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FORMER WELTERWEIGHT |
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Ridley Park (PA) welterweight Mike Picciotti passed away Sunday, November 5th, at the age of 66, a sad day for all of us who remember the excitement he brought to the boxing ring from 1976 to 1986, many times at the 1,800-seat 69th Street Forum in Upper Darby, other times at the Sands Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. On top of that, he was a helluva nice guy.
Picciotti's passing leaves only Mick Diflo from the colorful team of Mic (Diflo), Pic (Picciotti) and Vic (Victor Pappa, who passed away in 2016 at 59). All three were managed and trained by Marty Feldman, the ex-pro middleweight once dubbed "the world's oldest teenager" by Mike Rossman.
After that I stupidly matched him with British stinker Kirkland Laing, who outboxed him for 10 rounds at the Sands. What was I thinking? I begged Pic to keep fighting but the loss to Laing depressed him and he never boxed again. Mic, Pic and Vic brought excitement to SRO crowds at the 69th Street Forum, the former 69th Street movie theatre that was converted into a boxing arena from 1977 thru 1980. Their style of leaving no prisoners got the crowds juiced. Vic was 22-3, 15 KOs, Mick 10-2-1, 8 KOs. Pic was 10 when his family moved to the Folsom section of Ridley Park. He graduated from Ridley High in 1976 and turned pro less than a year later after winning the Philadelphia Golden Gloves lightweight title. His body attack, combined with a solid punch, made him a crowd favorite. He boxed 12 times at the Forum. In retirement, he had issues with alcohol. He had a liver transplant and a triple bypass, but he got sober for 30 years and raised five kids.
He was inducted the Delaware County Athletes Hall of Fame in 1997 and the Pennsylvania Boxing Hall of Fame in 2014.
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Pic
was 31-4-3, 16 KOs. When he knocked out former world welterweight
title challenger Pablo Baez late in 1985, he was on the verge of a
national network TV appearance against Canadian Sean O'Sullivan (a
winnable fight) in 1986. Unfortunately, he was stopped on cuts when
unknown Juan Alonzo Villa, of Mexico, got off the floor in the
second round and won in nine rounds at the Sands.
