Most people have heard the story of Mike Tyson wanting to fight a gorilla at the zoo or seen the clip of the UFC’s Khabib Nurmagomedov wrestling a young bear as a child, but what most people have never heard of is a heavyweight boxer fighting an octopus.
‘Two-Ton’ Tony Galento lived a strange life and boasted an even stranger career.
At 5’8″, with a diet of cigars, beers, and hotdogs (allegedly eating fifty-two before a fight that he went on to win), and affectionately named ‘the walking beer barrel’, Galento was not your typical athlete and was certainly unlike most fighters.
Galento would become a fan favorite due to his humorous personality. He was once asked a question about Shakespeare by a reporter, to which he responded: “Never heard of him. Is he one of those foreign heavies? I’d moida da bum.”
Despite his eccentricity, Galento was not a bad boxer and retired with a record of 78-26-6, and even faced the great Joe Louis, who defended his heavyweight crown 25 times over 11 years.
Galento dropped Louis in the third round, marking one of only ten times Louis touched the canvas, but lost by TKO the round after. Though Louis gave him a tough fight, Galento faced even tougher, non-human opposition.
Tony Galento fought an octopus, a bear, and a kangaroo in his strange career
Galento is widely reported to have engaged in multiple fights with animals throughout his career.
One such encounter which was caught on video was when Galento fought a kangaroo named ‘King Kang’.
Galento won the bout on points, and is also said to have defeated a bear that he faced too.
The weirdest of all these encounters has to be when Galento fought an octopus in a five-foot tank in Seattle.
The octopus, named Oscar, was said to have been wearing a boxing glove on each tentacle and wrestled with Galento in a publicity stunt. It’s hard to say who won the fight, as Galento is the one who stepped out of the tank, though, unfortunately, it is widely reported by outlets such as The Independent that Oscar was dead before Galento even got in with him.
Tony Galento nearly poked his opponents eyes out following loss to Joe Louis
After losing to Louis, Galento faced Lou Nova in the same year. Galento won the bout by fourteenth round knockout, but the fight should’ve been stopped as, in a 1939 issue of The Ring Magazine, quoted by BoxRec, it says:
“[This was] one of the most disgraceful fights staged since the days of the barroom brawls. Referee George Blake..would have retained his reputation as a great referee had he disqualified Galento.”
Galento’s next fight against Max Baer would see karma come back to him for his rule-breaking behavior, as Baer would give Galento a merciless beating, leaving Galento unable to come out for the eighth round.
Galento led a crazy career, perhaps rivaled only by that of Mike Tyson, who was forced to give up his pet tigers after a mauling incident and who was paid 1.2million by Nintendo for starring in ‘Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!’ video game.
Boxing is full of fascinating tales, from Mills Lane, who worked as a boxer, a referee, and a TV judge, to Juan Manuel Marquez, who drank his own urine to prepare for Floyd Mayweather.
Galento’s life marks just another crazy story in this chaotic sport.