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On June 10, 1948, the eyes of the sporting world were focused on a minor league ballpark in Newark, New Jersey--the unlikely venue of a much-anticipated rubber match between the two men at the top of boxing's prestigious middleweight division, Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano. They had met in the ring twice before, each winning one bout. In their third fight, Zale, a clever and powerful puncher, hoped to regain his title from Graziano, a knock-out artist six years his junior. This book tells the story of the greatest middleweight trilogy of boxing's Golden Age, a championship battle Newark hoped would catalyze brighter days for a city rife with political corruption and organized crime and grappling with the beginning of deindustrialization.
List of contents
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Preface
¿1.¿The Precinct Captain and the Redhead
¿2.¿Noir City
¿3.¿From the Open Hearth
¿4.¿Black Sheep
¿5.¿A Fighting Champion (Zale Graziano I-Yankee Stadium, September 27, 1946)
¿6.¿Never Lay Down for Any Man
¿7.¿Blood and Thunder (Zale Graziano II-Chicago Stadium, July 16, 1947)
¿8.¿Born Dead with a Black Eye (Jersey Pugilistica)
¿9.¿Landing the Big Fight
10.¿Racing Head-On into the Night
11.¿Newark Grudge Match (Zale Graziano III-Ruppert Stadium, June 10, 1948)
12.¿Postfight Autopsy
13¿Last Round in Jersey City
14¿Trial of the Redhead
15.¿Somebody Up There Likes Me
16.¿Brick City
17.¿Requiem for a Middleweight
Appendix: Career Records of Tony Zale and Rocky Graziano
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Rod Honecker is a civil litigation attorney who resides in Brielle, New Jersey.
