1939 article on Galento-Nova

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Nova was certainly completely insane
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detai...ches-out-news-footage/502795673?adppopup=true

Having him, Galento and Baer together must've been chaos.

 

Wow Nova was werid guy, wasn't he?

 

This is absolutely the obvious conclusion. And I don’t feel a comparison with Nova is necessarily a relegation of Joshua’s value either. Nova had Joe Louis preventing him from becoming a champion.

Perhaps the pre war version of Louis was the most invincible defending champion in history?

 

Looking at the film vs Baer Nova had a terrible habit of lifting his chin up after jabbing, almost like he could'n't help having a look to see if it landed. Even worse he also seemed to have a habit of raising his chin after he took a half step - half pivot back to avoid Baer's jab.

He also had a bad habit of throwing both hands from underneath like a cowboy ( I remember Eddie Futch claiming Larry Holmes had that bad habit in the pre fight hype to Holmes vs Spinks 1 and in the future Tyson did actually catch Larry with the finishing right as Larry got his right arm caught in the ropes unloading cowboy style ).

I would have put money on Galento if I had been alive and had access to the films back in the 30s n 40s as Nova looked a dead set sucker for a left hook. I can sure see why someone who was such a technically correct counter puncher as Louis had his way with Nova. He was made for Joe.

Cheers All.

 

I am glad the reporter noticed the same defensive flaws I did. Cheers Kev.

 

Yeah you can spot flaws on any fighter, which is a trainers job to look for. The difficulty is not in noticing them but in being able to prevent these traits from being effective during the action. Then forecasting a guy good enough to do it.

Fighters will get away with unbelievable weaknesses seemingly forever simply because they know where to stand, when to pull the trigger at the same time as the opponent is trying to do his thing. And these are often instinctive. With no real sequence to follow or clue as to predict them.

If it was only a simple matter of throwing a certain punch when lou nova exposed a certain flaw then nova never would ever have won a fight. I think Ray Arcel knew what he was talking about when he said Nova was a fighter worthy of giving trouble to any fighter in history.

 

I would give Nova an excellent chance of becoming champion if Louis hadn't been around.

I think that he or Conn, or possible even both of them, would have held the title at some point.

 

This is an amazing find..all these guys were a blast. Totally insane though. I like Louis sleeping lol

 

The sport was not short of characters back then!

 

This is the one I was referring to with Galento, Baer and Nova together, if you haven't seen it.

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I don't buy into the Nova hype.

Nova was stopped twice by Lee Savold. He was simply pretty good at best. Take away the two wins over Baer and he didn't do all that much. Stopped Barlund, who quickly went down hill, and won a close fight with Farr, who lost quite a bit. The next biggest name was Comiskey, never a really top man and who was only 20 years old. Nova flopped against Louis.

And Galento. Like I just implied, I don't see beating Nova as proving all that much, if still a decent win. Looking at his record, the only top five men he ever beat were Nova and Nathan Mann. Most he fought, Risko, Schaaf, Gainer, Godoy, Louis, the Baer brothers, beat him.

Nova deserves credit for beating Baer, but Baer himself, except for his 1931 to 1934 run, was an erratic trainer with limited skill or success. From 1935 on he lost to most of the good men he fought--Braddock, Louis, Farr, and Nova twice. His only top wins were a decision over Farr and the unimpressive stoppage of an even fatter than usual Galento. Comiskey was 19 when Baer fought him. How good Baer was by the time he got to Nova is, I think, a very legit question.

Ruiz beating Joshua is at another level altogether from what Nova or Galento accomplished.

 

And for all you know Ruiz and Joshua could go on to have a series of embarassing losses and no more wins of any note, and suddenly things will look very different, I'm not saying it's likely, but it's possible. That's the trouble with comparing what's happening now to stuff that happened decades ago.

Anyway Nova was winning the first fight but was stopped by a bad cut.
Evening star. [volume], May 26, 1942, Page A-13, Image 15
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/...+nova&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

And the second fight wasn't long after Nova apparently has some serious injuries against Mauriello.

Plenty of people have noticed and pointed out Joshua's flaws and limitations before losing to Ruiz.

 

The first Nova-Mauriello fight was in December of 1942. Nova apparently suffered a broken rib. The second Lee Savold fight was in August, 1943. In between Nova fought and won two fights. I don't think your point here is valid.

As for the first Savold-Nova fight, Nova was off your article very slightly ahead on points, but the UPI coverage at boxrec indicates that he was now losing due to being pretty badly cut up. Savold had also knocked Nova down in the second round. UPI had Savold ahead 4-2-2 at the time Nova's corner tossed in the towel.

The rematch in 1943 was a brutal knockout win for Savold.

Savold was hardly a super fighter, losing more often than not to the pretty good men, and always to the really top guys. I stand by holding that Nova losing to him twice undercuts Nova's stature to a degree.

I am not saying Nova was awful, only that I don't see putting him in the same class as Ruiz or Joshua.

As for Ruiz and/or Joshua now hitting the skids and suffering all kinds of bad losses like Nova did, they have already accomplished more than Nova ever did.

Nova failed to win 7 of his first 33 fights, and was stopped twice, and was never champion. Ruiz has lost only one close decision in his first 33 fights and knocked out the champion. Much better. In his 34th fight, Nova was stopped by Savold.

 

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