Tommy Rainone

Tommy Rainone (born January 8, 1980) is an American professional boxer.

Rainone's love affair with boxing began at the age of seven.

After watching Rocky for the first time, the Plainview Long Island native began to seek out a gym where he could pursue the sport that had suddenly captivated him.

His search would prove fruitless until the age of 17 when he stepped into the Westbury Boxing Club.

Boxing couldn't have entered his life at a more appropriate time in his life.

“There’s no question about it, I was definitely able to channel a lot of my anger as a youth into boxing."

Rainone was a troubled teen.

He had been kicked out of several schools.

After middle school, he was sent to live with his father on Staten Island.

His father placed him in an all boys Staten Island Catholic School hoping the added structure would set the young man straight.

It didn't work out as intended.

"You can’t take a kid who has been getting into trouble in public schools his whole life and put him in a Catholic school. I was a freshman at the time and it only took me about three months to get kicked out of that school. I went back to Long Island from there.

"My teenage years I was a very frustrated and angry person. I just had an attitude that the world was against me and boxing was an incredible outlet for me. Once I started getting into boxing I put the rest of the troublemaking off to the side and started really getting a little more focused with my life.”

Rainone's amateur career was brief, consisting of approximately 30 fights.

In that short span he fought a variety of world class flyer including former welterweight world champion Luis Collazo and light-welterweight contender Francisco "El Gato" Figueroa.

"I had two fights so far and I had to fight a guy named Leon Hinds, who went on to be ranked number three in the nation. I didn’t know it at the time, but he had around 60 fights. Having to survive a storm like that so early in my career made me improve my defense. I was always matched tough, and it was always expected thing to get matched tough. I went to tournaments knowing I wasn’t going to get easy fights. As soon as they called my name, I pretty much rolled my eyes because I knew they were going to match me hard."

Still a young man, Rainone's focus was anything but unw.

"When I was in the amateurs, I cut a lot of corners. I was having a good time partying, going out and just being young but doing so while half assing it boxing. I stopped boxing a couple a months after turning 23 because I had to make a decision to either continue having fun or to get serious about boxing and i was not mature enough to take the sport serious at that stage in my life. I realized that I could no longer do both. I took a break from boxing deciding that i was threw with the amateurs and would return to the sport to turn pro if and when i was ready to take it serious, i started doing some traveling, lived life with out restriction and just enjoyed myself for three years."

Rainone returned to boxing in 2006 after spending three and a half years away from the sport.

He trained for six months before making his pro debut against ten-fight veteran Marquis McConnell at the Huntington Hilton Hotel in Melville.

In front of a huge, supportive local crowd, Rainone boxed his way to a shutout victory.

"If you looked him up, he is now a light-heavyweight. It was the only time he fought at 147, he was naturally fighting at 160, and he cut the weight. By the time he got in the ring, he was back up to 160-165. He was a big guy."

After a second victory in December 2006 Rainone would start 2007 by winning two fights in a 5-day span followed by a third victory fifteen days later.

Rainone won his first 11 bouts.

One of the highlights of his early career was performing in the legendary boxing venue The Blue Horizon in Philadelphia.

Rainone won a unanimous decision over Jaime Morales that night.

He ran into his first setback in June 2008 when he dropped a controversial split decision to Manuel Guzman in Brooklyn.

Rainone took the fight on two weeks notice.

On the second day of training, Rainone sustained a cut under his left eye as the result of an elbow.

He went to the hospital but was told he didn't need stitches.

Being that he has great faith in his cutman George Mitchell and that the cut was not in a position that could affect his vision, he went forward with the fight.

To stem the risk, the fight was reduced from six rounds to four.

"It was no walk in the park but there is no way I lost the fight," Rainone says.

"Originally I pulled out of the fight but the promoter Tommy Gallagher wanted me to fight because I was going to sell a lot of tickets.

"My friend John Scully warned me 'if you get hit with a nothing jab, the cut is going to open up.' I started bleeding in the third round but I didn't think it would affect the judges. It was stupidity on my behalf to go into the fight with a cut. He's turned me down six times for a rematch."

His second loss came in his next fight - also a split decision - against Henry White Jr. in Melville.

"He beat me fair and square. There was so much stress before this fight. I was in tremendous shape but mentally I wasn't prepared."

After this fight he parted ways with his manager Luigi Olcese, whom he had been with for three fights.

Rainone returned to his winning ways in December 2008.

To find a fight he flew all the way to his trainer's hometown of Benito Juárez, Buenos Aires, Argentina to face Santos Galli.