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Vinny Maddalone always gives fight fans their money’s worth. Vinny Maddalone: “When the Candle Burns Out, I’ll Walk Away” V inny Maddalone is a club fighter with the heart of a champion. Boxrec.com lists him as the 217th-ranked heavyweight in the world. His records stands at twenty-eight wins and four losses with nineteen knockouts. There was a fifth loss, but the verdict was changed to “no contest” after his opponent tested positive for marijuana. Maddalone’s fights have the look of a slugfest from a 1940s movie. There’s nothing subtle about the way he fights. He comes straight forward . He throws punches. He gets hit. Then he throws more punches. “Vinny could be dead,” says matchmaker Ron Katz, “and he’d still keep coming forward, throwing punches.” Boxing is a backstabbing world, but Maddalone is popular in boxing circles and well liked by other fighters. He’s friendly and outgoing with a ready smile and fights his heart out every time he steps between the ropes. “In the ring,” says IBF 140-pound champion Paulie Malignaggi, “Vinny is one of the toughest SOBs you’ll ever meet. Outside it, he’s a big teddy bear. He’s always smiling. He’s a big-hearted guy with a word of encouragement for everyone he meets. When I see him fighting, it’s like, ‘Whoah! What got into him tonight?’ ” If boxing was fun, everyone would do it. It’s a hurting business. But boxing is a joy in Maddalone’s life. He loves to train; he loves to fight. He’s always willing to pay the price, no matter how expensive it is. “I might not win every time,” he acknowledges. “But I never quit.” “If you were going to war,” says promoter Lou DiBella, “Vinny is one of the guys you’d want fighting beside you. He’s the guy who would risk his own life to pick you up and carry you out if you got hit.” Maddalone was born in Queens (one New York City’s five boroughs ). He’s the youngest of three brothers. His father died when Vinny was seven. His mother worked in a school cafeteria and never remarried. “I didn’t have a father figure in my life,” Vinny says, reflecting back on his childhood. “My mother was my mother and my father. If I could have my father back for a couple of hours now, I’d want to talk boxing with him. I don’t remember him well, but I know he liked boxing. And I’d tell him what a great job mom did with the three of us; how she looked after us so we’d grow up to be the kind of people he wanted us to be. One of the reasons I’m boxing now is, I’d love to be able to give my mother a better life for everything she gave to me.” Maddalone graduated from Holy Cross High School in 1992 and Pfeiffer University in North Carolina in 1996. He put boxing gloves on for the first time when he was in college. “I was in a convenience store and saw a sign for a toughman contest,” he remembers. “I was a fight fan and I was in pretty good shape, so I figured, ‘Let me try this.’ I went in for the physical on a Friday night. It was like, ‘Touch your toes. Okay, you’re good to fight. Go in back and glove up.’ So I’m in back. I’m an eighteen-year-old kid and the other guys are grown men; truck-drivers, construction workers, 280 pounds. I felt like a soldier going to war.” “There were three one-minute rounds,” Vinny continues. “First fight, this big guy came right at me; but after forty seconds, he was dead tired. Second round, I went back at him and knocked him out. It was the best feeling I’d ever had; the highlight of my life. I can’t put into words how great it felt. The next night, I went back, fought three more guys—knockout, decision, knockout—and won the tournament. They gave me a thousand dollars. My friends and I bought a couple of kegs of beer, went back to campus, and celebrated .” But Maddalone wasn’t thinking about a career in boxing. Baseball was his first love. He was good enough in college that, after graduation, he pitched for two seasons...

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