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Lightweight champion Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini will be the guest of honor at the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame’s Night at the Fights on May 5 at the Des Plaines Theatre. Olympic medalist Antonio Tarver, Junior Welterweight champ Paul “Paulie” Malignaggi and WBC Lightweight champ David Diaz will also attend, and entertainment will be p...

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First-generation, Italian American Jake LaMotta is remembered for his hall of fame boxing career, securing the middleweight championship in spectacular fashion at Madison Square Gardens in NYC on June 16, 1949.  LaMotta survived a turbulent upbringing in the Bronx, experiencing a rough, seedy and even criminal early life as a teenager and into his...

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New York columnist Mel Heimer met Brooklyn middleweight Jerry Fiorello about a week before Fiorello died, near the end of September, 1947. Fiorello was 29 years old. They met in Ann Lano’s dance studio on Madison Avenue. Heimer described Fiorello as being a physical impressive guy with “big shoulders” and “big hands.” He had “dark, curly hair and t...

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A skilled slugger, a contender before his 20th birthday, and one of the great boxing champs of the 1920s and 30s. Tony Canzoneri, a Louisiana native, turned pro at 16 and quickly took on seasoned competitors. By 22, he was already a two-time world champ, and by 23, Canzoneri was considered the best fighter, pound-for-pound, in the world. Fearless,...

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Sonny Conto’s image is larger than life on the casino’s gigantic LED promotional board, towering over traffic on a busy stretch of Packer Avenue. His feet are fast. His punches are powerful, but the South Philly heavyweight boxer’s personality could light up that board on its own during a power outage.   Conto is undefeated as a professional boxer...

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Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions has contacted Connecticut native John Scully, a former boxer and longtime trainer. Scully is training Band of Brothers actor James Madio to play Willie Pep, the late great featherweight champion who grew up in Hartford and Middletown. The Iceman, John Scully won Outstanding Boxer awards in 1987 and 1988 an...

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As a legendary boxing photographer, who has snapped pictures of some of boxing’s very best, Los Angeles-based Chris Farina has (literally) had ringside seats for some of the boxing’s elite, classic battles over the last 25 years. From Ring Magazine to Top Rank Boxing to ESPN, Farina has shot for boxing’s best platforms. However, before Chris got be...

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Being heavyweight champion of the world was a big deal when professional boxing was a mainstream sport – a very big deal. And in the early 1950s, an Italian-American called Rocky Marciano was the guy. Born Rocco Marchegiano on Sept. 1, 1923, he was one of six children in a working-class Italian immigrant family – his father came from Abruzzo and hi...

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As darkness fell over New York on New Year’s Eve 1929, Primo Carnera walked down the gangway of the SS Berengaria, stepped onto the quayside and wondered what the imminent decade held for him. Despite his fellow passengers on the transatlantic crossing including Sergei Rachmaninoff and Sergei Prokofiev, by the time the ship docked it was the Italia...

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During his career between the ropes, he was a fearsome fighter across several weight divisions and a two-time world champion. He fought some of the era’s greats, beating Roberto Duran twice, and sharing the ring with the likes of Hector Macho Camacho, Roger Mayweather, Loreto Garza, Luis Santana, and Gilbert Dele. He is also known for arguably the...

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