Tommy Rainone (born January 8, 1980) is an American professional boxer.

Early life

Rainone's love affair with boxing began at the age of seven. After watching

Rocky ''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burgess M ...

for the first time, the Plainview Long Island native began to seek out a gym where he could pursue the sport that had suddenly captivated him. His search would prove fruitless until the age of 17 when he stepped into the Westbury Boxing Club. Boxing couldn't have entered his life at a more appropriate time in his life. “There’s no question about it, I was definitely able to channel a lot of my anger as a youth into boxing." Rainone was a troubled teen. He had been kicked out of several schools. After middle school, he was sent to live with his father on

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull an ...

. His father placed him in an all boys Staten Island Catholic School hoping the added structure would set the young man straight. It didn't work out as intended. "You can’t take a kid who has been getting into trouble in public schools his whole life and put him in a Catholic school. I was a freshman at the time and it only took me about three months to get kicked out of that school. I went back to Long Island from there. "My teenage years I was a very frustrated and angry person. I just had an attitude that the world was against me and boxing was an incredible outlet for me. Once I started getting into boxing I put the rest of the troublemaking off to the side and started really getting a little more focused with my life.”

Amateur career

Rainone's amateur career was brief, consisting of approximately 30 fights. In that short span he fought a variety of world class flyer including former welterweight world champion

Luis Collazo Luis Collazo (born April 22, 1981) is an American professional boxer who held the WBA welterweight title from 2005 to 2006. Professional career Collazo is of Puerto Rican descent, and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Collazo won the WBA Wel ...

and light-welterweight contender Francisco "El Gato" Figueroa. "I had two fights so far and I had to fight a guy named Leon Hinds, who went on to be ranked number three in the nation. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had around 60 fights. Having to survive a storm like that so early in my career made me improve my defense. I was always matched tough, and it was always expected thing to get matched tough. I went to tournaments knowing I wasn’t going to get easy fights. As soon as they called my name, I pretty much rolled my eyes because I knew they were going to match me hard." Still a young man, Rainone's focus was anything but unw. "When I was in the amateurs, I cut a lot of corners. I was having a good time partying, going out and just being young but doing so while half assing it boxing. I stopped boxing a couple a months after turning 23 because I had to make a decision to either continue having fun or to get serious about boxing and i was not mature enough to take the sport serious at that stage in my life. I realized that I could no longer do both. I took a break from boxing deciding that i was threw with the amateurs and would return to the sport to turn pro if and when i was ready to take it serious, i started doing some traveling, lived life with out restriction and just enjoyed myself for three years."

Professional career

Rainone returned to boxing in 2006 after spending three and a half years away from the sport. He trained for six months before making his pro debut against ten-fight veteran Marquis McConnell at the Huntington Hilton Hotel in Melville. In front of a huge, supportive local crowd, Rainone boxed his way to a shutout victory. "If you looked him up, he is now a light-heavyweight. It was the only time he fought at 147, he was naturally fighting at 160, and he cut the weight. By the time he got in the ring, he was back up to 160-165. He was a big guy." After a second victory in December 2006 Rainone would start 2007 by winning two fights in a 5-day span followed by a third victory fifteen days later. Rainone won his first 11 bouts. One of the highlights of his early career was performing in the legendary boxing venue

The Blue Horizon The Blue Horizon is a historic 1,346-seat former boxing venue in Philadelphia. ''The Ring'' magazine voted it the number-one boxing venue in the world, and ''Sports Illustrated'' noted it as the last great boxing venue in the country. The Blue ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Rainone won a unanimous decision over Jaime Morales that night. He ran into his first setback in June 2008 when he dropped a controversial

split decision A split decision (SD) is a winning criterion in boxing, most commonly in full-contact combat sports, in which two of the three judges score one particular competitor as the winner, while the third judge scores for the other competitor. A split dec ...

to Manuel Guzman in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. Rainone took the fight on two weeks notice. On the second day of training, Rainone sustained a cut under his left eye as the result of an elbow. He went to the hospital but was told he didn't need stitches. Being that he has great faith in his cutman George Mitchell and that the cut was not in a position that could affect his vision, he went forward with the fight. To stem the risk, the fight was reduced from six rounds to four. "It was no walk in the park but there is no way I lost the fight," Rainone says. "Originally I pulled out of the fight but the promoter Tommy Gallagher wanted me to fight because I was going to sell a lot of tickets. "My friend John Scully warned me 'if you get hit with a nothing jab, the cut is going to open up.' I started bleeding in the third round but I didn't think it would affect the judges. It was stupidity on my behalf to go into the fight with a cut. He's turned me down six times for a rematch." His second loss came in his next fight - also a split decision - against Henry White Jr. in Melville. "He beat me fair and square. There was so much stress before this fight. I was in tremendous shape but mentally I wasn't prepared." After this fight he parted ways with his manager Luigi Olcese, whom he had been with for three fights. Rainone returned to his winning ways in December 2008. To find a fight he flew all the way to his trainer's hometown of

Benito Juárez, Buenos Aires Benito Juárez is a city in Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is the administrative centre for Benito Juárez Partido. The town and its partido are named after former Mexican President Benito Juárez; the name was chosen to make a gesture of ...

, Argentina to face Santos Galli. Rainone won the first six rounds before stunning Galli the seventh with a left cross to the head, followed by a left to the body which put him down. Upon rising at the count of seven, Galli informed the ref that he had enough. "It was an amazing experience, they treated me like royalty there" said Rainone. "I will be going again to fight there, most likely." Rainone unsuccessfully challenged for the New York State

welterweight Welterweight is a weight class in combat sports. Originally the term "welterweight" was used only in boxing, but other combat sports like Muay Thai, taekwondo, and mixed martial arts also use it for their own weight division system to classify the ...

title in 2009. Rainone still trains at the Westbury Boxing Gym under former fighter Jorge Gallardo. As a trainer, Gallardo guided the careers of

Jake Rodríguez Evaristo "Jake" Rodríguez (born October 2, 1965) is a Puerto Rican former professional boxer who competed from 1988 to 1997.. Retrieved July 2, 2016. In 1994 he defeated Charles Murray to become the IBF junior welterweight champion. Two success ...

, leading him to the IBF junior welterweight title, and Willy Wise. Former IBF junior welterweight champion

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has often assisted in Rainone's training and has worked his corner many times. "Boxing is something that I have always dreamed of doing and I am doing it. Most people in this world make compromise after compromise in their lives until they're so far removed from their original dreams that they can barely remember what they were in the first place. A lot of people have dreams of being a firefighter, a baseball player, a movie star or musician but it doesn’t always work out like that because priorities get in the way, boxing was always a passion and priorities. If I accomplished nothing forward for the rest of my career in boxing at least I can say that I gave it my best shot and that I did what I always wanted to do.” 2010 was a milestone year for Rainone. He opened the year with a unanimous decision win over Gerardo Cesar Prieto at

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

. Five months later he dropped a decision to Terry Butterbaugh on the first-ever boxing card at the new

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...

. The main event in the Bronx was a WBA 154-pound title fight between

Yuri Foreman Yuri Foreman (born August 5, 1980) is an Israeli professional boxer who held the WBA super welterweight title from 2009 to 2010. He was born in Gomel, Belarus, but currently fights out of Brooklyn, New York. Foreman has also pursued Jewish reli ...

and Miguel Cotto televised by HBO. Rainone then won all three of his fights in 2011 including a six-round unanimous decision win over Brad Jackson in Madison Square Garden. The main event that evening was also televised by HBO featured Nonito Donaire vs. Omar Narváez. The following year consisted of four fights and three wins. The first fight was a decisive win in Staten Island, which gave Rainone the unique distinction of winning bouts in each of the five

Boroughs A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

. Rainone finished 2012 with a return to Long Island for his first fight there in over three years to score a unanimous 10-round win over former national amateur champion Robbie Cannon, winning the vacant IBA Americas title. Rainone dropped Cannon in the 1st and 9th rounds during the course of the bout. Rainone fought only once in 2013, winning a six-round split decision over James Winchester at the Westchester County Center in

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. Following his 2013 fight he returned to the ring in 2014 winning a 6-round unanimous decision over Jason Davis, in Long Island City, New York. On September 17 Rainone fought in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, walking away with a controversial split decision draw against Juan Carlos Santos. Rainone returned to the ring less than two months later on November 13, winning a 10-round unanimous decision over Carl McNickles at The Space at Westbury, Long Island New York. Rainone dropped Mcknickles in the third and sixth round, picking up the vacant USBO welterweight title with the victory. Soon after his USBO victory, Rainone fought the biggest fight of his career to date. He headlined,

Roc Nation Sports Roc Nation Sports is the sports management division of Roc Nation. History Roc Nation Sports was founded by Jay-Z, Shawn "JAY-Z" Carter in Spring 2013 in partnership with Creative Artists Agency, a prominent talent agency based in Los Angeles. R ...

inaugural boxing event Throne Boxing. The fight took place at

on January 9, 2015, and was televised live on

Fox Sports 1 Fox Sports 1 (FS1) is an American pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. FS1 replaced the motorsports network Speed on August 17, 2013, at the same time that its companion channel Fox Sports 2 ...

with

Dusty Hernández-Harrison Arturo "Dusty" Harrison Hernández (born May 21, 1994) is a Puerto Rican-American professional boxer. He is the former USBA and WBC Continental Americas welterweight champion. As of June 21, 2024, Dusty is ranked in the top 30 in the world a ...

winning in a 10-round UD. Rainone returned two months later to score a decisive knockout in the last round of his fight against

Allen Litzau Allen Curtis Litzau, alias ''The American Boy'' (born April 12, 1982) is a featherweight professional boxer from Minnesota. Personal life Allen Litzau is the older brother of featherweight prospect Jason Litzau. Both are from St Paul, Minnesota. ...

, which was televised on

SportsNet New York SportsNet New York (SNY) is an American regional sports network owned by Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, LLC, itself a joint venture between the Fred Wilpon (which owns a controlling 65% interest) Sterling Equities, Charter Communications thr ...

. Rainone once again fought a televised fight on SportsNet New York at The Space at Westbury, this time defeating Francisco Javier Reza by unanimous decision. Rainone then went up in weight to challenge former

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

light middleweight Light middleweight, also known as junior middleweight or super welterweight,PeBoxRec/ref> is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing The light middleweight division (also known as junior middleweight in the IBF or super welterweight in the WBA an ...

champion

Ishe Smith Ishé Oluwa Kamau Ali Smith ( ; born July 22, 1978) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 2000 to 2019. He held the IBF junior middleweight title in 2013, and is the first boxer from Las Vegas to become a professional world ...

on December 13 of 2015 in Las Vegas at the Palms Casino Resort, coming up short in losing a 10 Round Decision. Three months later, Tommy started his 2016 by making his

Atlantic City Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, Boardwalk (entertainment district), boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020 United States censu ...

debut defeating veteran Maurice Chalmers in an 8-round decision.

Outside of boxing

Away from the ring Rainone is a supervisor for Hilton Hotels. "All of the revenue that comes into the hotel, from room revenue to food and beverages to meetings so on, I crunch those numbers every night, back out the taxes making sure everything adds up and balances which all is a part of my month end. I have to smile and be polite in the professional world, it's like night and day from my other job." Rainone is godfather to former NABF Junior Welterweight Champion Gato Figueroa's son, Blake. He is also close friends with horror movie writer, director, producer Frank Sabatella, who did the movie Blood Night: The Legend of Mary Hatchet. Frank has done Rainone's promo pictures and fight posters since 2006. Tommy has been self-managed his entire career and also manages welterweight Rich Neves. Rainone is a cast member of the Off Broadway boxing play, Kid Shamrock, appearing in the production in the winter of 2011 and the summer of 2012. He was also a judge, along with Harold Lederman and Michael Bentt at the first annual Shadow Box Film Festival, the all boxing film fest.

Professional boxing record

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="8", 26 Wins (6 knockouts, 20 decisions), 7 Losses (0 knockouts, 7 decisions), 1 Draws , - style="text-align:center; background:#e3e3e3;" , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Res. , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Record , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Opponent , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Type , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Rd., Time , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Date , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Location , style="border-style:none none solid solid; ", Notes , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 25-7-1, , align=left, Maurice Chalmers , , , , align=left, , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , - align=center , Loss, , 24-7-1, , align=left,

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , - align=center , Win, , 24-6-1, , align=left, Francisco Javier Reza , , , , align=left, , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , - align=center , Win, , 23-6-1, , align=left,

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 22-6-1, , align=left,

, , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 22-5-1, , align=left, Carl McNickles , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , style="background:#abcdef;", Draw , , 21-5-1, , align=left, Juan Carlos Santos , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 21-5, , align=left, Jason Davis , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 20-5, , align=left, James Winchester , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 19-5, , align=left, Robbie Cannon , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 18-5, , align=left, Kevin Carter , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 17-5, , align=left, Fitzgerald Johnson , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 17-4, , align=left, Josh Williams , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 16-4, , align=left, Brad Jackson , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 15-4, , align=left, Norman Allen , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 14-4, , align=left, Arthur Medina , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 13-4, , align=left, Terry Buteerrbaugh , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 13-3, , align=left, Gerardo Cesar Prieto , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 12–3, , align=left, Daniel Sostre , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 12-2, , align=left, Santos Galli , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 11–2, , align=left, Henry White Jr , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Loss, , 11–1, , align=left, Manuel Guzman , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 11–0, , align=left, William Wilson , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 10–0, , align=left, William Wilson , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 9–0, , align=left, Jaime Morales , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 8–0, , align=left, Jorge Delgado , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 7–0, , align=left, Ronny Glover , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 6–0, , align=left, Samuel Ortiz Gomez , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 5–0, , align=left, Ronny Glover , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 4–0, , align=left, John Lipscomb , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 3–0, , align=left, Jerry Kelly , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 2–0, , align=left, Jesse Gomez , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center , Win, , 1–0, , align=left, Marquis McConnell , , , , align=left, , align=left, , - align=center

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rainone, Tommy Boxers from New York (state) 1980 births Living people Sportspeople from Rockville Centre, New York People from Elmont, New York People from Plainview, New York Sportspeople from Nassau County, New York American male boxers Welterweight boxers