This writer remembers seeing Lee “Italian Stallion” Canalito fight in a couple of his twenty-one fights if memory serves me right. Good looking studd, physically fit and had Angelo Dundee in his corner. Canalito was a lineman at Sterling H.S. in Houston, TX, and was on Parade magazine’s annual All-America H.S. Football Team in 1971. He played defensive tackle at the University of Houston for two seasons before his college football career was derailed by a knee injury. His coach Bill Yeoman at Houston said “if Lee Canalito had two good legs he would have been the best defensive college football player ever in college football.”

Canalito won the Houston Golden Gloves with only seven amateur fights. He was trained by Angelo Dundee from 1977 to 1981 when Richie Giachetti took over until 1987 when Canalito retired from boxing with a 21-0 record with 19 knockouts. In 1978 Sylvester Stallone cast Canalito, who had never acted, to co-star in the 1978 movie Paradise Alley, which Stallone wrote and directed. He would appear in 1988 in The Glass Jungle and in 1990 in the Emperor of the Bronx. He also appeared on Magnum P.I. in their third season. He was managed by Texas millionaire Hugh Benbow and later by Stallonewhen he was 8-0 while trained by Richie Giachetti.