Alphonse "Al" Weill (December 28, 1893 – October 20, 1969) was an American boxing manager born in France.

Background

L'Équipe, Weill was born Alphonse Étienne Weill in 1893 in Guebwiller, Alsace-Lorraine, to an Alsatian Jewish family and moved to the United States at the age of 13. In his early years, he began working as a professional ballroom dancer and would promote dance competitions. At the time, boxing matches and dance competitions were often held in the same locations, and Weill found his way into becoming a manager through his roommate, flyweight Andy Brown, for whom he arranged preliminary bouts. After Brown left for military service, Weill began handling other fighters starting his career at the Harlem Sporting Club.

Early professional career

Weill began managing boxers at the Harlem Sporting Club. The first professional boxer he managed was New York State featherweight champion Charlie Pilkington.

In 1930, Weill and his business partner Dick Gray arrived in New London, Connecticut and established the Thames Arena, where Weill began promoting boxing matches. During the 1930s and 1940s, he frequently worked with trainer Charley Goldman, who handled several fighters managed by Weill, including four world champions Rocky Marciano, Marty Servo, Lou Ambers, Joey Archibald.

In 1949, Weill became matchmaker at Madison Square Garden, under Mike Jacobs, a post he held until 1952. A 1954 profile in The New York Times described Weill's office, decorated with a display of enlarged photographs of world champions Rocky Marciano, Lou Ambers, Joey Archibald, and Marty Servo, all of whom had won titles under his direction.

Marciano's manager

In 1952, Weill left Madison Square Garden to become the manager of boxer Rocky Marciano.

On June 18, 1957, Marciano announced publicly that he and Weill were ending their partnership "amicably." Weill had largely limited Marciano's public appearances, and as a result of his retirement a year earlier, wanted to focus on charitable work that Weill had so long forbid.

Later years

In 1958, Weill moved to California, saying "Hollywood and Los Angeles are the greatest fight cities in the world." Later in his life, Weill himself retired from boxing to Florida.

Reputation and recognition

Weill was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2003 in the Non-Participant category, which recognizes figures who contributed to boxing outside roles as fighters or observers. The Hall of Fame credited him as the manager of world champions Rocky Marciano, Lou Ambers, Marty Servo, and Joey Archibald; he's been recognized for his work with fighters Sammy Luftspring and Chilean heavyweight Arturo Godoy, who twice challenged Joe Louis for the world heavyweight title in 1940. The organization cited Weill's ability identifying boxing talent and analyzing fighters' styles, skills that contributed to his work as both a manager and matchmaker.

A 1954 profile in The New York Times described Weill as maintaining correspondence files and current addresses for more than seventy former fighters, referring to them collectively as his “boxing family”.

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