Philly’s hardest-working cutman Joey Eye has been enshrined in the Filitalia International Museum of Italian Immigrants on Passyunk Avenue in South Philly, an institution dedicating to the Italian experience in America.
Many of his friends and colleagues have long said that Mr. Eye needed to be institutionalized, and it has not come a minute too soon.
Joey, born Giuseppe Tommaso Agostino Intrieri in Palermo, Sicily, emigrated to the United States at an young age and throughout his life has been a fixture on the Philly boxing scene as an amateur and professional fighter and later a trainer, promoter and most famously as boxing and MMA cutman.
Known as “Tiny Terror” in his fighting days, Mr. Eye is now known as a cutman’s cutman, winning “Cutman of the Year” accolades so many times that many organizations have ceased giving the annual award and they just let Joey choose his successor each year. He has also been inducted in the PA and NJ Boxing Halls of Fame. Joey has also appeared in many feature films and TV programs, including Rocky 2, Balboa, Creed, the Sopranos, and Sleepin’ with the Fishes. He frequently plays an Italian-American boxing cutman.
“Most people think I’m from South Philly,” Eye told me. “But I grew up at 7th & Olney in St. Helena’s parish. I have some great memories of training at the old Kensington Ramblers Boxing Club in Harrowgate when I was 10 years old.”
Eye’s first job was at a funeral home, where he developed an interest in human biology, which helped him in his later career. “I learned how to be a cutman from Eddie Aliano, Adolph Ritaco and Stan the Cutman. I owe them a lot.”
“Its such an honor to be enshrined with all the other Italian-Americans who are a part of the American Dream like me!”