Joey Giardello knocks out Willie Tory in round seven at Madison Square Garden in the first televised prize boxing fight shown in colour.

The cameramen had never captured blood in color before. When Joey Giardello knocked out Willie Tory in the seventh round at Madison Square Garden on March 19, 1954, the broadcast was the first professionally televised boxing match shown in color, and NBC's experimental cameras revealed every detail of the violence in a way that black-and-white broadcasts had softened. Color television was still a novelty in 1954. NBC had begun limited color broadcasts in late 1953, and the network chose boxing as one of its showcase programs because the sport's contained setting, bright lighting, and dramatic action made it ideal for demonstrating the new technology. Fewer than 5,000 American homes had color television sets capable of receiving the broadcast, but the event was promoted as a technological milestone. Giardello, a tough middleweight from Philadelphia born Carmine Orlando Tilelli, was building a reputation as one of the most exciting fighters in the division. Tory, a capable but outmatched opponent, absorbed punishment through the early rounds before Giardello ended the fight with a left hook that sent Tory to the canvas in the seventh. The knockout, rendered in full color, demonstrated both the brutality and the spectacle that would make televised boxing a staple of American entertainment. The marriage between boxing and television was already well established by 1954. The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports had been broadcasting Friday night fights since 1944, and television had transformed boxing from a live-attendance sport into a national pastime. The addition of color added a visceral dimension that black-and-white could not match: the red of a cut above the eye, the flush of exhaustion, the sheen of sweat under the arena lights. Giardello went on to become world middleweight champion in 1963. Color broadcasting became standard within a decade, reshaping not only sports but all television programming. A middleweight knockout at Madison Square Garden was the first glimpse of what color television would do to the way Americans experienced the world.