Lou Duva

I think Lou did a good job with a lot of his fighters; he'd go after anyone who gave his fighters **** and he'd really fight for his guys. He looked after them.

Good motivator and corner guy. But I've heard stories that he could be pretty ruthless at times with his fighters, and once they were reaching the end of the road, he'd cut them out. I don't know how much is true...like I say, just going by what I've seen and heard.

I think he could be a little brave with his fighter's blood at times; Biggs was being destroyed by Tyson but Duva never thought of pulling him out of there. Instead, he gave the battered and bleeding Biggs possibly the worst advice ever...'stand toe to toe and fight him.'

But still, I like Lou. He was a boxing guy through and through.

 

Very controversial character. A decent enough trainer but all too often went beyond the norms that most trainers would dare do.

I well remember the riot caused by Golota in the match vs Riddick Bowe. Duva had to be carried out of the ring because he got decked by one of Bowe's pals. In the replay they showed how Duva was almost dropped unto the ground by the handlers. That's likely cause he weighed so much. As bad as all that was, it could have been avoided if Duva would only have gotten Golota to stop throwing so many d@mn low blows!

 

Lou is one of boxings great characters. I remember him telling me that boxing hasn't been the same since the 50's lol He said that was boxings hay day
Ayone know how he's doing these days??

 

I've heard that he's still looking after one or two guys here and there, more behind the scenes now of course, due to his age. The Duvas were a very powerful and influential boxing family at their peak...Lou, Kathy, Dan.

 

He always thought he was an opportunistic jerk, but I'll be the first to admit I've always nursed an intense dislike for him as much for his personality as for his work.

He was an awful sore loser. There have been trainers/managers who are competitive to the bone, like Mickey Duff, Nacho Beristein, Joe Goossen, etc. but who can still be classy and compassionate when they lose.

I remember Duva publically dissing one of Mark Breland's early victims (Richard Acevedo I think) at a press conference. He was always smug and gloating when he won and when his fighter lost he'd throw a tantrum, behaving like no adult should be caught behaving.

As for Biggs, yes Duva's negligence and avarice is well documented. Instead of trying to help Biggs' work through his issues to cocaine abuse he started forcing Biggs to pick up the bill when they'd go out to eat and he dumped Biggs when the money started drying up.

Duva talked mad **** about Holyfield after they split, saying Holyfield was lazy (yeah right). The list goes on forever.

Although he's worked with loads of prominent fighters, but he's almost never improved them.

 

I thought he was very effective when he had Geore Benton doing the day to day training and nuturing. And the loss of Dan Duva was huge with how things turned out for that Duva clan.

But Tyrell wasn't going anywhere. Go watch the Bey fight. That's who he fought before Tyson. And Bey was not showing good form himself going into that Biggs fight. That guy isn't beating Mike tyson. The best he can do is win a few rounds, but he won't win the fight.

Tyrell had major defensive shortcomings. the kind of fatal flaws that get exposed. He stood straight up. He held that chin straight up like a pez dispenser--Gil clancy said you went broke with smelling salts for those guys.

He dropped his hands when he punched. He brought them back low, then lifted them up to proper position. When he got fatigued, he fell in when throwing right hands. But there were a lot of minuses to go along with the positives. It was never ever a case of lots of positives and minimal negatives. Top 10 competition brings out the negatives in fighters and that's the problem.

 

The real brains behind Lou Duva was Dan and George.

 

Exactamundo.

Look at the replacements---Kathy and Roger. What a huge dropoff. Then again, similar outcome was the Goosens.

Those organizations were major power brokers at one time. Shows just how hard it is and was to dislodge DKP and Bob Arum.