Tony Canzoneri

Sport: Boxing

Induction Year: 1959

Induction Year: 1959

Between 1925 and 1939, Tony Canzoneri had 21 world championship bouts in four divisions—ranging from 118 pounds to 140 pounds.

He was the world champion in three divisions.

Canzoneri, who was born in Slidell, La., was 22 when he won his first world championship on Feb. 10, 1928. He beat Benny Bass in New York for the feather weight title.

He lost it to Andre Routis of France seven months later.

Canzoneri needed only one minute and 40 seconds to knock out Al Singer for the lightweight championship on Nov. 14, 1930.

He lost it to Barney Ross nearly three years later, but reclaimed the title when Ross couldn’t make weight.

In 1931, Canzoneri stopped Jack Berg in three to win the championship of the junior welterweight division—created in 1922. When Berg complained that it wasn’t a title fight, Canzoneri beat him again in 15 rounds. He lost the junior welterweight title to Johnny Jadick in 1932, regained it from Battling Shaw and lost it again to Ross.

Two of Canazoneri’s most unforgettable fights were against Kid Chocolate.

In 1931, he successfully defended his lightweight championship against Kid Chocolate in Madison Square Garden . But Catcalls and jeers, cigarette butts and assorted debris were hurled at the boy wonder from New Orleans .

“I don’t know hwy they did it to me,” he said in the dressing room. “I tried to make the fight and I won. Some nights, you just can’t please them, I guess.”

Like Pete Herman, Canzoneri was a shoeshine boy in New Orleans before he became a professional boxer. But for much of his career, he was the fighter that New York fans loved to hate.

It started in 1927, when 34-year-old Johnny Dundee was attempting a comeback. He took everything Canzoneri threw at him for 15 rounds, rarely landing a punch in response. But the fans who came to cheer Dundee could only applaud his courage for going the distance.

One sports writer said, “I could write, ‘Canzoneri pitching, Dundee catching.’ But it’s too cruel. I couldn’t say it in print.”

There was no title at stake in the rematch of Canzoneri and Kid Chocolate on Nov. 24, 1933, because Chocolate—recognized by New York as the featherweight champion—was boxing over the weight. But it was a personal challenge for Canzoneri, coming off a successful European tour with 26 victories in his last 27 fights, to win over the Chocolate fans who had reviled him.

Luis “Pincho” Guiterrez, Chocolate’s manager, was unusually confident.

“The only way he is going to win is knock out Chocolate,” he said “and who knocks out Chocolate?”

In 211 amateur professional fights, nobody had stopped his fighter. But the streak was about to end.

With the legendary Arthur Donovan serving as referee, Canzoneri spent the first round pumping left hooks into Chocolate’s midsection. Then, early in the second round, Chocolate’s defense relaxed for a split-second as he slid to his left. Canzoneri responded with a thunderbolt right to the chin.

Stunned, Kid Chocolate lurched backwards as Canzoneri punced on him with a barrage of punches. Chocolate attempted a counter-attack, but it wilted in the face of anther right to the jaw by Canzoneri that drove Chocolate into a neutral corner where he tried to clinch his tormentor. Canzoneri broke free and unloosed a tremendous right to the chin that sent Chocolate to the canvas, face-down.

He didn’t move until Donovan’s count reached five. At nine, h e managed to lift his gloves off the canvas. But instinct wasn’t enough. His brain still numbed, Chocolate rolled over on his back. It was a knockout.

At the count of 10, Canzoneri didn’t look at his opponent or the referee. H was looking at the spectators, who saluted him with a shouting, stamping five-minute ovation.

In his dressing room, with hundreds of fans clamoring for him outside, Canzoneri looked at his manager, Sammy Goldman, and grinned.

“No cigar butts tonight, Sammy,” he said.

“You made them all like you, Tony,” the manager replied. “I’ll never forget tonight.”

Canzoneri regained the lightweight title in 1935 with a decision over his former sparring partner, Lou Ambers. Then he lost it in a rematch with Ambers on Sept. 4, 1936.

“As little fellows go, Gacnzoneri has been a ring wonder, and is still good enough, despite his 31 years and the absence of a financial incentive, to slap over most of the lighties.”

“Some of the experting elements were inclined to the belief that the 15-round distance was too long for such an oldster as Canzoneri, but he always had been and probably still is almost unbeatable in 10 rounds.”

Ambers soundly defeated the champion in their 1935 rematch, winning a unanimous verdict from the referee and judges.

Canzoneri was knocked out only once in 181 professional fights. He scored 44 knockout victories, won 96 more fights by decision and lost only 29. He became an actor and went into the restaurant business after his boxing career.

Canzoneri died in 1959—the year he became a charter member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, along with football player Gaynell Tinsely and baseball Hall of Famer Mel Ott.