The Italian Stallions: Heroes of Boxing's Glory Days

The greatest of the greats come to light in this wonderful history of Italian-American boxers--Rocky Marciano, Rocky Graziano, Jake LaMotta, and Willie Pep. In his intro, Hauser (Muhammad Ali: His Life and Times) sets the tone of the book: these boxers""would shape the way in which America viewed the Italian-American community and also the manner in which the Italian-American community viewed itself."" He lists surprising statistics culled from seemingly in-depth research (e.g.,""in 2,101 professional fights, Italian-American boxers were knocked out only 44 times""). Then, in the following sections, Brunt (Facing Ali) launches a solid narrative about Italian immigration and boxing, before the book segues into selected articles, culled from Sport magazine from as far back as 1946. Rex Lardner and W.C. Heinz weigh in on Rocky Graziano, while Ed Fitzgerald sells the story of Rocky Marciano. In all, this is an excellent addition to boxing's reference shelf.