Gary Balletto

Gary Balletto (born May 21, 1975) is a world champion boxer. He has won 3 lightweight titles since 1996 [The International Boxing Union |IBU], [The Eastern Boxing Association|EBA] and The United States Boxing Federation |USBF] belts). Outside the ring, in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, Balletto is the New England representative for the Joint Association of Boxers (JAB), owns a boxing gym- Balletto’s Boxing Gym, a realty company- Balletto Realty, and a construction company- Balletto Construction. He has 3 children, Gary, Hailey, and Aiden.^[1]

Balletto turned pro just 10 days before his 21st birthday, amassing a 30–3–2 record in a 10-year career of boxing, 26 by way of knock out. One of his three losses came to Michael Clark (a unanimous decision in 10 rounds at Foxwoods), who would later appear on the ESPN reality show "Contender Season 2" as a team-mate of Balletto, where they both were on the Gold Team. Another loss came to Gregorio Vargas, a former WBC Featherweight champion and IBA Super-Featherweight champion, to whom Balletto lost his IBU title.

On the show, Balletto won his first-round fight, where Aaron Torres chose him as an opponent, by split decision. In his second fight, Norberto Bravo beat him, by unanimous decision.

In 2008, he appeared at IFC Theater in New York City to promote a feature verite documentary "Sweet Dreams", which told the story of his life and efforts to unionize the sport through JAB.^[2]

Balletto has since continued his boxing career, winning by technical knockout on against a young light welterweight prospect Matthew Strode.

In June 2013, Balletto sustained a spinal cord injury in his backyard playing with his son, spinning around on a pull up bar that gave way. He broke 6 vertebrae in his neck, leaving him with a C5 spinal cord injury. He is now a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down. Determined to fight this battle as he has all of his bouts in the ring, he has not let the injury slow him down. In 2017, Balletto founded “The Gary Tiger Balletto Foundation” to bring awareness to and provide resources and assistance to those with paralysis injuries.

His current efforts include the creation of the very first affordable adaptive gym in the state of Rhode Island, in conjunction with the Cranston YMCA. He has already raised funds and donated two Functional Electric Stimulation bikes which are booked and used around the clock, by Balletto himself and others with paralysis injuries to maintain muscle health and prevent atrophy.

There is additional equipment being added to complete a full, comprehensive adaptive gym. The gym was set to open to members of the local community with like injuries and other conditions such as stroke, MS, etc. to come and work out alongside their family members by spring 2019.

Balletto resides in Cranston, Rhode Island, with his girlfriend and children.

Professional boxing record[]

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
36	Win	31–3–2	Matthew Strode	TKO	9 (10), 0:59	2006-12-01	Convention Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
35	Loss	30–3–2	Norberto Bravo	UD	5	2006-02-06	Contender Gymnasium, Pasadena, California, USA
34	Win	30–2–2	Aaron Torres	SD	5	2006-01-21	Contender Gymnasium, Pasadena, California, USA
33	Loss	29–2–2	Gregorio Vargas	MD	12	2003-10-31	Convention Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA	Lost IBU Lightweight title.
32	Win	29–1–2	Luis Alfonso Lizarraga	UD	10	2003-07-25	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA	Retained IBU Lightweight title.
31	Win	28–1–2	Frank Houghtaling	KO	4 (10), 1:02	2003-05-30	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
30	Win	27–1–2	Johnny Walker	KO	1 (12), 2:49	2003-03-21	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA	Won vacant IBU Lightweight title.
29	Win	26–1–2	Juan Polo Perez	KO	1 (10)	2003-01-11	Dunkin' Donuts Center, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
28	Loss	25–1–2	Michael Clark	UD	10	2002-10-25	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
27	Win	25–0–2	Alric Johnson	KO	4 (10)	2002-07-26	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA	Retained EBA Lightweight title.
26	Win	24–0–2	Mike DiBenedetto	TKO	9 (10), 2:37	2002-03-01	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
25	Win	23–0–2	John Trigg	RTD	4 (6), 3:00	2001-12-07	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
24	Win	22–0–2	Fray Luis Sierra	TKO	1 (10)	2001-11-16	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
23	Win	21–0–2	Joseph Figueroa	UD	10	2001-06-02	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA	Won EBA Lightweight title.
22	Win	20–0–2	Freddy Cruz	UD	6	2001-05-04	Mohegan Sun Casino, Uncasville, Connecticut, USA
21	Win	19–0–2	John Scalzi	TKO	1 (8)	2001-03-02	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
20	Win	18–0–2	Hector Arroyo	UD	6	2001-02-09	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
19	Win	17–0–2	Larry O'Shields	TKO	4 (6), 1:20	2000-12-22	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
18	Win	16–0–2	Richard Dinkins	TKO	3 (4)	2000-11-17	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
17	Draw	15–0–2	Glenn Ford	PTS	6	2000-02-25	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
16	Win	15–0–1	Teddy Worth	TKO	2 (?)	1999-11-24	Rhodes-on-the Pawtuxet, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
15	Win	14–0–1	Duron Wilson	TKO	4 (?), 2:52	1999-01-29	Foxwoods Resort Casino, Ledyard, Connecticut, USA
14	Win	13–0–1	Forbes David	KO	1 (?)	1998-12-12	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
13	Win	12–0–1	Alonzo Sojourney	TKO	1 (?), 2:41	1998-10-24	Roseland Ballroom, Taunton, Massachusetts, USA
12	Win	11–0–1	Manuel Santiago	TKO	6 (?)	1998-08-02	TD Garden, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
11	Win	10–0–1	Felix Marti	TKO	6 (?)	1998-06-19	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
10	Win	9–0–1	Dominick Monaco	TKO	3 (?)	1998-06-05	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
9	Win	8–0–1	Hector Querio	TKO	1 (?), 1:40	1998-03-27	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
8	Win	7–0–1	Gerry Ocampo	KO	2 (4)	1998-02-20	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
7	Win	6–0–1	Alex Ortiz	TKO	2 (4), 2:32	1997-12-05	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
6	Win	5–0–1	Jose LaPorte	TKO	2 (?), 2:53	1997-10-23	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
5	Win	4–0–1	Rafael Pina	TKO	1 (?)	1997-09-25	Strand Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
4	Win	3–0–1	Barton Velez	KO	1 (?)	1997-03-13	Strand Theatre, Providence, Rhode Island, USA
3	Win	2–0–1	Miguel Vasquez	TKO	1 (?)	1996-10-25	The Roxy, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
2	Win	1–0–1	Lucas Pacheco	TKO	1 (4)	1996-09-27	Eastside Improvement, Brockton, Massachusetts, USA
1	Draw	0–0–1	Hector Querio	TD	1 (4)	1996-05-11	Dayville, Connecticut, USA	Professional debut. Technical draw after a headbutt rendered Balletto unable to continue.

References[]

External links[]

• Gary "Tiger" Balletto's Official Website
• Boxing record for Gary Balletto from BoxRec
• Sweet Dreams Movie