Lou Nova

One of the true characters of boxing, and an under rated heavyweight contender.

He was verry highly touted at his peak, and was one of the few challengers that people actualy gave a chance against Joe Louis. Ultimately, he seems to have been on the cusp of being something truly special, but lacking a crucial key ingredient somwhere.

 

There was talk he froze against Louis I believe.

 

I have read that he was a very promising contender but was never the same after his late rounds TKO at the hands of Tony Galento in a rough foul-filled battle a while prior to his bout with Louis. He was good enough to stop Max Baer twice at the end of the latter's career. He was a colorful character whose yoga and "cosmic punch" created interest in the buildup to the Louis fight, but he was stopped in 6 by the champion. The feeling was that the pre-Galento version of Nova would have done better against the Bomber.

In later years he did standup comedy in Las Vegas. I sent him a photograph and asked him to autograph it. He did, and sent back clippings of his comedy acts, and on the outside of the envelope he plastered a large bumper sticker that read "Lou Nova for President".

A most interesting man!

 

It certainly wasn't heart. He took one severe thumping from Tony Galento, who used every dirty trick that he learned in New Jersey poolrooms, before succumbing in the 14th round. I heard Nova would never again speak to Galento after the dirty hiding he had to endure. Just talking about this has my curiosity whetted. I'll have to research this fight some more and see what was written or was it just rhetoric. Also, whenever I think of Nova I think of the counter-punching job he did on Max Baer twice.

Scartissue

 

ScarT - I expect Ref Georgie Blake was promptly crossed off of the Christmas card list as well !!??

 

Nova was famous for his "Cosmic Punch".

He went on to defeat Max Baer in the first televised heavyweight prizefight June 1, 1939, on WNBT-TV in [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City"]New York[/ame]. The left side of Baer's face was battered out of shape after ten rounds of the most excruciating fighting he had ever undergone, and was bleeding so severely from a severe laceration of the lower lip he could hardly breathe when the referee stopped the bout. Nova beat Baer again in 1941

 

It often gets forgotten that Baer was the #1 ranked contender for both his fights with Nova.

 

There was a nice article on him in Ring in 91 right about the time he died. He really was interesting.. and really did hate Galento. I'll try to dig up the article later.

 

Had the pleasure of meeting and talking with Lou for a bit. He was a character alright. A lot of energy and fun.

The consensus was that the Galento foulfest took a lot out of him. He never fully recovered. He told me that he blamed Ray Arcel, who trained him at the time. In an L.A. Times article that came out the year after we met he said it again:

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-07-24/sports/sp-10359_1_lou-nova

It's a two-pager. Enjoy

 

what a great read. I always thought on film nova looked a good heavyweight beating max bear, especialy the first time. He schooled baer and it was a tough fight. nova was tough and had a good skillset and good right hand.

 

Back in the 1970s I used to watch muay thai fights on Saturday afternoons on an Asian language PBS station and Lou Nova was one of the commentators (speaking English). He told a story about the Louis fight: Nova claimed that there was a gangster sitting at ringside, with his girl, and this particular gangster was known for the beautiful women that accompanied him. Nova said that the fight was going pretty well until the woman with the gangster crossed her legs. He looked down and that was the last thing he remembered until he woke up in his hotel room.

 

I actually heard or read that before... "Dames ehh!" :nut