86 years ago today: Dominick Anthony "Two Ton Tony" Galento vs. Jay Louis "Alameda Assassin" Nova

So much for "Cosmic Punch"...

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"The New Jersey Nightstick" came in at 224½lbs, which sounds normal enough by modern heavyweight standards - until you remember that modern heavyweights typically have 7-8" on the 5'9" galoot. He also entered with a record of 74-24-6, with most of that 74 being "moida'ed bums", while the other 30 opponents he didn't moida constituting the best he faced.

"The Cosmic Puncher", on the other hand, was a rising star at 22-1-4 and weighed in a modest and quite normal for its era 207½lbs. He was coming off red hot year - a UD15 in a reported FOTY contender with Tommy Farr plus stoppage victories over Gunnar Bärlund and Max Baer. Mind you, all three of those were Ring Magazine top-ten ranked heavyweight contenders.

This was indubitably supposed to be Nova's fight to lose. Unfortunately for him, it would become very much a Galento style fight.

I defy you to find two more opposite combatants. A squat, obese, ill-tempered, caustic & foul-mouthed, raging alcoholic with a caveman style in one corner - and in the other a tall, lean, sensitive technician with a needle-like 1-2. Galento had a face only a mudda could love. Nova was handsome, practically a matinée idol. Galento ate fifty hot dogs in a sitting. Nova was a vegetarian. Galento, after his prizefighting days, would become a pro wrestler and barkeep. Nova would pursue a second career as serious thespian. Galento attempted to literally murder a teenager for upsetting his spouse by not letting her cheat at the pinball arcade where the youth worked. Nova was a deeply spiritual Orientalist - for cripes sake, he was a yogi.

In other words, this is the sort of match-up that is quintessentially what the sport of boxing is about. Yin and yang, red corner vs. blue corner, dark and light. Captivating stuff, and surely a spectacle for the 19k lucky enough to be in attendance. Sadly, for posterity, there's no surviving video footage AFAIK. The linked YouTube upload above is a restoration of the original radio broadcast, with a bunch of still images.

Damn shame, because it was said to be a brutally violent (and ofttimes quite dirty) affair. Nova would later say this bout ruined him, and indeed he would never again have the momentum he did in '38-'39. He fought on another several years, retiring Baerin a rematch and even challenging the great Joe Louis - but a piece of his soul had been ripped out by the man he called a "filthy worm" (not only did Galento repeatedly gouge Nova's thumbs with his eyes, but was said to have carried an overpowering stench as if "sweating out rotten tuna and bad liquor").

It goes down as the crowning achievement of Galento's career. Whenever his name is brought up in h2h matchups, the Nova win and the knockdown of Louis are the primary - if not sole - arguments for him being a tough draw. 1939 is his banner year for certain. It's actually madness that he sandwiched this victory in between stoppage losses to Louis and then both Baer brothers.

I'm struggling to come up with a contemporary equivalent as point of reference. Think...if Lucas Browne bloodied and battered Moses Itauma or something...or if Eric Esch did so to Michael Moorer.

 

How about that Lou Nova's was Jay?