Tony Canzoneri (November 6, 1908 – December 9, 1959) was an American professional boxer. A three-division world champion, he held a total of five world titles. Canzoneri is a member of the exclusive group of

boxing Boxing (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

world champions who have won titles in three or more divisions. Canzoneri fought for championships between bantamweight and light welterweight. Although he is not widely known, Canzoneri was one of the best boxers of his time.

Early life

When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to

Staten Island, New York 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 and ...

, where he campaigned most of his career. Canzoneri fit the mould of the typical American boxer of the era: He could box up to three or four times in one month and up to 24 or 25 times in one year, and he would seldom fight outside

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, considered to be boxing's mecca at the time. Of his first 38 bouts, only one was fought west of New York City, and was in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delawa ...

Professional career

Two-division world champion

Canzoneri won his first title, the World

Featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, th ...

title, with a 15-round decision over Benny Bass on February 10, 1928. He defended the title once and then went up in weight and challenged World

Lightweight Lightweight is a weight class in combat sports and rowing. Boxing Professional boxing The lightweight division is over 130 pounds (59 kilograms) and up to 135 pounds (61.2 kilograms) weight class in the sport of boxing. Notable lightweight boxe ...

Champion

Sammy Mandell Sammy Mandell (a.k.a. Samuel Mandella; February 5, 1904 – November 7, 1967) was an American World lightweight boxing champion from 1926-1930. Born in Rockford, Illinois, and named Salvatore Mandala, he was known as the "Rockford Sheik" due to h ...

, losing by a decision in ten rounds. In 1930, Mandell was knocked out in the first round by

Al Singer Al "The Bronx Beauty" Singer (September 6, 1909 – April 20, 1961) was an American boxer who won the world lightweight championship in 1930. Early life and career Singer was born in a tenement on Broome Street, part of the Jewish section in New ...

and lost his title and Canzoneri, who had already beaten Singer by a ten-round decision before, challenged Singer for the title on November 14, 1930, knocking him out in the first round to become a two division world champion. In defeat, Singer made history by becoming the first man, and only man up until

John Mugabi John Mugabi (born March 4, 1960) is a Ugandan former professional boxer who competed from 1980 to 1991, and 1996 to 1999. He held the WBC super-welterweight title from 1989 to 1990, and challenged twice for world titles at middleweight, includi ...

, to both win and lose the title by knockout in the first round.

Three-division world champion

Canzoneri's first defense was a unification of sorts: He faced World

Light Welterweight Light welterweight, also known as junior welterweight or super lightweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional boxing In professional boxing, light welterweight is contested between the lightweight and welterweight divisions, ...

champion

Jack Kid Berg Judah Bergman, known as Jack Kid Berg or Jackie Kid Berg (28 June 1909 – 22 April 1991), was an English boxer born in the East End of London, who became the World Light Welterweight Champion in 1930. Biography Judah Bergman was born in Rom ...

, who was putting his title on the line and trying to take Canzoneri's lightweight crown. Canzoneri became a three-division world champion by knocking Berg out in the third round on April 24, 1931. Canzoneri,

Barney Ross Barney Ross (born Dov-Ber "Beryl" David Rosofsky; December 23, 1909 – January 17, 1967) was an American professional boxer. Ross became a world champion in three weight divisions and was a decorated veteran of World War II. Early life Dov- ...

and

Henry Armstrong Henry Jackson Jr. (December 12, 1912 – October 24, 1988) was an American professional boxer and a world boxing champion who fought under the name Henry Armstrong. Armstrong was one of the few fighters to win in three or more different divisi ...

were the only boxing champions in history allowed to hold two or more world titles simultaneously. (

Sugar Ray Leonard Ray Charles Leonard (born May 17, 1956), best known as "Sugar" Ray Leonard, is an American former professional boxer, motivational speaker, and occasional actor. Often regarded as one of the greatest boxers of all time, he competed professional ...

became both the vacant World

Super Middleweight Super middleweight, or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing In professional boxing, super middleweight is contested between the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions, in which boxers can weigh between 160 pound ...

and the World

Light Heavyweight Light heavyweight, also referred to as junior cruiserweight or light cruiserweight, is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruise ...

Champion in one night in 1988, but he could keep only one and chose to keep the Super Middleweight title.)

Regaining the light welterweight title

Canzoneri lost his world Light Welterweight Championship to

Johnny Jadick John J. Jadick, better known as Johnny Jadick (June 16, 1908 – April 3, 1970) was an American light welterweight boxer and the NBA light welterweight world champion in 1932. In September of 1932, the NBA decided not to recognize junior divi ...

and he lost to Jadick again in a rematch. Meanwhile, Canzoneri kept retaining his lightweight belt, defending it against the likes of

Billy Petrolle William Michael Petrolle (January 10, 1905 – May 14, 1983) was a world lightweight boxing title contender. Boxing ran in the Petrolle family as his brothers Pete and Frank also shared his occupation.

and his brother Frankie Petrolle. Jadick lost his belt to

Battling Shaw José Pérez Flores (October 21, 1910 – August 27, 1994) was a Mexican professional boxer better known as Battling Shaw or Benny Kid Roy. He was the first Mexican to become world champion. Professional career Shaw made his pro debut at the ...

and Canzoneri once again challenged for the World Light Welterweight title while keeping his Lightweight title. He beat Shaw by decision and recovered the world Light Welterweight Championship. In his next bout, versus Ross, he lost both belts when Ross beat him by a ten-round decision. There was an immediate rematch and Ross won again, this time by decision in 15.

Regaining the lightweight title

On May 10, 1935, he fought for the world lightweight title against

Lou Ambers Luigi Giuseppe d'Ambrosio (November 8, 1913 – April 25, 1995), a.k.a. Lou Ambers, was an American World Lightweight boxing champion who fought from 1932 to 1941. Ambers fought many other boxing greats, such as Henry Armstrong and Tony Canzoneri ...

. Canzoneri won the World Lightweight title by outpointing Ambers over 15 rounds. After successfully defending his Lightweight title once, he lost it again in a rematch with Ambers by a 15-round decision. There was a rubber match between the two and Ambers once again won a decision in 15 rounds.

Later career

Canzoneri went on boxing professionally until 1939, but he never again challenged for a world title. Among other world champions that he beat were

Frankie Klick Frankie Klick (May 5, 1907 – May 18, 1982) was an American boxer who became a World Jr. Lightweight boxing champion when he defeated Kid Chocolate, on December 25, 1933 at the arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in a seventh-round technical k ...

Baby Arizmendi Alberto "Baby" Arizmendi (March 17, 1914 – December 31, 1962) was a Mexican professional boxer and New York State Athletic Commission (NYSAC) featherweight world title holder in 1934. He also competed in the bantamweight and welterweight di ...

Jimmy McLarnin James Archibald McLarnin (19 December 1907 – 28 October 2004) was an Irish professional boxer who became a two-time welterweight world champion and an International Boxing Hall of Fame inductee. McLarnin has been referred to as the greatest ...

and Kid Chocolate. Canzoneri had a record of 137 wins, 24 losses, 10 draws and 3 no decisions (Newspaper Decisions: 4-0-0). During his era, many states and countries still had no scoring on boxing fights, so each time a fight would go the scheduled number of rounds without a knockout, no decision would be made as to the winner. Newspapers, however, would fill this gap, giving their own opinion of which boxer had won the fight. He had 44 knockouts, and only one loss by knockout. Canzoneri was managed by Sammy Goldman. He is a member of the

International Boxing Hall Of Fame The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF), located in Canastota, New York, honors boxers, trainers and other contributors to the sport worldwide. Inductees are selected by members of the Boxing Writers Association of America. The I ...

Professional boxing record

All information in this section is derived from

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profes ...

, unless otherwise stated.

Official record

All

newspaper decision A newspaper decision was a type of decision in professional boxing. It was rendered by a consensus of sportswriters attending a bout after it had ended inconclusively with a "no decision", as many regions had not adopted the National Sporting Club ...

s are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted in the win/loss/draw column.

Unofficial record

Record with the inclusion of

s in the win/loss/draw column.

References

External links

* *
Biography at boxingbiographies.co.uk
*https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1929 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1930 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1931 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1932 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1935 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_Association%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1936 *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Featherweight--1920s *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Lightweight--1920s *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/The_Ring_Magazine%27s_Annual_Ratings:_Lightweight--1930s *https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/NBA_World_Light_Welterweight_Title_Fights *https://titlehistories.com/boxing/na/usa/ny/nysac-l.html {{DEFAULTSORT:Canzoneri, Tony 1908 births 1959 deaths Featherweight boxers World featherweight boxing champions American boxers of Italian descent Light-welterweight boxers International Boxing Hall of Fame inductees Lightweight boxers World lightweight boxing champions People from Slidell, Louisiana Sportspeople from Staten Island American male boxers Boxers from New York City