Joey Giardello – The Chubby Kid
by
Dr. Joseph de Beauchamp
2/25 - Joey Giardello started out in Flatbush, a section of Brooklyn in 1930. Joey watched his father go to work at the Department of Sanitation. His father supported five boys, the family got by okay on their finances. Like most boxers, Joey’s family pulled together to make ends meet.
His father fought under the name Eddie Martin. Joey’s father claimed a decent record, but never made the big bucks, and fell into his job to support his family. Even though his father fought, his father never trained his son, Joey. Carmine or Joey grew up in the Italian neighborhood and in an Italian family.
In interview with Giardello’s relative Johnny Cesario, he joined the army and got out to fight, and stayed in Philly for over his life. He weighed in most of his boxing career around one hundred and sixty pounds, and stayed in shape his entire life. Johnny informs us that Joey always believed in family and everyone called him “Chubby” in the old days. Joey’s family continues to carry terms of endearment to this day.
"Nobody showed me nothing," Giardello said, "I'd box and then stick around and watch guys box. I'd pick up moves just by watching. I never had any amateur fights."
He started his professional career in October 1948, scoring a 2 round knockout over Johnny Noel. The tough, gritty Giardello slowly, but steadily, fought his way up the ranks until he won the world middleweight title at the end of his 16th year as a professional. Giardello actually started life with the real name Carmine Tilelli. He fought primarily in Philadelphia, and built his record, and reputation in the "City of Brotherly Love" and other East Coast towns. In 1951 he entered the world rankings with a 10-round decision win over contender Ernie Durando in Scranton Pennsylvania. With the exception of one year, 1955, Giardello fought and beat at least one ranked contender every year until 1966.
In 1952-53 he waged a thrilling three-fight series with future Hall-of-Famer Billy Graham. A spilt-decision win for Graham as two New York State athletic commissioners changed one judge's scorecard and the verdict. Christenberry served as a commissioner at the time, and went to the judge Joe Agnello, and after the fight, forced the judge to change the scorecard. Graham then won the fight on the one changed score care. Giardello sued and the decision received a reversal. Giardello remained a top middleweight, but never secured a title shot. He received a million dollars of free publicity out of the decision, and this controversy made the fighter. In 1959, he spilt a pair of 10-round decisions with future champ and future Hall-of-Famer, Dick Tiger.
In 1955, Giardello served over four-month sentence for assault. While he served time, his father died. When his father died, his brother Bob remembers when Joey swore he planned to gain the championship someday. Nothing ever came his way to give this fellow hope. Then, his promoter got a call to fight Fullmer, a Utah boy.
“Then they called me to take a plane to go to Utah to sign papers. So, I finally got the title fight. I never went 15 rounds in my life. I think I was about a 3:1 underdog. Never anybody thought I could go close to 15 rounds because I used to get tired in the 6th and 7th. Gene Fullmer was one of the dirtiest fighters around. I butted him … gave him a gash … after he five times to me,” said Joey in an interview in 1971.
When he fought Fullmer in Montana, he quit his manager of 11 years, and fought the hometown favorite. In the bloody match off, Joey drew to Fullmer. Despite a fine record, Giardello missed chance to win the championship fight on April 20, 1960. He met Gene Fullmer for the middleweight title and Fullmer retained the championship in a 15-round draw. When the decision went to Fullmer on a draw, Joey’s brother almost caused a riot in the place.
Joey looked like a fighter. He carried his shoulders in shrugging walk. His hair waved in a dark wavy crown. His nose cartilage zigged and zagged. Little puffs of flesh hung down on his eyes where surgery healed the scar tissue.
When he fought the famous Sugar Ray Robinson in 1963, he said, "I've got the fastest reflexes ever recorded on an IBM machine. They tested us before the Robinson fight and I had the best score they ever had. I had to be a fighter. I liked the glory of it." He beat Sugar Ray in June of 1963, six months before the Dick Tiger fight, and one of the few to win against the famous Sugar Ray.
At age 33, he said before the Tiger fight, "I may not have too many tomorrows left." After Ray, he finally got a chance for a title shot with Dick Tiger.
Atlantic City in December showed bleak, windy and even the boardwalk creaked. The waves flopped grumpily on the desolate beach. The middleweight champion bout scheduled a comeback for Joey Giardello. In 1963 on the 7th, Dick Tiger gave up the World Middleweight crown to Joey. Giardello sacrificed finances to gain the title against Dick Tiger, and any percentage or location looked good to him. The odds by the bookmakers believed that Dick Tiger held the chance to win three to one. When Joey won, he took $10,000 of his $11,000 winnings and bought out his contract from Arman Laurenzi.
He had one successful defense, a unanimous decision over Rubin "Hurricane" Carter in 1964, and then lost the title to Tiger via points in Oct. 1965. He defeated and later befriended fellow middleweight Rubin ''Hurricane'' Carter, whose conviction and exoneration for a triple murder showed in the movie, 'The Hurricane'. The movie dealt Giardello what he felt a low blow. Carter, played by Denzel Washington, shows Joey taking a bloody beating to a pulp during a fight. In the movie, it shows him with a questionable win in a racially tinged decision that leaves a battered and bloodied Giardello the undeserving champion. In reality, Giardello says, he suffered only a small cut in the middle rounds and won a clear decision over a listless Carter. Boxing historian Wallace Matthews says that several writers who were at ringside in Philadelphia that night back up Giardello's claim, though others believe Carter won. He defended the championship against Rubin Carter in 1964 but lost it to Tiger in a 15-round decision on October 21, 1965. Giardello retired two years later.
Giardello sued, even though the law makes it difficult for a living public figure like him to collect. Giardello settled out of court for an undisclosed sum, and for director Norman Jewison's agreement to make a statement on the DVD version of The Hurricane that there was "no doubt" that Giardello was a great fighter. Giardello says he sought, but did not receive, an additional sanction: He wanted Universal Pictures to append actual footage of his fight with Carter to the DVD version, so that viewers could judge for themselves ''who gave the pounding'' to whom. The frailty of truths shaded by perceptions was a theme the former boxer addressed repeatedly during his early December visit to Milwaukee, where he spoke at a criminal justice reform conference. The truth is proving to be extremely elusive in Carter's case, made more confounding by the inaccuracies in the released film Hurricane. The film was hyped as "the triumphant true story" of Carter's life, and recounts his long fight for justice and his relationship with a youth named Lesra Martin, who befriended him in prison. Carter was convicted twice for the murders and both times the convictions were overturned, finally resulting in Carter's release in 1985 after he had served 19 years in prison.
The referee who scored the fight in Giardello's favor has called the film "ludicrous." Giardello's two sons responded by creating a Web site, http://www.joeygiardello.com, in tribute to their father [site is currently down]. Included on the site is the complete footage of the fight, a photo gallery and posting of every decision in Giardello's 19-year: his overall record with total bouts 132, Wins 100 Losses 24 KO's 32 KO's by 4 Draws 7 and 1 No Decision. As part of the lawsuit, Giardello has a videotape of Carter admitting that he lost the fight fair and square. "If they can't get the fight right, how can you believe anything in the movie?" Giardello asks.
In November of 2003, at age 73, Joey recalled in full gratitude the fight with Dick Tiger. With a gravelly and low voice, Joey said, "I was glad that Dick Tiger gave me a shot; I appreciated it very much. I thought I won, but was okay. I was 37. I was just happy I had the title ... for a guy who had fought for 20 years and didn't get a title shot ... I was very happy for my kids and for my family. I enjoyed boxing very much ... I loved to fight. Not that I picked fights, or anything. I never had an amateur fight. I was broke and I was in Philly and asked this friend if he could get me a fight. He did and it went from there." Joey lives with his wife of 53 years, and thinks of her as the most beautiful woman ever. His four sons went to work in the area, and made this man proud.
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