The three fights with Rocky Graziano between 1946 and 1948. None went beyond six rounds.
Gary, Indiana
Anthony Florian Zaleski was born in Gary in 1913 and worked in the steel mills. The nickname Man of Steel referred to the work and to his capacity to absorb punishment.
He won the world middleweight title in 1940 and then served in the United States Navy from 1942 to 1946, losing four years of his prime.
Yankee Stadium, 27 September 1946
Zale was knocked down in the first round and badly hurt in the second.
In the sixth he stopped Graziano with a body shot followed by a left hook, retaining the title.
Chicago Stadium, 16 July 1947
Graziano took heavy punishment through the early rounds and was close to being stopped, with one eye swollen shut.
He stopped Zale in the sixth and took the championship.
Ruppert Stadium, Newark, 10 June 1948
Zale knocked Graziano out in the third round with a left hook and regained the title.
The series finished two to one in Zale's favour.
Cerdan
On 21 September 1948 Zale lost the title to Marcel Cerdan in Jersey City, retiring on his stool after the eleventh round. He was thirty-five and did not fight again.
After
Zale worked for decades with the Catholic Youth Organization in Chicago, teaching boxing to young people. He died in 1997.
Why it goes on a wall
Because the trilogy is the clearest example in the sport of two fighters who could not solve each other, and because the man who won it went straight back to a gym full of children and stayed there.
The Man of Steel.