Tony Galento
American boxer and professional wrestler (1910-1979) · United States · On the map · Athletes · Died at 69
Dominick Anthony Galento was an American heavyweight boxer. He is best remembered for scoring a third-round knockdown against Joe Louis in a world title stoppage loss in June 1939. Active from the late 1920s to the early 1940s, he compiled a record of 79 wins, 26 losses, and 6 draws.
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A 1904 map of the Oranges, New Jersey. Galento was born in Orange in 1910.
Sportswriter Grantland Rice wrote that Galento absorbed punches "like open buds absorb the dew"
Former heavyweight champion and 1920s cultural icon Jack Dempsey, pictured here in a pencil sketch by the Hungarian-born caricaturist Henry Major, reputedly gave a young Galento a thorough shellacking in Stillman's Gym in New York City.
Yankee Stadium circa 1925: the venue of Galento versus Louis in 1939
Ida B. Wise Smith, president of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union from 1933 to 1944. The night before Galento versus Louis, Smith sent a telegram to Louis in which she made plain her organization's preference for "clean-charactered young men to users of alcohol."
Joe Louis circa 1935
A theatrical poster for the original 1950 Broadway production of Guys and Dolls. Galento, in an uncredited part, appeared in the 1955 MGM film adaptation. In a 1955 stage production that was mounted in a tent near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, he played the role of 'Big Jule'.About this person
Besides Louis, Galento fought against several other prominent heavyweights of his era - including Al Ettore, Arturo Godoy, Lou Nova, and Max and Buddy Baer. Though assumed by some sportswriters to have been a reference to his "pulchritude" or physical appearance, Galento's nickname, "Two Ton", was apparently derived from his work as an iceman: a job he pursued in tandem with his pugilistic career. On one occasion, as a result of his ice-lugging commitments, Galento was reportedly upbraided by his cornerman for being late for a bout. "Take it easy", the New Jersey-born slugger reputedly replied to his colleague's complaint, "I had two tons of ice to deliver on my way here. I'll be right up." In addition to "Two Ton", Galento was also known as the "Jersey Nightstick", the "TNT Kid", the "One-Man Riot", the "Orange Orangutan", and the "beer barrel that walks like a man". The boxing historian Bert Sugar called him a "human butcher block".
