Joey Giardello KO's Del Flanagan in the 1st round, on June 16, 1959, at The St. Paul Auditorium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
There were more than whispers, at the time, that Flanagan may have "taken a dive" in this fight.
After Giardello had admitted to taking over a thousand dollar loan from a New York mobster in 1957, to place bets on the Brooklyn Dodgers he said, the New York State Athletic Commission became rather unhappy.
Commission members' doubts were not resolved by an occasional lapse of form on Giardello's part in what it felt should have been easy fights for him.
Following the NYSAC's lead, the Pennsylvania Athletic Commission then suspended the licenses of Carmen Graziano and Tony Ferrante, Giardello's co-managers, for also associating with unsavory persons.
The New York commission found the managers themselves unsavory, Ferrante's police record was modest, not quite as long as his arm, but it certainly reached his elbow, and it would also suspend Giardello's license.
From 1957 on Giardello had been barred from fighting in New York, and this in turn had kept him off TV (except for the fight with Gene Fullmer in 1960, a 15-round draw). Injured financially, Giardello finally got rid of his two managers, but New York was not completely convinced.
"As time passed," said one matchmaker, in a 1963 Sports Illustrated profile of Giardello, "Joey became the most poorly managed fighter in the history of the ring."
According to Joe Louis, "the worst managing he got was from himself. He didn't take care of himself and wound up losing fights he should have won."
Giardello, born Carmine Orlando Tilleli, had a different theory. "It wasn't that at all," he says. "It's just that some nights I felt like fighting and some nights I didn't."
"Because there are always rumors of mob involvement and his training regimen includes beer, macaroni, and not much running, Joey never quite gets the respect that his speed, savvy and superb boxing skills deserve," The New York Times Robert Lipsyte would write of Giardello in a contemporary report.
It also didn't help that Giardello's fights weren't always artistic masterpieces.
His 1960 bout with Fullmer turned so ugly that referee Harry Kessler actually stopped the action and warned them both, "Remember, boys, you're in public."
"Joey was my first champion," renowned trainer Lou Duva told ESPN upon Giardello's passing in 2008. "Anytime there was a tough guy out there, promoters would say, 'Get Joey.' He fought everybody. He took short money sometimes, just to fight. And it was always a war."
Unfortunately, it was not always in Giardello's nature to train.
"He'd rather play cards," said Duva. "Sometimes you had to throw bottles at him to get him in the gym."
In 1993, Giardello was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.
He'd take legal action against Universal Studios in 2000 for the depiction of his bout with Rubin Carter in the film "The Hurricane." starring Denzel Washington. Giardello was incorrectly portrayed as having been favored by biased white judges.
In reality, Giardello beat Carter fairly convincingly in that bout.
The film depicted Giardello and the white boxing officials as villains in Carter's story.
Giardello won the suit.
When the film was released on DVD, it included footage of the actual fight, and comments from the film's director, Norman Jewison, to the effect that Giardello was no doubt a great fighter.
"People didn't know how to handle Joey," Duva would add in that ESPN interview. "When it came time for him to fight Tiger for the title, no one wanted to train him. He said, 'Let's do this together.' He had faith in me, and that helped my career. I'll never forget him.
"He was a rough, dead-end kid. But if you were his friend, he'd go to hell for you. If you knew him, you had to love him. Whether you were a priest or a gangster, you loved him."
We'll make it clear that there was never any definitive proof that Del Flanagan threw this fight with Giardello. or that Giardello ever threw a fight.
Delbert Charles "Del" Flanagan began his career with 40 straight wins before drawing with Johnny De Fazio in March 1950. He remained undefeated until his 53rd fight, a loss to Tommy Campbell in June 1951.
He and his brother Glen were known as the Fighting Flanagan Brothers.
Glen Flanagan (84-23-13 with 34 KO's) was a world-rated featherweight and lightweight. He was first rated in January of 1950 and was last rated in February of 1955. His highest ranking was # 3 in the world, and he was a world-rated fighter for a total of 29 months. He fought 3 world champions and 26 ranked opponents, and was never knocked out in 121 professional fights.
A third Flanagan brother, Jerry, would go 7-1-1 (3 KO wins) at lightweight after a very good amateur career.
Del Flanagan had been the 1945-46 Northwest Golden Gloves Champion at featherweight. Del's highest ranking would be at #2 during the mid-1950's but he never fought for a world title though he fought such big names as Tim Dalton, Johnny DeFazio, Sandy Saddler, Jackie Graves, Beau Jack, Tommy Campbell, Jimmy Carter, Arthur King, Willie Pastrano, Johnny Saxton, Gene Fullmer, Kid Gavilán, Joey Giardello and Duane Horsman during his career.