Poche Pictures
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JOEY GIARDELLO vs. Willie Troy (rounds 4 to
finish)
vs. Spider Webb (HL)
Joey Giardello Fights on DVD
$14.95
$14.95
Fights in the set include:
Editor's Note: Thirty-three-year-old Joey Giardello fought middleweight champion Dick Tiger on December 7,
1963~ in Atlantic City. In a column published three days before the fight, Jimmy Cannon profiled Giardello, a fighter
Cannon had watched since 1948. Most experts believed Giardello had no chance to take the 160 pound title,
assuming the 15-year veteran was fighting for one last payday. But Giardello surprised everyone, including Cannon,
by taking the title with a 15-round decision.
IN THE MAIN street of Bozeman, Montana, there are hitching rails outside the saloons where the blast is bourbon
and ditch, which is whiskey and a water chaser. The elks don't hold lodge meetings in that cattle town. They're not
even human beings, but big stupid animals as dumb as mules. It's tough driving around Bozeman because the elks
walk across the mountain roads in the snow-flurried nights and stop dead when the headlights hit them.
It was some place for Joey Giardello to be because he is strictly a city guy out of Brooklyn who moved to
Philadelphia. There were bears poking their snouts in garbage cans, and wicked cats called mountain lions slunk along
the edges of the town, and in the streams there were trout as large as whales. The men wore cowboy hats and
elegantly stitched high-heeled boots, and they hollered even when they were talking privately, and they did a lot of -
handshaking. ,, Up the road from Bozeman is Livingston, where Giardello lived up over a lunchroom as he
strained for Gene Fullmer, who was then the middleweight champion of the world. The only action in Livingston was
watching the girls tying trout flies in the windows of a sporting goods store. They fried steak and thought a guy was a
freak if he ordered it broiled.
The people in Livingston got sore when I described the* burg as a dead joint, and the City Council got even by
naming the municipal dump The Jimmy Cannon Dump. But Giardello went with it and put on a wrangler's hat, and in
Bozeman he made his best fight. There are some who think he should have won the championship that April night in
'60, but it came up a draw.
It was a nasty fight, and Fullmer caused it to be that way by ramming Giardello's forehead open with a butt. The
blood was coming down Giardello's face and he paused in agonized reflection and slapped his thighs with his gloves
in a gesture of disgusted indignation. Then he ran at Fullmer, his head down, and he didn't attempt to punch. He
butted Fullmer back, and split the flesh close to the champion's eye.
They put in 15 mean rounds, and Giardello left Bozeman with the sombrero in a hat box, and he was convinced the
hearty enrobes who had been so friendly had rolled him. Once again in Atlantic City, on Saturday, Giardello gets
another shot at the middleweight champion. This time, it's Dick Tiger, and he should take Giardello out after the 10th
round.
They are both. alike because each fights with an obstinate patience. Giardello is an old cutie who waits for his man to
come-to him and then tries to do it with a right hand, but he doesn't punch hard enough to spill Tiger. The champion is
a man who doesn't go to his man, either, but he can turn it on in combinations, and Giardello throws one right hand at
a time. Once Tiger gets his hands on Giardello, who should tire and cut easily, he should settle him
The style Fullmer used in their first fight made Tiger appear
spectacular. He came skidding to Tiger in clumsy rushes and was lucky to last the 15 rounds. But in Las Vegas,
Fullmer confused Tiger by prancing awkwardly and poking at him with a jerky left jab. Since then, Tiger knocked out
Fullmer in a one-, sided match in Nigeria. But by then Fullmer's valorous stamina had been drained by too many
beatings.
In '54, Giardello was practically set to fight Bobo Olson, who was then the champion, but the dirty statesmanship of
the rackets angled him out of it. The people who had Rocky Castellani put up a guarantee, and Olson won that one,
but Giardello jammed himself up afterwards and was sent to jail for slugging an attendant in a gas station rumble.
This is the third time Tiger and Giardello have fought, and each has won a decision. Both were close fights. But Tiger,
who, at 34, is a year older than Giardello, seems to hold onto more of the vitality of youth. In his fight with Ray
Robinson, Giardello just made it. He took a good lead, but Robinson was doing most of the punching across the
three final rounds, and Giardello was stalling.
It can't be an old fighter in there for a last payday because Giardello's wages are insignificant. He is only getting 15
percent of what they take in Convention Hall. It must be that Giardello is positive he'd end up with the championship.
Not many agree
1963~ in Atlantic City. In a column published three days before the fight, Jimmy Cannon profiled Giardello, a fighter
Cannon had watched since 1948. Most experts believed Giardello had no chance to take the 160 pound title,
assuming the 15-year veteran was fighting for one last payday. But Giardello surprised everyone, including Cannon,
by taking the title with a 15-round decision.
IN THE MAIN street of Bozeman, Montana, there are hitching rails outside the saloons where the blast is bourbon
and ditch, which is whiskey and a water chaser. The elks don't hold lodge meetings in that cattle town. They're not
even human beings, but big stupid animals as dumb as mules. It's tough driving around Bozeman because the elks
walk across the mountain roads in the snow-flurried nights and stop dead when the headlights hit them.
It was some place for Joey Giardello to be because he is strictly a city guy out of Brooklyn who moved to
Philadelphia. There were bears poking their snouts in garbage cans, and wicked cats called mountain lions slunk along
the edges of the town, and in the streams there were trout as large as whales. The men wore cowboy hats and
elegantly stitched high-heeled boots, and they hollered even when they were talking privately, and they did a lot of -
handshaking. ,, Up the road from Bozeman is Livingston, where Giardello lived up over a lunchroom as he
strained for Gene Fullmer, who was then the middleweight champion of the world. The only action in Livingston was
watching the girls tying trout flies in the windows of a sporting goods store. They fried steak and thought a guy was a
freak if he ordered it broiled.
The people in Livingston got sore when I described the* burg as a dead joint, and the City Council got even by
naming the municipal dump The Jimmy Cannon Dump. But Giardello went with it and put on a wrangler's hat, and in
Bozeman he made his best fight. There are some who think he should have won the championship that April night in
'60, but it came up a draw.
It was a nasty fight, and Fullmer caused it to be that way by ramming Giardello's forehead open with a butt. The
blood was coming down Giardello's face and he paused in agonized reflection and slapped his thighs with his gloves
in a gesture of disgusted indignation. Then he ran at Fullmer, his head down, and he didn't attempt to punch. He
butted Fullmer back, and split the flesh close to the champion's eye.
They put in 15 mean rounds, and Giardello left Bozeman with the sombrero in a hat box, and he was convinced the
hearty enrobes who had been so friendly had rolled him. Once again in Atlantic City, on Saturday, Giardello gets
another shot at the middleweight champion. This time, it's Dick Tiger, and he should take Giardello out after the 10th
round.
They are both. alike because each fights with an obstinate patience. Giardello is an old cutie who waits for his man to
come-to him and then tries to do it with a right hand, but he doesn't punch hard enough to spill Tiger. The champion is
a man who doesn't go to his man, either, but he can turn it on in combinations, and Giardello throws one right hand at
a time. Once Tiger gets his hands on Giardello, who should tire and cut easily, he should settle him
The style Fullmer used in their first fight made Tiger appear
spectacular. He came skidding to Tiger in clumsy rushes and was lucky to last the 15 rounds. But in Las Vegas,
Fullmer confused Tiger by prancing awkwardly and poking at him with a jerky left jab. Since then, Tiger knocked out
Fullmer in a one-, sided match in Nigeria. But by then Fullmer's valorous stamina had been drained by too many
beatings.
In '54, Giardello was practically set to fight Bobo Olson, who was then the champion, but the dirty statesmanship of
the rackets angled him out of it. The people who had Rocky Castellani put up a guarantee, and Olson won that one,
but Giardello jammed himself up afterwards and was sent to jail for slugging an attendant in a gas station rumble.
This is the third time Tiger and Giardello have fought, and each has won a decision. Both were close fights. But Tiger,
who, at 34, is a year older than Giardello, seems to hold onto more of the vitality of youth. In his fight with Ray
Robinson, Giardello just made it. He took a good lead, but Robinson was doing most of the punching across the
three final rounds, and Giardello was stalling.
It can't be an old fighter in there for a last payday because Giardello's wages are insignificant. He is only getting 15
percent of what they take in Convention Hall. It must be that Giardello is positive he'd end up with the championship.
Not many agree