Vito Antuofermo
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Vito Antuofermo (born February 9, 1953) is an actor who is also a former world Middleweight boxing champion.
Antuofermo was born in Italy, but his family moved to the United States when he was 10 years old. Antuofermo learned how to fight in the tough areas of New York City, and by his teens he had made up his mind that he wanted to be a professional boxer.
In 1979, Antuofermo became world's Middleweight champion by beating defending champ Hugo Corro by a decision in 15 rounds at Monte Carlo. An interesting fact about that fight was that, according an article on Ring Magazine, Howard Cosell, who was working on that fight's live broadcast to the USA, was telling viewers that Corro was, in his opinion, way ahead on the judges' cards. When someone on the American television crew found out it was Antuofermo who was actually leading on the cards, Cosell then began to say he had Antuofermo ahead.
On the morning after winning the title, Antuofermo and his crew were driving to a small vacation in Italy, when he saw a car fly off a bridge under which they were passing. The car landed right in front of his, but luckily the accident did not injure any occupants in Antuofermo's car. He was so shocked that he kept driving, and never found out what happened to the occupants of that car. He came back to his senses about 20 minutes later.
Antuofermo defended his title against Marvelous Marvin Hagler in Las Vegas, Nevada, the fight resulting in a 15-round draw. In his next defense, against Alan Minter, also in Las Vegas, he lost the title by a 15-round split decision. They had a rematch, in London, and Minter retained the crown by a knockout in eight.
Antuofermo kept fighting and winning, and, after Hagler won the title from Minter in 1980, Antuofermo was given another chance to regain the world Middleweight crown. In front of an HBO Boxing audience and a full house at Hagler's native Boston's Boston Garden, Antuofermo this time lost by a knockout in the fifth round.
After several attempts at becoming a top Middleweight again, Antuofermo in 1984 retired from boxing. He began to pursue an acting career, and in 1990 he landed a small speaking role in The Godfather Part III. He has landed several small speaking roles in movies and television shows since, and has done many theater plays.
Apart from Corro, other boxers he beat included world champions Eckhard Dagge, Denny Moyer, and Emile Griffith.
More recently, doctors found a nonlife-threatening dark spot on Antuofermo's brain. They believe it might be related to Antuofermo's days as a boxer.
Antuofermo had 50 wins, 7 losses and 2 draws, with 21 wins by knockout.
External link
Antuofermo record from boxrec.com (http://boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=011417)