Lee Sala (May 26, 1926 – December 3, 2012) was a leading contender for the

middleweight Middleweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the middleweight division is contested above and up to . Early boxing history is less than exact, but the middleweight designation seems to have beg ...

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

crown in the 1940s and 50s. His professional career spanned from 1946 until 1953, with a record of 76 wins, 7 losses, 0 draws, and 48

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, ...

s.BoxRec: Lee Sala
/ref>

Early life

Lee was born to a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family of Italian descent in Donora,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...

. He was brought up during the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, with a house full of relatives, including five

sibling A sibling is a relative that shares at least one parent with the other person. A male sibling is a brother, and a female sibling is a sister. A person with no siblings is an only child. While some circumstances can cause siblings to be raised ...

s, and two of his

cousin A cousin is a relative who is the child of a parent's sibling; this is more specifically referred to as a first cousin. A parent of a first cousin is an aunt or uncle. More generally, in the kinship system used in the English-speaking world, ...

s. His father, a

bricklayer A bricklayer, which is related to but different from a mason, is a craftsperson and tradesperson who lays bricks to construct brickwork. The terms also refer to personnel who use blocks to construct blockwork walls and other forms of maso ...

by trade, worked very hard to put food on the table, even when there were no jobs available. Lee accredits his desire to box to his cousins Bruno and Libro Sala, who were both professional boxers in the 1920s and 1930s, both of whom were top contenders. The Salas were a very athletic family. Lee's older brother Tony was an All-American football player at

Villanova University Villanova University is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842 and named after Thomas of Villanova, Saint Thom ...

, as well as intercollegiate boxing champion four years in a row. His younger brother Fritz was a

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

prospect in his youth.

U.S. military service

Lee enlisted in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in 1944 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. He served on the for two years, and saw action in the South Pacific. During his tenure in the Navy, he won the Navy Olympic amateur championship of north Japan.

Professional career

After being honorably discharged from the Navy in 1946, Lee turned professional. Winning his first bout against Sonny Hope by knockout in round 4. Lee then went on a 47-fight winning streak, finally losing a decision to Tony DeMicco. He avenged his loss two weeks later Lee fought many top contenders of his time, and newspaper articles reveal that he was in line for a title shot on several occasions. Some say that Lee "hit to hard" and that is why those matches never came to fruition. A ''

Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' article from June 19, 1948 reveals that promoter Jack McGinley offered

Rocky Graziano Thomas Rocco Barbella (January 1, 1919 – May 22, 1990), better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who held the World Middleweight title. Graziano is considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing ...

$25,000 for a non-title shot against Sala; the offer was declined. At one point Sala had outstanding offers to fight both

Sugar Ray Robinson Walker Smith Jr. (May 3, 1921 – April 12, 1989), better known as Sugar Ray Robinson, was an American professional boxer who competed from 1940 to 1965. He was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1990. He is often regarde ...

and Jake LaMotta for the title. LaMotta received offers from Sala's manager Bunny Buntag upwards of $50,000. Sala was next in line for a title shot against Robinson after LaMotta's loss to "Sugar" Ray in 1951, however Robinson signed to fight Holly Mims One of Sala's most memorable bouts was against Syracuses' Joey Dejohn, who went on to fight Jake LaMotta. Sala was knocked down five times, but in the 6th round, he was able to turn it around and knock DeJohn out, breaking Dejohn's jaw in the process.Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – Jun 19, 1948
/ref> Sala remained a top-10 middleweight contender for the majority of his career, and finally retired after a few setbacks to big-name fighters such as Carl "Bobo" Olson. Sala had also just married Florida beauty queen Adeline Mondello, and was planning on starting a family. After Lee retired from boxing, he and his wife had two children. He started working in the whiskey distribution business, and later became a deputy sheriff for the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. He lived in

Tampa, Florida Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

, with his wife, daughter and grandson, and died on December 3, 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sala, Lee 1926 births 2012 deaths People from Donora, Pennsylvania Sportspeople from Washington County, Pennsylvania American people of Italian descent American male boxers Middleweight boxers United States Navy personnel of World War II 20th-century American sportsmen