The original Italian Stallion

[Esquire]

I don't like to put down fighters because they really are brave and take great risks for our entertainment. But Lee Canalito sucked.

I remember hearing the same story over and over during that time when Canalito's manager would bring his fighter to a new promoter and say "So and So, I've got this hot new heavyweight that you just are gonna love". The promoter would say, "I've seen him fight" and the manager would say "okay, then nevermind".

He was not a good fighter but he was big and white and there were some who were looking for the next great white hope.

[Brutu]

Angelo Dundee sure seemed to luv Canalito tho.
I remember reading an interview with Angelo Dundee
were he claimed it was Canalito succuming to Hollywood that messed up
Canalito's career.
But im sure Angelo Dundee really luved it
when he was still training him at the Fifth Street Gym,
The days whenever he recieved a letter from Ben Benbow
( a Texas Millionaire)with the words"check enclosed"written on it.
Im sure it made his day.

[Brutu]

here is a link to the interview from 2005 with Angelo Dundee.
(someone asks him about Lee Canalito halfway through the interview).

http://boxinginsider.com/columns/angelo ... nsider-com

[Controversial]

From seeing the footage he was a pretty poor fighter to be fair

[Nile4000]

I believe it was mentioned here earlier that Lee Canalito had only seven amateur bouts before he turned professional.
here is what i been able to find out so far.

Winner - Gulf Coast AAU tournament (Beaumont Texas)-May.28. 1975.
semi-final.Canalito vs Raphel Waddy(KO1)
Final-Canalito vs Barry Yeates(A former runner up in the National GG and the"Scourge of Texas amateurs)
Canalito wins by KO
"He didnt beat Yeates,He destroyed him"(Ben Benbow,Canalito's manager)

National AAU tournament(Shreveport La)June.13.1975
Canalito KOs(brutally) his opponent in the semi-finals,breaks right hand in doing it,has to withdraw from the finals
against the favorite and winner Marvin Stinson who wins National AAU title in 1975.
(CBS SPORTS SPECTACULAR broadcasts the finals of the National AAU tournamament,but unclear if the Canalito bout in semi-finals may have been shown)

Marvin Stinson won the AAU in 1976. Dokes won it in 1975.Interesting to see how Canalito would have done against Cobb, Dokes, or even Tate as a pro. A perfect matchup would've been Canalito vs Gerry Cooney, a lot of money could've been made with that one.

[Controversial]

Old thread resurrection. I read on another forum that Lee Canalito was contacted and asked why he retired when he did, he replied saying he had a knee injury that required surgery and he was unable to fight again.

[Mimmy]

Ive just read the whole thread again as it was 8 years ago it began. Great read though

[Caractacus]

check this out, at the very beginning of this clip
you can see Dennis Jordan on the canvas after being knocked out by Lee Canalito (in his 8th professional fight).
Angelo Dundee can be seen in his corner too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV9m6po0u84

[Caractacus]

Here is probably the only Lee Canolito fight you can see tho on the inter-net so far as I can tell..
His 20th professional fight (and I think his last before he retired undfeated)
when he appeared on HBO before a Mike Tyson fight back in November 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsh2Mz11uQ

[Caractacus]

looks to me that Lee Canalito may have had a bad habit of not keeping his left up.

[Tony1244]

He was in Stallone's Paradise Alley in the late 1970s.

Televised fight against Greg Sorrentino who he decisioned. He didn't look great.

Saw a utube fight where he got hurt by an unheralded fighter.

Retired undefeated. Think he owns a gym in Houston or something.

[Controversial]

Televised fight against Greg Sorrentino who he decisioned. He didn't look great.

Saw a utube fight where he got hurt by an unheralded fighter.

Retired undefeated. Think he owns a gym in Houston or something.

Greg aka cosand

My desire to keep my anonymity on this sight is well known, but if this blows it...so be it.
I beat Lee's ass from the opening bell to the end of the fight. he landed nothing and I couldn't miss. The right side of his face looked like raw liver.
After the final bell, the promoter and a couple of reporters hugged me and congratulated me. Canalito was in his corner, smirking, with his handlers patting him on the back. It would take about two minutes for me to find out why.
When they announced the decision, I had my hands in the air, and there were 10 people in my corner clapping, and they announced that Canailito had won by unanimous decision.
After that, he fought some cardboard cutouts. A couple years later he took 3 years off, then came back and fought a collection of walking corpses
Why did he retire ?
Sure wasn’t because he faced too many tough opponents, or the inability to get the fix in when he actually did face one.
Bitter..me ?,,,Nahhhh !!

[Tony1244]

Televised fight against Greg Sorrentino who he decisioned. He didn't look great.

Saw a utube fight where he got hurt by an unheralded fighter.

Retired undefeated. Think he owns a gym in Houston or something.

Greg aka cosand

My desire to keep my anonymity on this sight is well known, but if this blows it...so be it.
I beat Lee's ass from the opening bell to the end of the fight. he landed nothing and I couldn't miss. The right side of his face looked like raw liver.
After the final bell, the promoter and a couple of reporters hugged me and congratulated me. Canalito was in his corner, smirking, with his handlers patting him on the back. It would take about two minutes for me to find out why.
When they announced the decision, I had my hands in the air, and there were 10 people in my corner clapping, and they announced that Canailito had won by unanimous decision.
After that, he fought some cardboard cutouts. A couple years later he took 3 years off, then came back and fought a collection of walking corpses
Why did he retire ?
Sure wasn’t because he faced too many tough opponents, or the inability to get the fix in when he actually did face one.
Bitter..me ?,,,Nahhhh !!

Very interesting. I remember watching the fight with my older brother and he said "Sorrentino was Great." If I remember, Sorrentino had red trunks with a white stripe and was outboxing Lee easily from the outside. Wonder if my memory serves me well?

[Switch hitter]

He's not even a southpaw

[Tony1244]

Here is probably the only Lee Canolito fight you can see tho on the inter-net so far as I can tell..
His 20th professional fight (and I think his last before he retired undfeated)
when he appeared on HBO before a Mike Tyson fight back in November 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsh2Mz11uQ

This announcer was something else. Kind of like a rasslin' announcer. "Canalito is ready to go!" Really? He got hit, he wasn't ready to go.

[Kalan]

Here is probably the only Lee Canolito fight you can see tho on the inter-net so far as I can tell..
His 20th professional fight (and I think his last before he retired undfeated)
when he appeared on HBO before a Mike Tyson fight back in November 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsh2Mz11uQ

This announcer was something else. Kind of like a rasslin' announcer. "Canalito is ready to go!" Really? He got hit, he wasn't ready to go.

Bob Sheridan was an idiot Boxing announcer who didn't know WTF he was talking about. Almost as bad as Don Dunphy and Howard Cosell. Canalito was fighting a much smaller punching bag of an opponent with a bad record when he was 19-0. Canalito got tagged with big shots and looked very inept -- like he would last about 2 minutes with somebody like Charles Martin. No wonder he quit shortly after this fight. It was high time for him to move up and fight a risky opponent instead of all these tomato cans ... and he would have gotten killed.

[Tony1244]

Here is probably the only Lee Canolito fight you can see tho on the inter-net so far as I can tell..
His 20th professional fight (and I think his last before he retired undfeated)
when he appeared on HBO before a Mike Tyson fight back in November 1986.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsh2Mz11uQ

This announcer was something else. Kind of like a rasslin' announcer. "Canalito is ready to go!" Really? He got hit, he wasn't ready to go.

Bob Sheridan was an idiot Boxing announcer who didn't know WTF he was talking about. Almost as bad as Don Dunphy and Howard Cosell. Canalito was fighting a much smaller punching bag of an opponent with a bad record when he was 19-0. Canalito got tagged with big shots and looked very inept -- like he would last about 2 minutes with somebody like Charles Martin. No wonder he quit shortly after this fight. It was high time for him to move up and fight a risky opponent instead of all these tomato cans ... and he would have gotten killed.

I guess that was Bob Sheridan. Sheridan and Cosell were fun announcers but Dunphy knew his stuff. Canalito was not ready to go but he looked "limited," and I'm being polite.

I remember Cosell yelling that Foreman-Lyle was totally devoid of boxing skill. That was BS. Both fighters were hurt but there was skill there. If you watch closely you'll even notice jabs.

[Caractacus]

Lee Canolito looked like he had both a pretty good left and right hook.
He knocked Dan Ramsey down and out with them.

[Kalan]

This announcer was something else. Kind of like a rasslin' announcer. "Canalito is ready to go!" Really? He got hit, he wasn't ready to go.

Bob Sheridan was an idiot Boxing announcer who didn't know WTF he was talking about. Almost as bad as Don Dunphy and Howard Cosell. Canalito was fighting a much smaller punching bag of an opponent with a bad record when he was 19-0. Canalito got tagged with big shots and looked very inept -- like he would last about 2 minutes with somebody like Charles Martin. No wonder he quit shortly after this fight. It was high time for him to move up and fight a risky opponent instead of all these tomato cans ... and he would have gotten killed.

I guess that was Bob Sheridan. Sheridan and Cosell were fun announcers but Dunphy knew his stuff. Canalito was not ready to go but he looked "limited," and I'm being polite.

I remember Cosell yelling that Foreman-Lyle was totally devoid of boxing skill. That was BS. Both fighters were hurt but there was skill there. If you watch closely you'll even notice jabs.

You'll notice terrible jabs and wide open chins... Cosell was right for once... I attended that fight with a few pro Heavyweights... Every one of them said the fight was the most amateurish and ridiculously inept display of unskilled swinging they ever saw. They were unanimous. I'm not sure any of them were master boxers... or a whole lot better than Ronnie or George... but they must have felt a whole lot better about their skill level after watching that mess.

[Tony1244]

Bob Sheridan was an idiot Boxing announcer who didn't know WTF he was talking about. Almost as bad as Don Dunphy and Howard Cosell. Canalito was fighting a much smaller punching bag of an opponent with a bad record when he was 19-0. Canalito got tagged with big shots and looked very inept -- like he would last about 2 minutes with somebody like Charles Martin. No wonder he quit shortly after this fight. It was high time for him to move up and fight a risky opponent instead of all these tomato cans ... and he would have gotten killed.

I guess that was Bob Sheridan. Sheridan and Cosell were fun announcers but Dunphy knew his stuff. Canalito was not ready to go but he looked "limited," and I'm being polite.

I remember Cosell yelling that Foreman-Lyle was totally devoid of boxing skill. That was BS. Both fighters were hurt but there was skill there. If you watch closely you'll even notice jabs.

You'll notice terrible jabs and wide open chins... Cosell was right for once... I attended that fight with a few pro Heavyweights... Every one of them said the fight was the most amateurish and ridiculously inept display of unskilled swinging they ever saw. They were unanimous. I'm not sure any of them were master boxers... or a whole lot better than Ronnie or George... but they must have felt a whole lot better about their skill level after watching that mess.

Who were these pro heavyweights? Its exaggeration or hyperbole or whatever you want to call it. Foreman-Lyle was a great, fun, and sloppy fight but it had a hell of a lot more skill than most pier 6 brawls, but announcers have to say something extreme to make a fight more interesting.

[Kalan]

Brawling fans love to see tons of drama... a lot of knockdowns... and a lot of big swings hitting wide open fighters... Foreman-Lyle had it all... Both Foreman and Lyle looked as though they were beaten and gone -- but miraculously came back swinging and landing shots. Fans were jumping up and down.

I'm not a brawling fan... l'm a boxing fan - but I did enjoy the spectacle... For me a high level boxing match was the 1st Toney-McCallum fight. That was good.

[Caractacus]

I came across yet another canceled fight of Lee Canalito's,that certainly would have been a step up for him.
On April.26.1985 it was announced in the newspapers that Lee Canalito would be fighting Randall"Tex"Cobb
in a 10 rounder as a preliminary to the Jose Luis Ramirez vs Hector "Macho" Comacho lightweight championship
title fight set for June.6.1985 at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas,NV.
The Canalito-Cobb fight never happened of course.
No reason given why.
Two years earlier Canalito had also pulled out a week before his scheduled televised fight May.1.1983 on NBC against Scott Frank too.
That would have been a good test for him too.

Dude ! It was not your imagination after-all
check out what the crawl says at 1:10 of this video-clip.

[Caractacus]

Attention all Lee Canalito fans !
Now you can watch the 1988 (rarely seen)movie THE GLASS TAXI in it's entirety.
( he gets into abrawl with some punk at 55:00 and can be seen lacing up the gloves to hit the heavy bag with some Thuddening power at 1:12 of this clip)

[Caractacus]

[Caractacus]

iN Dr. Ferdie Pacheco's book BLOOD IN MY COFFEE (2005)
he wrote that Lee Canalito was scheduled to fight Scott Frank in 1983,
and it was all set to be televised on NBC, when Canalito got an offer to play
Tarzan in the Bo Derek movie, but they canned him after watching the rushes of
him run down the beach with Bo Derek.