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 *les. Canzoneri is a member of the exclusive group of boxing world champions who have won *les 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.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Professional career
  • 2.1 Two-division world champion
  • 2.2 Three-division world champion
  • 2.3 Regaining the light welterweight *le
  • 2.4 Regaining the lightweight *le
  • 2.5 Later career
• 3 Professional boxing record
  • 3.1 Official record
  • 3.2 Unofficial record
• 4 See also
• 5 References
• 6 External links

Early life

When he was a teenager, he and his family moved to Staten Island, New York, 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, 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.

Professional career

Two-division world champion

Canzoneri won his first *le, the World Featherweight *le, with a 15-round decision over Benny B* on February 10, 1928. He defended the *le once and then went up in weight and challenged World Lightweight Champion Sammy Mandell, losing by a decision in ten rounds. In 1930, Mandell was knocked out in the first round by Al Singer and lost his *le and Canzoneri, who had already beaten Singer by a ten-round decision before, challenged Singer for the *le 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, to both win and lose the *le by knockout in the first round.

Three-division world champion

Canzoneri's first defense was a unification of sorts: He faced World Light Welterweight champion Jack Kid Berg, who was putting his *le 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 and Henry Armstrong were the only boxing champions in history allowed to hold two or more world *les simultaneously. (Sugar Ray Leonard became both the vacant World Super Middleweight and the World Light Heavyweight Champion in one night in 1988, but he could keep only one and chose to keep the Super Middleweight *le.)

Regaining the light welterweight *le

Canzoneri lost his world Light Welterweight Championship to Johnny Jadick and he lost to Jadick again in a rematch. Meanwhile, Canzoneri kept retaining his lightweight belt, defending it against the likes of Billy Petrolle and his brother Frankie Petrolle.

Jadick lost his belt to Battling Shaw and Canzoneri once again challenged for the World Light Welterweight *le while keeping his Lightweight *le. 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 *le

On May 10, 1935, he fought for the world lightweight *le against Lou Ambers. Canzoneri won the World Lightweight *le by outpointing Ambers over 15 rounds. After successfully defending his Lightweight *le 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 *le. Among other world champions that he beat were Frankie Klick, Baby Arizmendi, Jimmy McLarnin 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.

Professional boxing record

All information in this section is derived from BoxRec, unless otherwise stated.

Official record

All newspaper decisions are officially regarded as “no decision” bouts and are not counted to the win/loss/draw column.

Unofficial record

Record with the inclusion of newspaper decisions to the win/loss/draw column.

See also

• Lineal championship
• List of lightweight boxing champions
• List of The Ring world champions
• List of boxing triple champions

References

External links

• Boxing record for Tony Canzoneri from BoxRec (registration required)
• Tony Canzoneri at Find a Grave

• Biography at boxingbiographies.co.uk
• Tony Canzoneri - CBZ profile
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1929
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1930
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1931
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1932
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%27s_Quarterly_Ratings:_1935
• https://boxrec.com/media/index.php/National_Boxing_*ociation%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_*le_Fights
• https://*lehistories.com/boxing/na/usa/ny/nysac-l.html