Obituary: Joey Giardello

Sep 15 2008 by David Charters, Liverpool Daily Post

IT WAS boxing as you remember it from the movies – brimmed hats, wide-striped suits, padded shoulders, corrupt deals, street-corner boys shouting the betting odds, all held in the shades of smoke from fat cigars, while skinny Italians punched bags, hoping one day to be contenders.

Into this atmosphere in the Flatbush district of Brooklyn came Carmine Tilelli. His father was a sanitation worker, who added to the family’s income fighting in the ring as Eddie Martin.

But young Carmine developed his own style.

“Nobody showed me nothing,” he said. “I’d box and then stick around and watch guys box. I’d pick up more just by watching.”

Well, he picked up enough to become the world middleweight champion in 1963 when he beat the great Dick Tiger over 15 rounds in Atlantic City.

Before that, Carmine had a long and tough apprenticeship, developing the dancing and speed of jab, which led to many celebrated victories. By then, he had adopted the name of a cousin, Joey Giardello, so that he could enlist early in the Army.

Despite victories over some of the best fighters of his generation, including “Sugar” Ray Robinson, Giardello is now best known for his 1965 fight with Ruben “Carter”, immortalised in Bob Dylan’s song, The Hurricane, and then in the film (1999), both of which claimed that Carter had been wrongfully jailed for a robbery, in which three people were killed.

The suggestion in the Universal film was that Carter had really won, but that the racially-driven judges awarded it to Giardello. This was not the case. Giardello sued. His action resulted in undisclosed damages and the inclusion of an explanation on the video and footage from the real match in the DVD.

“For 19 years, I beat the greatest fighters around and I beat Carter fair and square. I just wanted to set the record straight and I think it has been,” Giardello said.

In the same year, Carter had fought Liverpool’s Harry Scott twice at the Royal Albert Hall, winning the first and losing the second.

Giardello, married with four children, retired in 1977 and became an inspector in New York’s weights and measures department. He had won 101 of his 134 matches, 33 by knock-out.

In 1993, he was inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

Joey Giardello, boxer; born July 16, 1930, died September 2, 2008.