Rocky Castellani vs. Pierre Langlois (1st meeting)

Pierre Langlois 160 lbs beat Rocky Castellani 159 lbs by SD in round 12 of 12

• Date: 1953-02-06
• Location: Madison Square Garden, New York, New York, USA
• Referee: Ruby Goldstein 9-8
• Judge: Artie Aidala 8-7
• Judge: Charley Shortell 4-7

"Pierre Langlois has scrambled the brand new 'American' middleweight title tournament with an upset win over highly ranked Rocky Castellani. The split decision boiled down to a controversial point. Was Castellani knocked down in the 11th round last night at MSG? Or was he pushed? Referee Ruby Goldstein ruled it an official knockdown and so informed both judges. As a result it was a three-point round for Langlois on the ref's card and a two-pointer by both Artie Aidala and Charley Shortell. As the fight was decided by only one point on the cards of Goldstein and Aidala, that was it. From here it looked like a combination right hand punch and shove. Castellani went down but scrambled back to his feet just as the bell rang. There was no count. It was a dull fight in the early stages with the customers hooting for action. Castellani was doing what little fighting there was. Most of the punches were glancing off elbows, arms, gloves and shoulder blades." -Associated Press

Scorecards

• Referee Ruby Goldstein - 5-5-2 (but scored it 9-8 for Langlois with the supplemental points system)
• Judge Artie Aidala - 5-5-2 (but scored it 8-7 for Langlois with the supplemental points system)
• Judge Charley Shortell - 7-4-1 Castellani

• Unofficial AP scorecard - 7-5 Castellani
• In an AP poll 11 of 15 sportswriters had Castellani as the winner.

• 11 fighters were selected for this tournament, but Langlois was originally not among them. He was included because he was already signed to fight Castellani and the NBA and NYSAC - who were the sponsors of the tournament - thought they would look silly if Langlois beat Castellani and was not in the tournament.

Post fight comments

• "Let the rest of them fight. We're in no hurry. The IBC wants us to fight Bobby Dykes at Dallas on March 18th. We'll wait and see." -George Kanter, Langlois' U.S. reresentative, referencing the outcome of the tournament.

• "It was no knockdown. He pushed me." -Rocky Castellani, on the 11th round knockdown scored against him.