Roland La Starza

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La Starza, Roland boxer
Data
Birth Name La Starza, Roland
Weight class Heavyweight
nationality Americans
birthday May 12, 1927
place of birth Van Nest, Bronx, New York
Date of death September 30, 2009
Place of death Port Orange, Florida
style Left-hand boom
size 1.83 meters
Combat Statistics
Struggles 66
Victories 57
Knockout victories 27
Defeats 9
draw 0

Roland La Starza (born May 12, 1927 in Van Nest , Bronx , New York City , † September 30, 2009 in Port Orange , Florida ) was an American boxer and actor.

Career

Amateur career

La Starza, the descendant of Italian immigrants to the United States, lived in New York. That's where he came to boxing. In 1944, when he was seventeen, he took part in the 17th US Intercity “Golden Gloves” championships in New York and finished third in the light heavyweight division with a points win over Vince Di Venti. In March 1945 he started at the New York "Golden Gloves" Championships and won this championship with a technical knockout victory in the 1st round over Ernie Proster and a knockout victory in the 2nd round over Steve De Luca. In April of this year he had to admit defeat on points in Chicago at the 18th US Intercity "Golden Gloves" Championships in the final Adolfo Quijano.

Profile career

In 1947, La Starza turned professional. He fought his first fight on July 7, 1947 in Long Island City. He defeated his compatriot Dave Glanton in the heavyweight division on points. He was very successful in the first three years of his professional career. By the end of 1949 he had fought 37 fights, all of which he won. On October 2, 1949, he defeated the Argentine Cesar Brion on points in New York . Cesar Brion was the most prominent and best heavyweight boxer that La Starza had beaten by then.

At the beginning of 1950, several boxers emerged who were considered so-called "white hopes". Two of them were La Starza and Rocky Marciano . From 1937 to 1952, “colored” boxers held the heavyweight world title, namely Joe Louis , Ezzard Charles and Jersey Joe Walcott . La Starza and Rocky Marciano met on March 24, 1950 in New York. Like La Starza, Rocky Marciano was of Italian descent and unbeaten to date. The fight between the two ended with an extremely narrow and controversial 2-1 win by Rocky Marciano. In the world rankings of Nat Fleischer in the boxing journal "The Ring" from June 1950, Rocky Marciano ranked 7th and La Starza 8th. Dan Bucceroni and Rex came a little later to these two so-called "white hopes" Layne added.

In 1951 La Starza played six victorious fights in a row, but he lost the seventh fight on December 21, 1951 in New against Dan Bucceroni, who defeated him after ten rounds on points. For this defeat he returned the favor on May 30, 1952 in New York with a points win over Bucceroni after ten rounds.

On September 23, 1952 Rocky Marciano was in New York with a knockout victory in the 13th round over Jersey Joe Walcott new world heavyweight champion. On February 13, 1953, La Starza came in New York to a clear points victory over Rex Layne and was the first contender for a title fight against Rocky Marciano. This fight took place in New York on September 24, 1953. La Starza gave Marciano a good fight, but had to be taken out of the fight by referee Goldberg in the 11th round after he was hit by Rocky Marciano with a hail of blows.

After that defeat, La Starza never returned to the form of previous fights. On March 30, 1954 he was defeated in Kensington by the British champion Don Cockell on points. In the world rankings from May 1954 in "The Ring" he was still in 7th place (see Box Sport No. 24/1954, page 8). This changed when he lost on December 1, 1954 in Cleveland to Charley Norkus on points. In 1955 he played only one fight that ended with a heavy knockout loss in the fifth round against the Cuban Julio Mederos. In 1956 La Starza was inactive.

From 1957 to 1961 he fought against mostly insignificant opponents six more fights, of which he won four and lost two. La Starza played his last fight on May 8, 1961 in San Francisco, in which he lost to Monroe Ratcliff on points.

Acting career

After the end of his boxer career, La Starza started a successful career as an actor. He was mainly involved in many American television series. Most recently he lived with his family in Florida, where he also died in 2009.

literature

  • Box Sport magazine

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Starza, Roland La
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American boxer and actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 12, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Van Nest , Bronx , New York City
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 2009
Place of death Port Orange , Florida