Gary Balletto

Gary Balletto (born May 21, 1975) is an American professional boxer. He has won 3 lightweight titles since 1996 (IBU, EBA and USBF). In his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island, Balletto is the New England representative for the Joint Association of Boxers (JAB).

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 verity documentary "Sweet Dreams", which told the story of his life and efforts to unionize the sport through JAB.

Balletto continued his boxing career, winning by technical knockout on against 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 quadriplegic, paralyzed from the chest down, and confined to a power wheelchair. 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 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 fiancee and children.

Professional boxing record

No.	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
36	Template:Yes2Win	31–3–2	Template:Flagicon Matthew Strode	TKO	9 (10), Template:Small	2006-12-01	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
35	Template:No2Loss	30–3–2	Template:Flagicon Norberto Bravo	UD	5	2006-02-06	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	30–2–2	Template:Flagicon Aaron Torres	SD	5	2006-01-21	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
33	Template:No2Loss	29–2–2	Template:Flagicon Gregorio Vargas	MD	12	2003-10-31	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	29–1–2	Template:Flagicon Luis Alfonso Lizarraga	UD	10	2003-07-25	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	28–1–2	Template:Flagicon Frank Houghtaling	KO	4 (10), Template:Small	2003-05-30	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
30	Template:Yes2Win	27–1–2	Template:Flagicon Johnny Walker	KO	1 (12), Template:Small	2003-03-21	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	26–1–2	Template:Flagicon Juan Polo Perez	KO	1 (10)	2003-01-11	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
28	Template:No2Loss	25–1–2	Template:Flagicon Michael Clark	UD	10	2002-10-25	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	25–0–2	Template:Flagicon Alric Johnson	KO	4 (10)	2002-07-26	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	24–0–2	Template:Flagicon Mike DiBenedetto	TKO	9 (10), Template:Small	2002-03-01	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	23–0–2	Template:Flagicon John Trigg	RTD	4 (6), Template:Small	2001-12-07	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	22–0–2	Template:Flagicon Fray Luis Sierra	TKO	1 (10)	2001-11-16	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	21–0–2	Template:Flagicon Joseph Figueroa	UD	10	2001-06-02	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	20–0–2	Template:Flagicon Freddy Cruz	UD	6	2001-05-04	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	19–0–2	Template:Flagicon John Scalzi	TKO	1 (8)	2001-03-02	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	18–0–2	Template:Flagicon Hector Arroyo	UD	6	2001-02-09	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	17–0–2	Template:Flagicon Larry O'Shields	TKO	4 (6), Template:Small	2000-12-22	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	16–0–2	Template:Flagicon Richard Dinkins	TKO	3 (4)	2000-11-17	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
17	Draw	15–0–2	Template:Flagicon Glenn Ford	PTS	6	2000-02-25	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	15–0–1	Template:Flagicon Teddy Worth	TKO	2 (?)	1999-11-24	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	14–0–1	Template:Flagicon Duron Wilson	TKO	4 (?), Template:Small	1999-01-29	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	13–0–1	Template:Flagicon Forbes David	KO	1 (?)	1998-12-12	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	12–0–1	Template:Flagicon Alonzo Sojourney	TKO	1 (?), Template:Small	1998-10-24	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	11–0–1	Template:Flagicon Manuel Santiago	TKO	6 (?)	1998-08-02	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	10–0–1	Template:Flagicon Felix Marti	TKO	6 (?)	1998-06-19	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	9–0–1	Template:Flagicon Dominick Monaco	TKO	3 (?)	1998-06-05	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	8–0–1	Template:Flagicon Hector Querio	TKO	1 (?), Template:Small	1998-03-27	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	7–0–1	Template:Flagicon Gerry Ocampo	KO	2 (4)	1998-02-20	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	6–0–1	Template:Flagicon Alex Ortiz	TKO	2 (4), Template:Small	1997-12-05	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	5–0–1	Template:Flagicon Jose LaPorte	TKO	2 (?), Template:Small	1997-10-23	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	4–0–1	Template:Flagicon Rafael Pina	TKO	1 (?)	1997-09-25	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	3–0–1	Template:Flagicon Barton Velez	KO	1 (?)	1997-03-13	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	2–0–1	Template:Flagicon Miguel Vasquez	TKO	1 (?)	1996-10-25	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	1–0–1	Template:Flagicon Lucas Pacheco	TKO	1 (4)	1996-09-27	Template:Flagicon Template:Small
1	Draw	0–0–1	Template:Flagicon Hector Querio	TD	1 (4)	1996-05-11	Template:Flagicon Template:Small	Template:Small

External links

• Gary "Tiger" Balletto's Official Website
• Template:Boxrec
• Sweet Dreams Movie