Thomas Rocco Barbella (January 1, 1919[1] – May 22, 1990), better known as Rocky Graziano, was an American professional boxer and actor who held the World Middleweight title.

[2] Graziano is considered one of the greatest knockout artists in boxing history, often displaying the capacity to take his opponent out with a single punch.

After he got out of the reformatory, he headed back to the gym to earn money, and while there met Eddie Cocco who started his professional career.

In 1941, he turned himself in, was court-martialed and dishonorably discharged from the Army, then sent to the Federal Penitentiary (nicknamed the "Big Top" for its dome), founded in 1875 as a military prison (now known as USP Leavenworth).

Fort Leavenworth is where Rocky Graziano started his boxing career while housed at the FCP (minimum/low) building adjacent to the main facility.

[5] Around the time he absconded from military service, Barbella began boxing under the management of Irving Cohen, a relationship that would endure for the remainder of his professional career.

Despite his notoriously lax approach to training, Graziano leveraged his untutored, brawling style and powerful punching ability to win by knockout.

Cohen scheduled fights against increasingly challenging opponents with the apparent goal of overmatching Graziano to teach him the value of conditioning.

[4] In March 1945 at Madison Square Garden in New York City Graziano scored a major upset over Billy Arnold, whose style was similar to that of Sugar Ray Robinson: he was a slick boxer with lightning-fast combinations and a knockout punch.

The Ring magazine and various newspapers across the United States touted Arnold as the next Joe Louis or Sugar Ray Robinson.

In their first match (September 27, 1946), after flooring Graziano in the first round, Zale took a savage beating from him and was on the verge of losing the fight by TKO.

Battered around the ring, his eye closed and appearing ready to lose by a knockout, Graziano rallied to knock Zale out in the sixth, earning the title.

The knockout blows consisted of a perfect combination of a right to Graziano's body, then a left hook to his jaw, knocking him unconscious.

Abe Green, then-National Boxing Association's President, announced that they were indefinitely suspending him in all parts of the world under NBA supervision, following similar action by the California State Athletic Commission.

The suspension covered all of the American States, Great Britain, the European Boxing Federation, Cuba, Mexico, and Canada.