BoxRec

Who Wins?

Galento wins. Neither could box, Galento could punch.

Galento by massive blood loss.

Wepner I would put in the top 3 WORST to ever fight for a legit heavyweight belt.

mebbe so, but the man shore could step on some toes.

Tough and ugly brawl, tooth and nails back and forth.
Though bigger, I am going to say Galento stops Wepner.
I would say later on, but both guys thump away hard.

The winner fights Stander and then Cobb.

hhaehre wrote:Galento wins. Neither could box, Galento could punch.

That'll do me

dont under-rate galento.

harrygreb wrote:dont under-rate galento.

Pretty sure everyone has picked him to win here.

i mean in an overall perusal of his abilities. galento was better than is generally thought.

In an interview of Joe Louis in the 1970's, a writer somewhat chided the Brown Bomber for having been floored by Tony Galento in a championship fight. Louis was hurt in the first round of the fight by a Galento left hook and Galento capitalized in the second round, as well, by flooring him with yet another vicious left hook. Louis recovered and the fight was ultimately stopped.

In responding to the writer, Louis said, "Listen, son, if Tony Galento were fighting today, he would beat every one of the top ten fighters in the heavyweight division."

Consider that when Galento fought Joe Louis, Galento was somewhere between 4 to 6 years past his prime, yet still hurt and floor a vibrant Joe Louis. Put a prime Tony Galento in the ring with Chuck Wepner and you'll see Wepner being counted out within either the 1st or 2nd round by virtue of that Galento left hook with the count reaching somewhere beyond 100 if the referee was so inclined to continue his count. Yes, he was just that rugged --- and he could punch.

No disrespect to the great Louis, but every champion believes
his challengers were better than subsequent era's. Some times
they are right, some times they are perhaps wrong.

Galento in my opinion does beat Wepner, BUT I do not believe
he would beat the top 10 guys of the 1970s...thats just my
opinion, despite the pride hurt opinion of Louis, despite the writers
grilling.

JABARDELLI wrote:In an interview of Joe Louis in the 1970's, a writer somewhat chided the Brown Bomber for having been floored by Tony Galento in a championship fight. Louis was hurt in the first round of the fight by a Galento left hook and Galento capitalized in the second round, as well, by flooring him with yet another vicious left hook. Louis recovered and the fight was ultimately stopped.

In responding to the writer, Louis said, "Listen, son, if Tony Galento were fighting today, he would beat every one of the top ten fighters in the heavyweight division."

Consider that when Galento fought Joe Louis, Galento was somewhere between 4 to 6 years past his prime, yet still hurt and floor a vibrant Joe Louis. Put a prime Tony Galento in the ring with Chuck Wepner and you'll see Wepner being counted out within either the 1st or 2nd round by virtue of that Galento left hook with the count reaching somewhere beyond 100 if the referee was so inclined to continue his count. Yes, he was just that rugged --- and he could punch.

Joe Louis said a lot of questionable things and got away with ithem because he was Joe Louis. He picked Frazier, Foreman, and Liston against Ali. That makes him 1-5.

As for the top ten 70's heavyweights, Larry Holmes, Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Earnie Shavers and Ken Norton would have turned Tony Galento inside out, especially because of his promiscuous use of the n-word. Holmes and Ali would have made his face look like a Goya painting.

Nice slice of revisionism there, ThatOne, but the vast majority picked Liston & Foreman to beat Ali. It's dubious at best to criticise Louis for those predictions.

Goodnight, Irene wrote:Nice slice of revisionism there, ThatOne, but the vast majority picked Liston & Foreman to beat Ali. It's dubious at best to criticise Louis for those predictions.

How about picking Galento against Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Joe Frazier, Ken Norton, Earnie Shavers, Larry Holmes, and Ron Lyle.Those boxers would kill him especially after he called them the n-word.

You ever see the clip on youtube of the Max Baer vrs Tony Galento bout?
For some reason it looked like Galento changed his style while in the ring apparently to mimick Baers style.

Tony was a short hvywt with short arms. Chuck was a tall man with a long reach. If he gets by 4 or 5 rds Chuck has a good chance for a points win. Tony would be out of gas ....

here is a link to the max baer/galento fight.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2DWswsfpmI

Galento had been fighting for almost 15 yrs and had over a 100 bouts before he fought Joe Louis.
He looked sorta shocked when Louis was on the canvas.IMOP The pause prevented him from finishing off Louis.

anyone know how many of Chuck Wepner's bouts were taped/filmed?

rbadge361 wrote:Tony was a short hvywt with short arms. Chuck was a tall man with a long reach. If he gets by 4 or 5 rds Chuck has a good chance for a points win. Tony would be out of gas ....

B/c Wepner would stick and move???

Wepner was a big tall guy but fought about as tall as a Pygmy. He didn't effectively use his height and reach at all. Galento would brutalize Wepner.

As for Galento vs the top guys of the 70s, no I would not make him a favorite vs any of them. I would make a Galento-Shavers fight pretty much 50/50 as neither had the best defense and both were monster hitters.

This is a clip of Galento wrassling later in his career but watch some of his in-fighting techniques which he no doubt used during his boxing career

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bt33VKcwQfA

actually Galento can be seen using that technique in his fight with Joe Louis in 1939.
Its unfair for later ring historians to put Galento on Louis's"bum-of-the-month parade.
The bums of the month happened in 1940-1941(with exception of Billy Conn)
and whoever that was resonsible for putting together the ESPN RINGSIDE 2-part Joe Louis show and left out
Louis vrs Galento and Louis vs Mauriello (ecepts for a few seconds of highlights)imop was a friggin twit.

I think he beats both of them.

Galento wrassled Primo Carnera a few times in the early 1950's.