"Two Ton" Tony Galento, a stogie-smoking pugilist
and bar-owner who claimed he trained on beer, hamburgers, and spaghetti, was
one of the most colorful characters to ever contend for the heavyweight title.

Born Dominic Anthony Galento on March 12, 1910 in Orange, New Jersey,
he earned his nickname after driving his ice truck to an arena, arriving just
before the start of one of his fights. Spotting him in the parking lot, his
manager asked him where he'd been.

"I had two tons of ice to deliver on my way here," Galento said. The
greatest clown in boxing history had arrived.

Galento, a dirty fighter who would deliberately head-butt, gouge, low-blow, and
elbow his opponents, was one of the toughest men ever to box professionally.
Defeating Lou Nova, Al Ettore, and Nathan Mann on his way to a shot at the
heavyweight title, he was the most famous member of "The Brown
Bomber" Joe Louis' "Bum of the Month Club." The underdog Galento
earned fistic immortality when he sent Louis to the canvas in the second round
of their title bout. Louis admitted that he might have been the toughest man he
ever met in the ring.

Blessed with a lethal left hook, a roundhouse punch that could stagger the
world's best boxers, Galento began his climb up the heavyweight division in
1928, a time when pro fighters fought almost every month. He was notorious for
his street-fighting style that flaunted the rules and often led to fouls. But
it was as a clown that Galento would achieve immortality, and it was a style he
perfected early on.

On one night in Detroit
in 1931, Tony took on three opponents and K.O.ed them all, drinking beer
between rounds. Ten minutes before a 1932 fight with Arthur DeKuh, he took on a
$10 bet that he could consume 50 hot dogs. He won the bet, and then the fight
in four rounds.

The 5-foot-9 brawler, who sported a fighting weight of 235 to 240 lbs.,
resembled an ambulatory beer barrel, according to one sports reporter. A
bar-owner, Tony made much of his lack of training, which might consist of him
posing for photographers quaffing down a brew at his bar, or wrestling with a
rubber car tire suspended from a tree that had been a child`s swing before Tony
picked it as a sparring partner. Tony was a fat clown, and proud of it.

"Nobody really liked him except maybe the guys who hung out in his
saloon," his corner man, Ray Arcel, admitted . "He was a crude guy,
to put it mildly, who would resort to all sorts of foul tactics to win a
fight."

Joe Louis, who eventually became friends with him, said that he hated the
uncouth Galento because of his insults and race baiting, a crude psychology
that Two-Ton Tony used to unsettle the undisputed heavyweight champion of the
world. Tony was interviewed by a reporter before his title fight with Louis:

Reporter: Tony, what do you think your chances are against Joe Louis? Galento:
Joe who? Reporter: Joe Louis. Galento: I never hoid of da bum.

While the Galento persona was popular among the people and helped hype the
fight, Louis was offended by the lack of respect. The Champ, a fighter who
hated clowning in the ring, had his pride further bruised in the second round,
when Tony sent him to the canvass for a two-count. The crowd and press were
stunned.

Galento got his shot at Louis' title before 30,000 fans in Yankee Stadium on
June 28, 1939. Before the fight, the six-to-one underdog baited the Brown
Bomber, telephoning the Louis household and insulting Joe and his family, using
racial epithets. Galento even made a sexual innuendo about Louis' wife during
the pre-fight introductions, which caused the normally calm Louis to lose his
composure.

"He got to me, and I hated him for it," Louis remembered. "I
never hated anybody before. I decided to punish him before I knocked him out. I
wanted it to go into later rounds, but he kept calling me dirty names during
the fight. So I ended it."

Galento, who out-weighed Louis by 33 pounds, started the fight by bullying the
discomfited World`s Heavyweight Champion in the first round, almost sending him
to the canvas with a left hook. At the end of the round, Louis was wobbly when
he returned to his corner. In the second, Joe was staggered again, but he
rallied late in the round and knocked Galento down, the first time Two-Ton had
hit the canvass in his pro career.

After Galento got up, The Champ started connecting with jabs, but seemingly out
of nowhere, Tony launched his lethal left hook and it was Louis' turn to hit
the canvass. Though Joe got up at the count of two, his legs were wobbly. But
Galento could not finish Louis off. Two-Ton Tony's time of fistic immortality
was over.

By the fourth, the six foot, two-inch Louis began using Galento's head as a
speed bag. The fight was stopped by the referee at 2:29 of the round with
Two-Ton Tony on the ropes. The next day, newspapers quoted Galento putting down
Joe Louis:

"He's not as good as they rate him. He can't take a punch. I would have
won. He pushed me and I went down. They shouldn't have stopped the fight."

Two-Ton Tony had required 23 stitches to stop the bleeding.

Galento's career went downhill after reaching the pinnacle against the great
Joe Louis. Though he went on to manhandle Lou Nova, the Baer brothers, Max and
Buddy, beat him up badly in two fights. Like Louis, the normally easy-going
Max, the only Jewish heavyweight champ in history, wound up hating Two-Ton
Tony. Max claimed he enjoyed beating the stuffing out of Galento more than he
did winning the heavyweight title back in 1934.

After Max's brother, the six-foot, six-inch Buddy, badly beat Tony in a 1941
fight, Galento decided to try another way to make a living. As a wrestling
referee, he often wound up wrasslin' with his wrestlers before an appreciative
crowd. He returned to the ring in 1943, but quit after he K.O.ed Jack Suzek in
1944.

It was time to hang up the gloves, tie on the white apron, and retire to his New Jersey bar, which
served as headquarters for his joke campaign as the Prohibition Party candidate
for president. He appeared with fellow Bum of the Month club members Tami
Mauriello and Abe Simon in the classic movie "On the Waterfront,"
tried stand-up comedy, and appeared on TV with Joe Louis, commenting on their
title fight. He even became friends with the Brown Bomber.

Joe Louis learned to like the crude clown. He had charisma, Louis said. His
problem was that he had been born out of his time. Tony should have been a
bare-knuckle fighter, as "The man was absolutely fearless."

Two-Ton Tony Galento died on July 22, 1979 from complications of diabetes. His
crudity as a boxer was balanced out by his happy-go-lucky demeanor outside the
ring which made him a beloved figure to locals and those fans who still
remembered the pre-war days of heavyweight boxing.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jon C. Hopwood