AIR DATE:
EPISODE: Episode 8
Louis Duva was a boxing trainer, manager and boxing promoter who handled nineteen world champions. The Duva family promoted boxing events in over twenty countries on six continents.
Watch The Scoop from Monday to Friday featuring Canadian heavyweight champ Bola Ray, who lends his vast experience in the sport and provides his comments and analysis on boxing, on YouTube and TalkinFight.com/live. #boxinghistory @detroitboxing #detroitboxing
.
.
.
#boxer #boxing #boxingtalkshow
Transcribed:
Good day, folks, today, i’m talking about a man who was supposed to be my first manager and trainer until my life, when careening in a totally opposite direction.
Uh, this man has done it all in the sport of boxing from being an amateur boxer, going professional to from being a trainer manager to actually running the most successful, at least one of them promotional companies in the world and still running today.
Also, he has arguably the most career changes yet always returning to his true love, which is boxing, which i always found sort of comical [, Music ].
My name is bola raymond ulubawali, and this is the scoop born.
May 28 1922 in new york city to italian immigrants, the sixth of seven children was none other than lou duva.
After spending time growing up in little italy, new york, his family, moved to saint james place in tottowa, a suburb of paterson new jersey.
Now lou’s early years was one of well impoverished means um, and because of such he had to start working to help the family stay afloat.
So when lou was 10 years old, his older brother carl introduce him to boxing um by 12 years.
Old lou was competing without well very much success, but it was arguable.
It was stated that it was the reason for that.
It could be due to the fact that he had great difficulty finding the time to train having to work to again assist the family by 1938 lou wrangled his way into the civilian conservative court um by claiming that he was two years older than he was by Making so as to make the minimum age limit now um, he was then shipped to boise, idaho, only to then be shipped to wally, wally, texas, yeah, sorry, washington, not even texas, washington, but it was there that he learned to drive a truck and please, as i’m Going along this count, the number of career changes.
This man has okay and we won’t talk about all the stuff they did as a child either the following year, wwe two world war ii uh broke out and he tried his hand at enlisting in that war um.
He was shipped to jackson, mississippi um, but after a few too many uh fisticuffs uprisings with fellow um cadets they sort of well.
They transferred him to camp hood, uh texas, at which point time, that’s actually where, where he got his first gig as a boxing instructor and he meeting the boxing instructor over there right now, post world war ii, lou went back home to help with the family business.
Um restaurant, but while he was doing that, he decided to try his hand at the professional game.
Um yeah, with a with a record of six wins ten losses in a draw um.
The writing was on the wall.
This wasn’t for him so yeah.
He went back and opened the trucking business shortly after this he was.
He was performing as a clown for the ministry and it was while doing this.
He met his wife ina.
They were married 1949.
Now luannon spent a good portion of his early 50s at the stillman’s boxing gym in new york city.
Still boxing gym, um was known for two things: it’s legendary, it’s legendary fame as a filthy gem where they closed the windows to keep the smell of the sweat in heaven forbid.
You allow that glorious scent to cascade through society.
They compartmentalized it and kept it in, and uh yeah.
It was also known um for a large number of celebrities to walk through the from hollywood and the boxing world to be attracted to the gym um.
It was there that lou actually met the likes of frank sinatra: um sammy davis, jr um, frankie, valenz, um, [, Music, ] uh, like a host of other uh celebrities and um.
He was always already enamored by the boxing world, but um.
He felt his passion for the support increase by magnitude every time he visited stillman’s gym so, while his trucking company was going really well and with the blessing of his lovely ena um, he sold his 32 truck fleet and opened up garden boxing gym now, while he’s Doing that he also because this is the kind of work ethic the man had.
He became a bail bondsman so up in canada.
We don’t have these things, but in um bill bondsman they go around and chase down people who skip bail, but that wasn’t enough work for him, so he decided to become a teamster for the union in new jersey.
Are you still keeping count of the as to the amount of jobs this man has had? Okay um through his ties in boxing world he’s now rubbing shoulders with the elite uh? He became really good friends with the likes of rocky marciano, to the point where rocky marciano was the first person to congratulate him after he had his first uh world champion fighter in um uh joy, uh gildo, when he beat gilda, beat dick ty uh dick tiger.
My fellow countryman ninja man, um for the middle middleweight, strap lou, was the last person also to talk to rocky uh before he boarded the plane that subsequently led to his death in 1969.
.
Boxing was a family affair for luke.
In that new son, dead, duva was a lawyer and he was involved in the game too.
You know offering legal advice and and whatnot uh for boxing contracts and what have you now? He extended legal, his legal prowess to leon spinks in 1978 well to his management and he ended up earning half a million dollars for his efforts.
In doing so, he then took that half a million and opened up main event productions uh their promotional company, which is still in existence today, it’s actually incredibly successful and still in existence.
Today, dan duver passed away in 1996 and his widow, kathy duva, has ran the business ever since this little promotional company.
That could literally got a lot of traction right out of the gate.
Um in that, like the likes of future uh world champions, rocky rocky lockridge, bobby size, livingston bramble all took a shining to main event and signed on with them and trained with lou.
Now, with a with a health scare and all the momentum and success coming his way, lou decided in 1981 to make boxing a full-time thing, and then he really began to soar.
He then went on to sign and train the likes of future welterweight champion johnny thomas bumpus future heavyweight champion tony tucker and heavyweight prospect mitch green, the mitch green that had that big issue with mike tyson that street fight that anyways um in 1981 came main event.
One, the the rights the opportunity to host the leonard hearns, one fight, which was an astronomical success.
It was the highest grossing boxing event that wasn’t a heavyweight fight to date.
At the time they ended up grossing 40 million dollars, but lou was able to or lose ability to actually celebrate was cut short with shortly after the fight, his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
Now going forward another three years 1984.
They are on the track for success, they’re doing exceptionally well um.
They made bumpus, lock ridge, bramble and mike mccallum all world champions, and then they hit the jackpot.
By grabbing the elite of the class of 84 summer olympic games, the la games um, they signed, parnell whitaker, evander, holyfield, meldrick taylor, um, mark brelin.
The company was genuinely off to the races.
Now all the guys became world champions a few short years down the way.
Lou was especially lou was loyal to his fighters, um [, Music ] right up to his old age.
He would back his fighters in any way and in any and all wars full stop.
He says i’ve been fighting my whole life, so i know what it takes to catch a punch.
He said he once told sports illustrated.
You don’t think i got a face.
Looking like this being about hey dancer, do you duva was a welterweight champion with of no great distinction in the 1940s long after he was the fourth man in the ring, so to speak on several occasions when his favor got the best of him.
There was that november 1988 uh about in las vegas, where duva the cornerman for lightweight vinnie pazzienza joined his fighter in exchanging of punches with roger mayweather senior.
After the final bell, mayweather retained, his super lightweight crown and duva came away with a cut on his cheek.
Now, with the man with that, man had the secret sauce to train champions, though um his resume goes on to conclude that with him having trained 19 world champions in his career, and some just to mention are the likes of like michael moore, uh hector macho camacho Arturo gotti um, vinnie, pasadenza um, fernando vargas, and then you have even the honorable mentions, like he actually trained lennox lewis, but this was prior to lennox uh winning a world title, but he he trained lennox lewis um.
He also trained your friend of mine aggregate, marcus, um, there’s also david tua uh, arguably a world champion and andrew gulotta, and the list goes on right.
Duvo was inducted into the international boxing hall of fame in 1988 and lives in wayne new jersey.
Just a few miles away from his fam, where his family once lived near paterson new jersey, um duval, remained active as an advisor and manager for f few select fighters and is also involved in his son dino dino’s company called duva boxing.
He was an outspoken advocate of fighters rights and of helping inner city kids get off the street and into the ring.
Duva died of natural causes, march 8, 2017 of declining health, but his legacy lives on to this day he was a class act.
He was a phenomenal man um.
I was very honored to have met him and potentially could have been his fighter.
So anyways, that’s my episode.
That’S my show um and with that, if you enjoyed this episode, please hit the like button and subscribe.
Don’T forget to hit the notification bell, it’s your boy bola and that’s a scoop.
There are no reviews yet.