
This created a clamour in the Italian sporting press for him to be matched with Benvenuti, an Olympic champion in Rome in 1960 who would go on to be regarded as one of the greatest Italian boxers of all time.

Mazzinghi resisted, claiming he had not been allowed enough time to recover from his accident to take on a fight of such magnitude, but Benvenuti pointed out that he had been in the ring 10 times since the crash and therefore must be fit.

The fight took place on a scorching June night in front of a sell-out crowd of at least 60,000 at the San Siro stadium, home of AC Milan and Internazionale football clubs.  The fight was close until Benvenuti connected with a right uppercut in the sixth round and Mazzinghi could not make the count. In the rematch in Rome it seemed Mazzinghi would exact revenge but Benvenuti came back strongly in the final rounds to win on points.

Nonetheless, Mazzinghi battled back to regain the title three years later on a split decision after a titanic struggle against Ki-Soo Kim, having won the European light middleweight title in 1966 against the Frenchman Yoland Leveque, a title he successfully defended four times in the next 18 months.

Mazzinghi during a TV interview to  mark his 70th birthday in 2008
Mazzinghi during a TV interview to
mark his 70th birthday in 2008
His world title defence against the fearsome American Freddie Little ended with his retirement with cuts to both eyebrows and a controversial ‘no contest’ verdict which allowed Mazzinghi to keep the title. However, the decision was overturned by a tribunal and the fight awarded to Little.

Mazzinghi was trained as a young man by his brother, Guido, who had been an Olympic medallist in Helsinki in 1952.  He turned professional in 1960 and fought without a break for 10 years, retiring in 1970 and making a brief comeback in 1977 before being obliged to quit for good, having reached the mandatory age limit.

He was married for a second time to Marisa, with whom he had two sons, and after boxing had a short career as a singer. He subsequently wrote several books after boxing and his life.  Nowadays he lives with his family at a villa in Tuscany, where he produces wine and olive oil.

Mazzinghi remains a celebrity in Pontedera, where there is a bronze statue of him in front of the municipal sports centre.

Pontedera's Palazzo Pretorio on the main square
Pontedera's Palazzo Pretorio on the main square
Travel tip:

Pontedera, the birthplace of Alessandro Mazzinghi, is in the province of Pisa in Tuscany in the Arno valley. Nowadays it houses the Piaggio motor vehicle company, the Castellani wine company and the Amedei chocolate factory. It was the seat of some notable historical battles. In 1369, the Milanese army of Barnabo Visconti was defeated by Florentine troops and in 1554 an army representing the Republic of Siena defeated the Florentines.  The area was badly hit when the Arno flooded in 1966, causing catastrophic damage in Florence in particular.

The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza is instantly recognisable for its distinctive spiralling walkways to the upper tiers
The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza is instantly recognisable for
its distinctive spiralling walkways to the upper tiers
Travel tip:

The San Siro Stadium was built in 1925 as one of Italy’s only purpose-built football stadiums, without the athletics track between the stands and the pitch which was a feature of most publicly-owned arenas.  Originally a stadium for AC Milan, it has been the home of both major Milan clubs since Inter moved from the Arena Civica in central Milan in 1947. Its capacity when it opened was 35,000. It was extended between 1948 and 1955 to accommodate 100,000 spectators with the addition of two extra tiers and the construction of the spiralling ramps to the upper tiers that give it its distinctive appearance today. Renamed the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza in 1980, it has hosted matches at two World Cups (1930 and 1990) and the 1980 European championships.

More reading:

How Vito Antuofermo rose from toiling in the fields to riches in the ring

Giuseppe Curreri - the Sicilian kid who became Johnny Dundee

The Calabrian childhood of bodybuilder Angelo Siciliano, better known as Charles Atlas

Also on this day:

1858: The birth of actress Eleonora Duse

1941: The birth of opera star Ruggero Raimondi


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19 November 2017

Johnny Dundee – world champion boxer

Sicilian changed his name to sound non-Italian


The boxer Johnny Dundee, who was a child when his family emigrated to the United States, was born in Sciacca, a town on the southwest coast of Sicily, on this day in 1893.

Johnny Dundee contested more than 330 professional bouts
Johnny Dundee contested more than
330 professional bouts
Dundee, regarded by many boxing historians as the first of the great Italian-American fighters, had more than 330 fights in a 22-year career in the ring.

At the peak of his career, in the 1920s, Dundee won both the world featherweight and world junior-lightweight titles.

Dundee’s real name is thought to have been Giuseppe Curreri, although some boxing records have his second name as Carrora.  The large numbers of Italian immigrants arriving in New York at around the turn of the 20th century, few of whom spoke any English, sometimes overwhelmed officers at the city’s processing station on Ellis Island and mistakes in recording details were common.

There are variations, too, in accounts of how old Giuseppe was when his family uprooted him from his childhood home, with some saying he was just five but others suggesting he was nine.

What seems not in dispute is that his family joined other Italian families in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, a tough area of overcrowded slums where gang warfare was rife and young men such as Giuseppe needed to learn quickly how to look after themselves.

It was as a street kid that Giuseppe was noticed by the boxing promoter Scotty Monteith, who would scour the working class neighbourhoods looking for potential fighters.  He noted that, though smaller and younger than many gang members, Giuseppe would rarely be on the losing side in a scrap.

A young Dundee pictured early in his career
A young Dundee pictured early in his career
He approached the youngster and asked if he would be interested in taking his fighting talent into the ring.  Naturally, given how little money his family had, he jumped at the chance – even though he was told at the outset he would have to change his name, at least when he was in the ring.

Racial stereotyping and prejudices were rife in New York at that time. Italians, particularly Sicilians, were regarded with suspicion, with many other ethnicities believing them to be dishonest and cowardly.

Most of the professional fighters were from Irish stock and Monteith knew he would find it hard to sell tickets to watch an Italian.  The story goes that he proposed he called himself ‘Johnny’ because it was a popular name in the Irish community and ‘Dundee’ because that was the Scottish town from which his own family originated.

The name change earned him a nickname – ‘the Scotch Wop’ – that would be unthinkable in today’s politically correct times.

As Dundee he won his first fight and went on to enjoy a career that brought him almost 200 wins, including 17 by knock-out, despite the general view that he lacked punching power.  He suffered only two knock-outs himself in his whole career.

Dundee was renowned for his quick feet and skilful glovework
Dundee was renowned for his quick
feet and skilful glovework
Apart from his quick feet and canniness in the ring, Dundee’s other great quality was his patience.  His first attempt at a world title, against the world featherweight champion Johnny Kilbane, came in his 87th fight and ended in a draw.

He then had to wait eight more years, until fight number 265 in November 1921, for another opportunity.  This time, he was successful as opponent George ‘KO’ Chaney was disqualified, and Dundee was crowned world junior lightweight champion.

The following year the boxing board of New York recognised him as the world featherweight champion, when he beat Danny Frush by knockout.

Dundee successfully defended his junior lightweight crown three times in all and though he lost in to Jack Bernstein in 1923 he regained in a rematch with the same fighter later in the year.  Also in 1923, he unified the featherweight title by defeating Eugene Criqui.

Dundee lost both his titles in 1924 yet continued to box for another eight years before retiring in 1932 at the age of 38.  Only two professional fighters in history had contested more bouts and he is widely recognised as among the top five featherweights of all time.

Despite that, he fell on hard times in later life and was grateful for the generosity of his long-time supporter Ed Sullivan, the TV variety show host, whom he had befriended as a cub reporter and at whose wedding he was best man, in coming to his aid when he was almost destitute.

He died in New York in 1965 at the age of 71.

The view from Piazza Scandaliato in Sciacca
The view from Piazza Scandaliato in Sciacca
Travel tip:

The town of Sciacca, in the province of Agrigento on the southwest coast of Sicily, has a large fishing port and despite the presence of thermal baths is not a notable tourist destination, although it has a rich history going back to the seventh century BC, when the island was under Greek control. Its medieval centre has changed little over the years, with many streets and alleys too narrow for cars.  At the edge of the centre, the broad Piazza Scandaliato offers panoramic views across the harbour.

The well-preserved Temple of Concordia in Agrigento
The well-preserved Temple of Concordia in Agrigento
Travel tip:

Around 62km (40 miles) along the coast southeast of Sciacca, the provincial capital Agrigento, a city of 55,000 inhabitants built on a plateau overlooking the sea, is regularly visited by tourists largely for the ruins of the Greek city Akragas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site generally known as the Valley of the Temples and, at 1,300 hectares, the largest archaeological site in the world.  Situated on a ridge rather than in a valley, the site features a series of temples, the most impressive of which is the Temple of Concordia, one of the largest and best preserved Doric temples in the world, with 13 rows of six columns, each 6m (20ft) high, still virtually intact.

Also on this day:






9 February 2017

Vito Antuofermo - world champion boxer

Farmer's son from deep south who won title in Monaco


Vito Antuofermo won the European light-middleweight title in 1976 and became world middleweight champion in 1979
Vito Antuofermo won the European light-middleweight title
in 1976 and became world middleweight champion in 1979
Vito Antuofermo, who went from working in the fields as a boy to becoming a world champion in the boxing ring, was born on this day in 1953 in Palo del Colle, a small town in Apulia, about 15km (9 miles) inland from the port of Bari.

He took up boxing after his family emigrated to the United States in the mid-1960s.  After turning professional in 1971, he lost only one of his first 36 fights before becoming European light-middleweight champion in January 1976.

In his 49th fight, in June 1979, he beat Argentina's Hugo Corro in Monaco to become the undisputed world champion in the middleweight division.

Antuofermo's success in the ring, where he won 50 of his 59 fights before retiring in 1985, opened the door to a number of opportunities in film and television and he was able to settle in the upper middle-class neighbourhood of Howard Beach in New York, just along the coast from John F Kennedy Airport.  He and his wife Joan have four children - Lauren, Vito Junior, Pasquale and Anthony.

He grew up in rather less comfort. The second child of Gaetano and Lauretta Antuofermo, who were poor tenant farmers, he was working in the fields from as young as seven years old.

Antuofermo (left) in action against Britain's Alan Minter
Antuofermo (left) in action against Britain's Alan Minter
Often travelling two hours even before starting work, young Vito would help to harvest grapes, olives and almonds, sometimes trudging along behind a mule-drawn plough attempting to break up sun-baked earth to prepare for planting crops.

It was physically hard work from which it was difficult for his family to make a living and after a series of severe droughts in southern Italy, they decided to move to the United States, where Lauretta had an uncle living in Brooklyn, New York.  Leaving Gaetano to follow later, she took her two oldest boys, hoping they would find opportunities for a better life. For Vito, one came along - although not in a way he had planned.

Picked up by the police with two other young men after a fight in the street, he was lucky that his arresting officer was a boxing fan and a friend of Joe LaGuardia, the ex-boxer in charge of the gym at the Police Athletic League. Instead of taking the three into the police station, the officer took them to the gym, instructing LaGuardia to “see if you can do something with them."

Vito Antuofermo in 2006 after his induction to the Boxing Hall of Fame
Vito Antuofermo in 2006 after his
induction to the Boxing Hall of Fame
LaGuardia saw potential in Antuofermo, who lacked physical strength but packed a good punch and never backed off his opponent.  He inspired him by talking about Rocky Marciano, another son of southern Italian immigrants, who was world heavyweight champion from 1952 to 1956, and Antuofermo became fixated with the idea of becoming world champion too.

As an amateur, he won the New York Golden Gloves championship in 1970, turning professional the following year after it became clear his status would not allow him to compete for Italy or the United States in the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

He began to rack up wins and good purses as a professional, even winning the approval of his father, who had initially opposed his ambitions to box.

Victories over former world champions Denny Moyer and Emile Griffith in November 1974 confirmed Antuofermo's potential, and he claimed his first major title by defeating Germany's Eckhard Dagge on his home soil in Berlin to become European champion in January 1976.

His reign was short-lived, the British fighter Maurice Hope taking the crown from him nine months later.  It was another British boxer, Alan Minter, who deprived him of his world title in March 1980, again after only nine months, although Antuofermo did have the satisfaction of making one successful defence, against America's Marvin Hagler, who would go on to beat Minter for the title in 1980 and hold on to it for seven years.

Antuofermo quit the ring after losing to Hagler in 1981 but make a comeback in 1984, winning four more bouts before defeat to Canada's Matthew Hilton in Quebec in October 1985 prompted him to retire for good.

Antuofermo played a bodyguard in The Godfather Part III
Antuofermo played a bodyguard
in The Godfather Part III
After retirement, Antuofermo enjoyed success as an actor. He was picked for a small role in The Godfather Part III as the chief bodyguard of gangster Joey Zasa and was a mobster in the hit television show The Sopranos.  After Godfather star Al Pacino persuaded him to take acting lessons, he also landed a series of parts in theatre plays.

Never afraid of hard work, he was employed by the Port Authority of New York as a crane operator for a sizeable part of his fight career, while his business pursuits included stints working in marketing for Coca-Cola and for an Italian beer company, and running a landscaping company in Long Island.

Travel tip:

Often overlooked in favour of Lecce and Brindisi when tourists venture towards the heel of Italy, Bari is the second largest urban area after Naples in the south of the country. It has a busy port and some expansive industrial areas but plenty of history, too, especially in the old city - Bari Vecchia - which sits on a headland between two harbours.  Fanning out around two Romanesque churches, the Cattedrale di San Sebino and the Basilica of St Nicholas, the area is a maze of medieval streets with many historical buildings and plenty of bars and restaurants.  There is also a castle, the Castello Svevo.

Find a hotel in Bari with Booking.com

Bari's San Sebino cathedral by night
Bari's San Sebino cathedral by night
Travel tip:

Bari's more modern centre is known as the Centro Murattiano, or the Murat quarter, in that it was built during the period in the early 19th century in which Joachim Murat, for a long time Napoleon's most trusted military strategist, ruled the Kingdom of Naples, of which Bari was a part.  Set out in a grid plan between Bari's main railway station and the sea, the area is the commercial heart of the city and the home of the most prestigious shops, but also of a vibrant night life in a city with a large student population.



More reading:

Angelo Siciliano - the Brooklyn Italian who became Charles Atlas

How Bruno Sammartini dodged wolves and Nazis in Abruzzo before finding fame in the wrestling ring

Why charismatic Joachim Murat's life was ended by a firing squad

Also on this day:

1621: Alessandro Ludovisi becomes Pope Gregory XV

1770: The birth of classical guitar composer Ferdinando Carulli