Duilio Spagnolo (c. 1927 – April 15, 2005) was an Italian boxer who was a heavyweight contender during the

Joe Louis Joseph Louis Barrow (May 13, 1914 – April 12, 1981) was an American professional boxer who competed from 1934 to 1951. Nicknamed the Brown Bomber, Louis is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential boxers of all time. He re ...

Ezzard Charles Ezzard Mack Charles (July 7, 1921 – May 28, 1975), known as the Cincinnati Cobra, was an American professional boxer and World Heavyweight Champion. Known for his slick defense and precision, he is often considered the greatest light heavywei ...

Jersey Joe Walcott Arnold Raymond Cream (January 31, 1914 – February 25, 1994), best known as Jersey Joe Walcott, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1930 to 1953. He held the NYSAC, NBA, and ''The Ring'' heavyweight titles from 1951 to 195 ...

and

Rocky Marciano Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955, and held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956. He is the onl ...

eras. Spagnolo fought in the

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mostly, but he enjoyed more success on the

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an boxing circuit. On February 25, 1945, he made his professional boxing debut with an eight-round decision win over Luigi Musina, in

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard language, Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the List of cities in Italy, second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 ...

. He had his first career defeat in his second bout, when he faced

Enrico Bertola Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from '' Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri (French), E ...

on August 12 of that year, in

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, dropping a ten-round decision. Ten days later, the pair would rematch, in Milan, and Spagnolo avenged the defeat with an eight-round points victory over Bertola. As soon as his fourth fight, Spagnolo challenged for the Italian Heavyweight title, winning it with a twelve-round decision over Giovanni Martin, in San Remo. His next fight resulted in his first draw (tie) when he and Gino Buonvino fought ten rounds on April 15, 1946, in Milan. Spagnolo defended his Italian Heavyweight title with a twelve-round decision over Mentore Mazzali in

Piacenza Piacenza (; egl, label= Piacentino, Piaṡëinsa ; ) is a city and in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, and the capital of the eponymous province. As of 2022, Piacenza is the ninth largest city in the region by population, with over ...

on May 19, then lost it in a rematch with Musina, when Spagnolo was disqualified in the fourth round, on July 6, in Milan. Spagnolo and Musina had an immediate rubber match, with Spagnolo regaining the title by a twelve-round decision on September 8 in Milan. Spagnolo then abdicated the championship in order to move to the United States, where more famous opponents and the possibility of a world title shot awaited. The first indication that the latter was not going to come came on March 25, 1947, when he made his American debut, against a top ranked heavyweight,

Lee Savold Lee Savold (born Lee Hulver; March 22, 1915 – May 14, 1972) was an American heavyweight boxer who held the British and European (EBU) version of the World Heavyweight championship between 1950 and 1951 and was a leading contender in the 1940s an ...

, who proceeded to give Spagnolo his first

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

loss, in round eight at

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's famed

Boston Garden The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" (lat ...

. Spagnolo then won nine fights in a row. He scored his only three career knockout wins during this streak, beating Mike Fisher in five,

Louis Clark Louis Clark (27 February 1947 – 13 February 2021) was an English music arranger and keyboard player. He trained at Leeds College of Music. He is best known for his work with Electric Light Orchestra and '' Hooked on Classics''. Clark started ...

in three and

Jim Lake James A. Lake (born August 10, 1941, Kearney, Nebraska) is an American evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology and of Human Genetics at UCLA. Lake is best known for the New Animal Phyloge ...

in five. This pattern of beating almost completely unknown fighters would continue on for the rest of his career, but he managed to also fight with

Roland La Starza Roland La Starza (May 12, 1927 – September 30, 2009) was an American boxer and actor. Life and career Originally from the Van Nest section of the Bronx, La Starza fought 66 professional bouts from July 7, 1947 to May 8, 1961. He won 57 of th ...

(who later challenged Marciano for the World Heavyweight title), losing by a ten-round unanimous decision on November 16, 1950, in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, behi ...

, Coley Wallace, losing to him by a ten-round decision on December 11 of the same year in

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, and Nick Barone (who later challenged Charles for the World Heavyweight title), losing to him by a ten-round unanimous decision on March 15, 1951, in Syracuse, New York. During one point in his career Spagnolo was scheduled to fight Rocky Marciano. However Marciano's camp cancelled the upcoming bout when Marciano's hand was injured in training. His fight with Barone was his last one, and he retired with 18 wins, 10 losses and four draws in 32 career bouts, with three knockout wins.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spagnolo, Duilio 1927 births 2005 deaths Italian male boxers Heavyweight boxers Place of birth missing