Anthony Florian Zaleski, known professionally as Tony Zale, was an American boxer. Zale was born and raised in Gary, Indiana, a steel town, which gave him his nickname, "Man of Steel", reinforced by his reputation of being able to take fearsome punishment and still rally to win. Zale, who held the world middleweight title multiple times, was known as a crafty boxer and punishing body puncher who wore his opponents down before knocking them out. In 1990, Zale was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal by President George. H. W. Bush.
Tony Zale in 1940
Tony Zale in 1941
Zale married Adeline Richwalski, in March 1942
Boxing is a combat sport and a martial art in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined amount of time in a boxing ring.
Two Royal Navy men boxing for charity (1945). The modern sport was codified in England in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
A painting of Minoan youths boxing, from an Akrotiri fresco circa 1650 BC. This is the earliest documented use of boxing gloves.
A boxing scene depicted on a Panathenaic amphora from Ancient Greece, circa 336 BC, British Museum
A boxer and a rooster in a Roman mosaic of first century AD at the National Archaeological Museum, Naples