Tony Zale (Australian)
Name: Tony Zale
Hometown: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Stance: Orthodox
Pro Boxer: Record
Antonio Luigi (Tony) Trimboli - Amateur Australian Boxer - 1959 to 1969
Tony Zale (Antonio Luigi Trimboli) was 10 years old when his parents emigrated to Australia in March 1950. The young Italo-Australian used the name "Zale" to avoid "getting in trouble off his mum" so he could box.
Once in Australia, Antonio became known as "Tony" and he recalls he played the sport of Boxing to "...help him keep fit and relax". Tony Trimboli started boxing just before he turned 21, because all of his friends were boxers and he thought the sport was pretty cool. Tony trained at a place called Harry Ivory in Brunswick Road Brunswick.
Tony was an Amateur boxer for 5 years, and he fought as 'Tony Zale' in the lightweight division 9 stone 13 pounds. Tony fought mostly at Festival Hall in Melbourne. His first fight was against another Italian guy, who was called Fred Rizzo, Tony says: '...for my first fight I never really wanted to fight another Italian...'.
Tony remembers: I never got hurt in the ring I was always too fast for them....best fight I ever had was when I fought guy called Ricky Charles in February 1960. I won the best fight of the night and I was called by the Sporting Globe (a big Australian newspaper in those days) into their city office in Flinders Street and won 5 Australian Pounds. A reporter for the Sporting Globe Murray Walsh, did a big back page write up on me it was a really exciting time for me.
In other fights, Tony said he was only ever knocked down once, but the referee stopped the fight because he thought that Tony was hurt. "I wasn't really hurt, as I tried to get up my shoulder got caught under one of the ropes, and I fell back down again, I really didn't get hurt at all", Tony added. The next day, Tony said the fighter he fought the previous night came up to him in the training room, and said to him that Tony had really won the fight.
Tony met another fighter called Ernie Sullivan, a welterweight boxer who was actually called Ernie Vassallo, and he soon became Tony's brother-in-law.
During his boxing career Tony met with and learned from the following people:
- 1962 George Bracken - Australian Champion
- 1962 Willy Quatar - Germany
- 1963 Aldo Provezzani - Australian Lightweight Champion
- 1964 Bruno Visintin - Italian champion
- 1965 Luigi Coluzzi - Italian champion
Tony's last fight was against a guy from Coburg in 1969, and Tony says: "I remember hearing the crowd barracking for the opponent and then I knocked the guy down. I stopped fighting in 1969, because my wife Anna was always worried that I would get hurt in the ring...".
Tony married Anna Vassallo (Ernie's sister) in 1961 and had four children: Joseph, Dominic, Ricky & David. Tony and Anna divorced in 1971. Tony met Danuta Kodela and remarried, Tony and Danuta had two children: Maria and Catherine. Tony now lives in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs. --Trimbojd 14:50, 7 Jan 2005 (GMT)