I skimmed through several fight write-ups and they all made it clear that although Galento fought a rough fight, Nova lost because of his lack of skills and smarts. Example: John Lardner, Tony Becomes Sharpshooter in Close, Rough, Gory Fight, Edmonton Journal, September 16, 1939 The old British sport of pig-sticking was introduced to Philadelphia in reverse last night when the pig—no offense-stuck the sticker. Tony Galento, whose scarred and wounded face resembles the map of Poland, became a sharpshooter and licked Lou Nova by a technical knockout in 2 minutes, 44 seconds of the 14th round. […] Nova, the white hope, is not much of a fighter. The odds were 12 to 5 in favor of Nova before they entered the ring. The experts expected the rugged Californian, who stopped Max Baer and Gunnar Barlund by technical knockout, to slice at Tony’s ancient scar tissue until Mr. Blake, a noted anti-vivisectionist, would positively have to stop it. Nova Was Wide Open What happened was that Nova proved a wide open mark for one of the roundest, crudest left hand swings in the business. He had no defense for Tony’s wild rushes, reminiscent of the water buffalo in a happy-go-lucky mood. He was tagged on the chin in the third round and from there on, though he stabbed Tony at odd moments, there was no true fight in him. It wasn’t merely a matter of carelessness. Some of Nova’s rooters feared that the young man’s pride might lead him to trade punches with Tony, but he didn’t do that. He took without giving. He was open to a slow puncher, and you can imagine what a lightening puncher like Joseph Louis would do to the same kind of target. Referee Blake, who stopped the Schmeling-Stribling fight in Cleveland a few seconds before the end of the fifteenth and last round, showed great restraint last night. Galento really had to flatten his man before the out-of-town humanitarian would stop it. So Tony flattened him. He Meets Louis Again For his sins, the globular bartender must fight Joe Louis again next June, provided Louis beats Pastor in Detroit next week. Louis will reduce Tony to pulp in roughly half the time it took him this summer—four rounds—but Tony, for his courage and doughty endurance, will be many doubloons the richer. As for Nova, ambitious but unequipped for the big time, he will just have to wait. Maybe there’ll be another call for him some day. If the call never comes, it will still be too soon for Lou’s own good. He can fight a little, but he would probably be happier as a doctor, lawyer, merchant, or thief.”
Before that fight, everybody was lauding Nova up to the rafters, some even daring to pick him over Louis! I have always had a much higher opinion of Nova than Galento, and do still. That made me very receptive to the idea, that Galento won due to rough tactics. As I got into the fight reports, it seemed that Galento just found a trick to counter Nova, that the latter kept falling for!
I remember reading an old B I article in which it said Galento won because of disgracefully foul tactics which left Nova in danger of going blind in one eye.I took this to be the story of the fight.This article sheds a new slant on things and possibly explains why Blake a normally excellent third man did not dsq Galento,thanks for posting it!
You seem to base your points on articles only if it suits your agenda. Nova looks good on film in two fights against Baer.
Lou Nova was a quality fighter. He was no hype Job. There was perhaps a larger majority among Boxing fans that were knowledgeable about good fighters in those days.Ray Arcel called Lou Nova "a very courageous and talented fighter who was good enough to trouble any fighter in history". 56,000 fans went to the polo grounds to watch Nova fight against Joe Louis. Less fans went to watch Billy Conn against Joe Louis because Nova was given more of a chance to beat Joe Louis. Aside from the Schmelling rematch it was the highest ever turn out for a Joe Louis title fight. This was a fight of some magnitude. The receipts for Louis v nova was $583,711 and represented Joe Lous's second largest purse as a champion before the war. Listening to the radio broadcast on YouTube from Galento vs Nova (a huge outdoor fight) the newspaper verdict sounded like a total misrepresentation of what you could clearly hear was a non controversial, if hard fought, competitive war. Both guys interviewed too without any hint of outrage on either side.
At time of writing Ruiz is a fighter with only one good win, so you would probably rate Nova more highly.
A fighter is being critisized after losing? Wow, this is such an unprecedented thing, to which I think the only sensible responce I can think of, is to base my entire assessment of that fighter off said critisism.
It is also interesting to note that Galento was gracious towards his defeated opponent, suggesting that his usual trash talking was a mind game play.
I actually find myself comparing Lou Nova to Anthony Joshua right now! They both looked every inch the perfect fighter, and were highly regarded, then they got beaten by a man who was the opposite of those things! In both cases the biggest potential fight of the time was lost, because the golden boy got exposed too soon!
