In the Stone Age a fight was simply a fight. A throwback to Stone-Age man is potbellied Tony Galento, Orange, N. J. bartender, who shrugs his chubby shoulders at the fancy art of boxing, scoffs at the modern mode of training. Tony Galento's fighting technique is amazingly simple: His attack is limited to one sweeping motion with his left hand; his defense takes care of itself.
In Manhattan last week, 230-lb. Tony Galento—also known as Two-Ton Tony, the Jersey Nightstick, the TNT Kid, the One-Man Riot and the "beer barrel that walks like a man"—achieved something of a moral victory when he faced Heavyweight Nathan Mann, a fairly well-rated boxer, as a headliner in Madison Square Garden. Suspended by the New York State Athletic Commission last winter because he insisted upon, training on beer and hot dogs in his Orange saloon and doing his road work at the wheel of an automobile, Bartender Galento, whose face is the color of biscuit dough, had been reinstated for no apparent reason three weeks ago.
"There won't be nuttin' left of him 'cause I'll analyze him," boasted Two-Ton Tony, whose paralyzing punches have been known to knock opponents clear out of the ring, and sometimes hit a referee by mistake. Because he had been hailed as the most colorful fisticuffer since John L. Sullivan, 10,000 curious fight fans turned out to watch his well-publicized antics. But they made him a 4-to-1 underdog, in spite of the fact that he had never been knocked down in his eight-year career, had knocked out his four most recent opponents (Al Ettore, Leroy Haynes, Lorenzo Pack and Charley Massera).
Looking like a well-fed Chinese war lord stripped to his trunks, almond-eyed, flat-faced Tony Galento waddled out of his corner and started to swing his short arms in an old-fashioned goto. He missed five out of every six swings. Before the chuckling spectators had time to get accustomed to this primitive technique, one of Galento's punches met Nathan Mann's chin —squarely and effectively, for Galento's fifth successive knockout. It had taken Champion Joe Louis longer (three rounds) to dispose of Nathan Mann last winter.
After the fight, 28-year-old Tony Galento announced his two ambitions: to knock out Joe Louis and to endorse a brand of beer. "Most of these here guys that endorse beer never drank a bottle." he swaggered. "Me, I train on it. The public would have some confidence in what I say about beer."