Danny DiLiberto's Boxing Career

McKinneyMiner

McKinneyMiner

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
In addition to my love of pool I have also been a huge fan of boxing my entire life...

I was doing some research on the boxing career of Danny DiLiberto and came up with the following links which might be of some interest to people...

He fought under the name of Dan Toriani, mostly in Florida...

http://boxrec.com/list_bouts.php?human_id=117355&cat=boxer

http://ring44.com/hof/Danny_DiLiberto.htm

The first is the professional log of Danny's fights and the second is his induction into the Buffalo Boxing Hall of Fame...

My apologies if this has been posted before...
 
I'm sure his tenacity in the square ring was equal to the rectangular arena. Wish I could have seen him in both.
 
It's pretty cool you posted that. I remember him referencing the boxing in accustats but forgot to look into it. It's a pretty impressive run! Zero losses. Someone felt he was worth putting into a hall of fame too. They mentioned something like "it's too bad about his brittle hands"... is that why he quit I wonder, despite a near perfect record? Maybe it was too hard on his hands to keep up his pool game. Boxing's loss but pool's blessing.
 
CreeDo said:
It's pretty cool you posted that. I remember him referencing the boxing in accustats but forgot to look into it. It's a pretty impressive run! Zero losses. Someone felt he was worth putting into a hall of fame too. They mentioned something like "it's too bad about his brittle hands"... is that why he quit I wonder, despite a near perfect record? Maybe it was too hard on his hands to keep up his pool game. Boxing's loss but pool's blessing.
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He fractured his hands quite a few times. You can't really fight or train while they are healing so my guess is, no fight=no $$,so he quit and just played pool to make a living. Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
He fractured his hands quite a few times. You can't really fight or train while they are healing so my guess is, no fight=no $$,so he quit and just played pool to make a living. Johnnyt
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You're correct Johnny.
 
Danny told us that he went undefeated, and his final fight i believe he broke his hand in the early rounds and fought it to the end still to a split decision. Thats heart right there
 
One of the really interesting things in the bout log to me is that Danny only fought one fighter in his career that had a winning record... And that was his very last fight against Tino Fuentes, a TKO in 2...

The fight where he broke his hand and won a split decision must have been the rematch against Billy Hall his third to last fight...
 
McKinneyMiner said:
One of the really interesting things in the bout log to me is that Danny only fought one fighter in his career that had a winning record... And that was his very last fight against Tino Fuentes, a TKO in 2...

The fight where he broke his hand and won a split decision must have been the rematch against Billy Hall his third to last fight...
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FYI Tino Fuentes became a top contender. Danny was moving up the ranks fast. Angelo Dundee (yes!) was his trainer, and he liked Danny's chances to be a contender for the title himself.

By the way, what's not on there is Danny's record OUTSIDE the ring. Over a hundred fights and still undefeated! He fought many that were well out of his weight class too. Most of these "fights" were over in one punch! Danny had a bazooka for a right! Even north of seventy, he is no one to trifle with.
 
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Danny was coming thru Washington about 6 years ago and he called to see if we could have supper somewhere. We met at a restraunt and talked for 3 hours non stop about pool and boxing. I never fought pro but had 39 amateur fights as a light-heavyweight and heavyweight. I have a huge collection of boxing magazines and books going way back. And no matter which great fighter I named from the past, Danny was able to expound on that guy's career! He's still a big boxing fan.

I agree with CreeDo....boxing's loss was our gain!

While we're talking about D-D, the thing I admire most about him is that he is very, very street smart but still conducts himself as a perfect gentleman at all times! His commentary at Accu-Stats is always polite, professional, polished and informative. He's always trying to teach or enlighten people. And that's exactly how he is in real life. He's hard not to like! Like all of us, he's not perfect and has faults, but I respect him much as a man, not just a great player.
 
CreeDo said:
It's pretty cool you posted that. I remember him referencing the boxing in accustats but forgot to look into it. It's a pretty impressive run! Zero losses. Someone felt he was worth putting into a hall of fame too. They mentioned something like "it's too bad about his brittle hands"... is that why he quit I wonder, despite a near perfect record? Maybe it was too hard on his hands to keep up his pool game. Boxing's loss but pool's blessing.
Click to expand...

I always suspected his hands were normal. It just that he hits like a 250
pounder.The great Sugar Ray Robinson admired Danny's right hand.
He makes the wind whistle when he shadow boxes.

Now for my monthly rant!!!!!
DANNY DILIBERTO FOR THE BCA HALL OF FAME!!!!!!!
 
I heard that Chuck Norris had a fight deal signed with Danny and at the last minute got scared and pulled out of the fight. I can't say what he did to Bruce Lee because it could get Danny in trouble, I don't know how long the statute of limitations is on that.:thumbup:


Currently Danny was in negatioations with Dana White for UFC but they can't find anyone for Danny to fight they are all scarred od Danny they saw him in they gym on the heavy bag and Danny knocked his own action. :eek: Thats how strong Danny D is!!!!

I hope he docent get mad at me for posting this. I'm just jokeing around in a lite hearted way, I will appologise if Danny gets mad at me.


On the square Danny I have known for about 20 years and he is a great asset to pool, as a player, commentator, author, teacher etc. I don't know if he is in the HOF, but he deserves recognition in out sport
 
I believe he's also the only person ever to run over 300 balls and bowl a 300 - in the same day. He probably knocked a couple guys out too that day.lol..
 
McKinneyMiner said:
One of the really interesting things in the bout log to me is that Danny only fought one fighter in his career that had a winning record... And that was his very last fight against Tino Fuentes, a TKO in 2...

The fight where he broke his hand and won a split decision must have been the rematch against Billy Hall his third to last fight...
Click to expand...

That's not uncommon for up and coming fighters. Most of a boxers early fights are against tomato cans.
 
pt109 said:
I always suspected his hands were normal. It just that he hits like a 250
pounder.The great Sugar Ray Robinson admired Danny's right hand.
He makes the wind whistle when he shadow boxes.

Now for my monthly rant!!!!!
DANNY DILIBERTO FOR THE BCA HALL OF FAME!!!!!!!
Click to expand...

I agree wholeheartedly! It's hard to give the BCA Hall of Fame any creditibility until Danny DiLiberto is inducted.
I feel the same way about the Baseball HOF and Pete Rose!
 
My apologies... I was actually reading Danny's bout log upside down...

The draw where he broke his hand must have come against Boots Burkhakter... Also, he fought Billy Hall 3 times out of his 14 fights...
 
I hate it when a guy is freaking 70 years old and I still think he'll probably kick my 30 years younger ass. Plenty of pool players can verify Danny D being the real deal with the fists.

It must suck to be a 250 lb tough guy and a 150 lb guy who doesn't curse beats you down. Quickly.

"Don't make me kick your rear end, darn it!" in a rough bar, and then drilling them with one shot. Hilarious.

Too bad Steve Cook wasn't a bad ass on the sly...that would of been the greatest combo ever lol.
 
When I watched the 14.1 world finals between Cohen and Immonen I was unaware until the end that DiLiberto coached Cohen. At the end of the match Cohen thanked Danny for helping him and went into the accustats booth, took a picture out of his pocket of Danny from his boxing days and had Danny autograph it. He had the picture in his pocket during the match for good luck.

It is on the accustats dvd of the event. Pretty cool thing to see, and it was a heck of a match. Cohen showed a lot of heart to come from so far behind.

Another champion who was a boxer in his youth was Cicero Murphy.
 
Danny has been into the local south florida pool rooms alot as he lives down here (or did at least at one point). One time he is in the pool room talking to a group of about 3 people. I was standing to the side of them waiting for my match to come up. One of the guys made a comment to Danny about him getting older and slower. Danny said something like Oh I still have a few move and the guy kinda snickered a little. Then like a flash, Danny went one-two with a short throw shadow box in front of this guys face, and it was surprisingly FAST. I remember the guys eyes got big and wide for a moment. I saw that and the first thought out of my head was WOW this guy could still KTFO someone if they were bothering him. This was just a few years ago too, im not talking decades ago. I can only imagine how fast he was in his 20s.
 
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