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Gaspare Alessandri – Who Once Boxed in Shanghai

Posted: May 2nd, 2015 | No Comments »

Just a little follow up to the article I posted on the near riot at a boxing match at the Canidrome in 1938 between the US Marine Chuck Haines and an Italian Savoy Grenadier. That newspaper article gave the Italian boxer’s name as Daspar Allesandri However, I believe they actually mean Gaspare Alessandri who is listed as a professional Italian boxer, born 1908 (or 1911 or 1912 in some records) in Ancona, and who boxed in Italy (mostly in Rome) between 1932 and 1936. This was presumably before he joined the grenadiers and was shipped out to Shanghai where he boxed for the Italian army. It seems Alessandri lost on the third round of a lightweight fight to Haines. Despite the arguments on the night he probably did – Alessandri’s professional record was won 0-lost 3- drew 2. In Italy he boxed featherweight rather than light. Not exactly stellar. In 1932 Alessandri boxed featherweight for Italy at the Los Angeles Olympics – he beat a French fighter before losing his next two fights to a German and a Swede. I think Alessandri died in 1997 aged a very respectable 89 in Rome.

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The Canidrome



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