IN REMEMBRANCE OF OUR FRIEND, TOM GERBASI By Joseph Santoliquito H e could always make you laugh. Regardless of where you were. Regardless of what you were doing. Regardless of what was happening around you. Tom Gerbasi could always put a smile on your face. He had that touching gift.
The love he had for his family spread out to the love he had for the work he did, which includes the fighters he covered. “We cry over him, and we laugh over him, because Tom would not want anyone to cry over him. He would want us all to laugh and smile in his memory. “Tom was a gift to me, to his family. Tom was a gift to us all.” There were countless people and stories about Gerbasi. No one could ever have a five-minute conversation with him. He spoke in that infectious staccato, Staten Island accent. He had the ability to cross over lines, always seeing things from a positive perspective. Dave Sholler, chief communications officer for the Philadelphia 76ers and Washington Commanders, got his start in the sports media business through Gerbasi in 2008. At the time, Sholler was covering boxing for local and online outlets, and after six months of pestering Gerbasi, he got his chance to do a freelance UFC story and interviewed a fighter named Ivan Salaverry. About 10 months into Sholler’s freelance work for UFC, Gerbasi, knowing Sholler’s background in communications, had heard about a public relations opening at the WEC, which at the time was UFC’s sister company focusing on lighter weight classes. It was Gerbasi who put a word in for Sholler. Sholler flew out to Las Vegas on a Friday afternoon. By Monday, Sholler
for the building facilities crew upon his graduation from St. John’s University. It’s why Tom always playfully referred to Sonia as “the boss,” because she was his boss. Tom was working maintenance, cleaning bathrooms and toilets. Sonia’s job was to make sure Tom did his job. He got one of his buddies to come around and ask Sonia if she had a boyfriend. It started with lunch, and that gradually turned into a relationship. They dated for two years and Tom popped the question in the only way Tom could: He asked Sonia if he could see her finger. Sonia, of course, found the question strange. Tom placed the engagement ring on Sonia’s finger and asked, “Do you want to marry me?” A shocked Sonia looked at him and said, ‘Yeah!” They were going to a Long Island Italian restaurant called Vincent’s Clam Bar, which happened to be the last restaurant where Sonia and Tom had dinner together. Tom died on the couple’s 31st wedding anniversary. He is also survived by his daughter Jordan Gerbasi-Fanticola, and his granddaughters, 5-year-old Sheala and 3-year-old Olivia Fanticola, who Tom lovingly referred to as “his buddies.” “It still hurts. It will always hurt, after being together for 33 years,” Sonia said. “Everything made him special. He was funny. He had a good heart. He wanted to take care of everything and everyone.
It’s why his passing of a heart attack on Tuesday, September 16, at the age of 57 struck so many so hard in the combat sports community and beyond. He will resonate as someone who could always make you feel better about yourself after speaking to him. He had a way of twisting the mean into the likable. Tributes in his memory ranged from the UFC to The Ring to Yahoo Sports to Gotham Roller Derby and every boxing website imaginable. When his passing was announced on the Boxing Writers Association of America X account, it received 151,000 views. That is the kind of impact Gerbasi – an immensely talented writer who penned numerous books, was a longtime Ring contributor and the UFC’s editorial director for the past 20 years – had on the industry and the many he encountered on his journey. “After all this time, Tom probably didn’t even know it,” said his wife, Sonia Rodriguez Gerbasi. “I can hardly say anything about him without crying – and laughing.” They met when Sonia was a building facilities manager and Tom was working
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