page_title: Rocky Castellani
section_title: World middleweight championship contention
hierarchical_section_title: Rocky Castellani / World middleweight championship contention
caption_attribution_description: Original Jan 30 1947 Sugar Ray Robinson Welterweight Champion Boxing Wire Photo
context_page_description: Attilio N. "Rocky" Castellani was an American middleweight boxer. He was the top rated contender for the world middleweight crown in 1954 when he fought Bobo Olson and in July 1955 when he lost to Sugar Ray Robinson. These two exceptional fights were featured on ESPN's "Classic Fights of the Century".
  Castellani was born in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, to Attilio Castellani and Rose Isopi Castellani, who later moved to Margate City, formerly South Atlantic City. He began boxing as a teenager at local gyms, and at a younger age would box opponents to entertain neighborhood kids. As a young man, he fought as a Marine in the battle of Iwo Jima during World War II. He boxed in the Marine Corps and won the title of "Champion of All China and Guam". After his discharge from the Marines he embarked on his professional boxing career around 1945.
  After a three month layoff from the ring on May 7, 1949, Castellani handily defeated Tony DeMicco before 1435 fans in New York's St. Nicholas Arena in a well publicized ten round unanimous decision. Castellani staggered his opponent in the third round, winning the bout from long range, and defending DeMicco's attempts to fight inside.
context_section_description: On January 9, 1953 Castellani defeated Ralph Jones at Madison Square Garden before 5,400 fans in an important win before a home crowd that clearly favored Castellani as their local boy.  The Associated Press gave the fight to Rocky, winning six rounds, losing three, and drawing one.  Only one judge dissented from a voting for Castellani, resulting in a split decision.  The win moved Castellani to the second round of the World Middleweight Championship tournament to meet Sugar Ray Robinson for the title.  Jones was never able to fight in close as Castellani circled, jabbed, hooked, and threw leading rights. Castellani clinched, armlocked or hugged when Jones attempted in-fighting, and was also successful at backing away to avoid the close shots at which Jones could be dangerous.  His ability to backpedal so effectively may have indicated better conditioning than his opponent.  There were no knockdowns in the close bout in which Castellani seemed to employ a more effective strategy. The bout was a convincing display of in-fighting defense by Castellani, who claimed he had learned Jones's style by watching his bout with Johnny Bratton on television.  Jones' strongest winning round was the fifth when he swept Castellani with sweeping body attacks, and he was down from slips in the seventh and tenth rounds.
  On February 6, 1953, Castellani lost to Frenchman Pierre Langlois in twelve rounds before 4,887 fans in a Madison Garden upset Split Decision.  The bout confirmed Castellani's standing as the top contender for the title in the United States.  Notably, the match became Castellani's exit from a World Middleweight Title elimination tournament. Castellani led the pre-fight betting 3-1 over the Frenchman who had a spotty record and was not well known to the New York fans.  In an extremely close split decision, two of the judges scored for Langlois but only by one point.   Langlois's strong finish in the final two rounds sealed his victory, and he appeared the aggressor throughout the bout, but Castellani's speed and footwork remained impressive in the very close bout.  A critical question was whether Castellani had been knocked down in the eleventh round or pushed.  The judges disagreed on the issue, and it swayed one judge and referee Ruby Goldstein's scoring in favor of Langlois in the close bout.  Eleven of fifteen boxing writers thought Castellani had won, but the judges who believed Castellani had been knocked down in the eleventh from a blow by Langlois gave the decision to him and removed Rocky's hopes to advance in the tournament.  The United Press gave only a slimmest one point lead in their determination of who won the match.  The loss ended Castellani's goal of making an immediate shot at the World Middleweight Title against Sugar Ray Robinson, but he would get his chance at the reigning champion two years later in a non-title bout.
  The highlight of Castellani's career was his ten round split decision near Hollywood, California on July 22, 1955 against Hall of Famer and world middleweight champion Sugar Ray Robinson. Castellani lost the split decision but knocked Robinson down in the sixth round for a count of nine, though Robinson quickly rose and resumed the bout.  After his knockdown, Robinson rallied quickly, leading the bout with furious body punching which impressed the judges.  He had difficulty going to the head of Castellani, though he did at times when his opponent occasionally lowered his defense.  The thrilling spectacle which attracted 8,230 featured a close contest between Castellani, the top contender for the middleweight championship and Robinson, who would successfully defend his title against Bobo Olson in his next fight on December 9, 1955.  Robinson called upon all his fifteen years of boxing experience to win the bout against a skilled opponent who was nearly his equal if only for ten rounds.
  A year earlier on August 20, 1954, Castellani lost a unanimous fifteen round decision before a crowd of 11,000 to Carl "Bobo" Olson for the World Middleweight Title in Daly City.  Olson was the World Middlew
caption: Sugar Ray Robinson, 1947
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