Lou Duva
Encyclopedia
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
trainer and manager who has handled some of the most famous boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
s in the world including 19 World Champions. The Duva family have promoted boxing events in over 20 countries on six continents. He is a member of the International Boxing Hall of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
, New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, and the Meadowlands Sports Hall of Fame.
Early years
Duva was born in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to Italian immigrants, the sixth of seven children. After spending time growing up in Little Italy
Little Italy
Little Italy is a general name for an ethnic enclave populated primarily by Italians or people of Italian ancestry, usually in an urban neighborhood.-Canada:*Little Italy, Edmonton, in Alberta*Little Italy, Montreal, in Quebec...
, New York, his family then moved to Paterson
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
, New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. Duva's childhood was an impoverished one and he had to do many jobs to try to help his family.
Duva's 23-year-old brother, Carl Duva, introduced young Lou to boxing when the boy was only 10 years old. Lou polished his own boxing skills and by age 12 was both an amateur and ballroom brawler. However Lou as a boxer did not have much luck, although that might have been due to the fact he barely had time to train, having to go out to the street and perform many types of jobs to try to help the Duva family make ends meet.
In 1938 Lou went to try to join the Civilian Conservation Corps
Civilian Conservation Corps
The Civilian Conservation Corps was a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families, ages 18–25. A part of the New Deal of President Franklin D...
(CCC). He had problems getting in because applicants were required to be at least 18, but Duva was only 16 years old when he applied to join. He went and changed his birth certificate
Birth certificate
A birth certificate is a vital record that documents the birth of a child. The term "birth certificate" can refer to either the original document certifying the circumstances of the birth or to a certified copy of or representation of the ensuing registration of that birth...
and all his personal information and they accepted him, thinking that he had been born two year earlier, in 1920. The CCC sent him to Boise
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
, Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
, and then to Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla, Washington
Walla Walla is the largest city in and the county seat of Walla Walla County, Washington, United States. The population was 31,731 at the 2010 census...
, where he learned to drive trucks.
Duva went to the US Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
after World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out. He went to Jackson
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
, to train but he was dismissed from the base after many fistfights with fellow soldiers as well as an altercation with two Lieutenants when he defended a black woman being harassed on a public bus. After that, he was sent to Camp Hood in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, where he was named boxing instructor.
He went back home in 1944 to help run a restaurant and to begin a professional boxing career, as a boxer. But he could only compile a record of 15 wins and 7 losses as a professional fighter, and he retired soon after, going back to his days as a trucker. He started a trucking company and met his wife Enes soon after. He had met her while he was performing as a clown at a ministry and they married in 1949.
Lou spent a good portion of the early 1950s at a gym named Stillmans boxing gym. Stillmans gym is known by two things: its legendary fame as a filthy gym where windows were kept closed so that the smell of sweat would not escape, and the large amount of celebrities, both from Hollywood and the boxing world that the gym attracted. It was here that he began friendships with the likes of Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Sammy Davis Jr. and Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli
Frankie Valli is an American musician, most famous as frontman of The Four Seasons. He is well-known for his unusually powerful falsetto singing voice...
, among others. Duva, already enamored with the world of boxing, felt his passion for that sport increase every time he visited Stillman's.
Duva's trucking business was doing well, so he decided to open, with the blessing of Enes, his own gym, named Garden Gym. After he sold his fleet of 32 trucks, he became a bail bondsman, and he tracked offenders who jumped bail to avoid trial. Around this time he also worked as a union representative in North Jersey.
Rise to fame
By 1963, Duva had become close friends with former world Heavyweight champion Rocky MarcianoRocky Marciano
Rocky Marciano , born Rocco Francis Marchegiano, was an American boxer and the heavyweight champion of the world from September 23, 1952, to April 27, 1956. Marciano is the only champion to hold the heavyweight title and go undefeated throughout his career. Marciano defended his title six times...
, one of the people who rejoiced when Duva crowned his first world boxing champion, Middleweight Joey Giardello
Joey Giardello
Carmine Orlando Tilelli was an American boxer who was the middleweight champion of the world from 1963 to 1965, and was better known by his professional pseudonym of Joey Giardello.-Early life:...
, who dethroned Dick Tiger
Dick Tiger
Dick Tiger CBE was a boxer from Ubahu village, Amaigbo, Nigeria, who emigrated to Liverpool and later to the United States of America. Tiger was a member of the Igbo ethnic group...
that year to become world Middleweight champion. Duva was one of the last persons that Marciano spoke to before Marciano's plane crashed in 1969.
Lou's son, Dan Duva
Dan Duva
Daniel Salvator Duva was a boxing promoter who promoted or co-promoted over 100 world championship fights through his family run business, Main Events. Under his leadership Main Events promoted such notable champions as Evander Holyfield, Lennox Lewis, Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland and many others...
(died 1996), was a lawyer who graduated in 1977. When Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks
Leon Spinks is a former American boxer. He had an overall record of 26 wins, 17 losses and 3 draws as a professional, with 14 knockout wins, and was the former World Boxing Council and World Boxing Association heavyweight champion of the world...
' management came for help in 1978, Dan gladly helped them. With his earning of $500,000 dollars, Dan formed Main Events in April of '78. The company still runs, now managed by Dan's widow, Kathy Duva.
Also during that period, Main Events would put boxing cards at the Ice World facility in Totowa
Totowa
Totowa may refer to the following in the U.S. state of New Jersey:*Totowa, New Jersey, a borough in Passaic County**Totowa Borough Public Schools, a school district in the above borough*Totowa section, a neighborhood of Paterson...
, New Jersey. The Duva's used to resemble tactics used by the World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. is an American publicly traded, privately controlled entertainment company dealing primarily in professional wrestling, with major revenue sources also coming from film, music, product licensing, and direct product sales...
(WWE) when promoting a card, once even going as far as selling a truck driver from New Jersey as a Prince from Zaire
Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a state located in Central Africa. It is the second largest country in Africa by area and the eleventh largest in the world...
just to hype the show and sell tickets.
In 1979, ESPN
ESPN
Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
became interested in showing Main Events shows from Ice World, and they began to do so soon after. The shows and presence caught the eyes of future world champions such as Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge , is a former boxer and world champion. As a professional, he is perhaps best known for handing Roger Mayweather his first defeat, in a first-round knockout for the WBA super featherweight championship.-Amateur career:...
, Bobby Czyz
Bobby Czyz
Robert Edward "Bobby" Czyz is a retired American boxer. A New Jersey native of mostly Polish and Italian descent, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.Czyz was born in Orange, New Jersey...
and Livingstone Bramble
Livingstone Bramble
Ras-I Alujah Bramble is a boxer. However, Bramble was raised on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He became the first world champion from Saint Kitts and Nevis. As of 2005, Bramble is still active in professional boxing...
, all of which signed up with Main Events. However, trouble came with success: as a result of all the work Lou was putting in as a trainer, bail bondsman and everything else he was doing, he suffered his first heart attack during that year. Doctors told him he needed to step off some of his activities, so Lou decided to get off anything that wasn't related to boxing. This, after he had talked with wife Enes about which activities to drop. He became a full time manager and trainer.
Dan Duva then formed a friendship with Shelly Finkel
Shelly Finkel
Shelly Finkel is an American boxing and music manager and promoter. Finkel started out in music, promoting acts such as Vanilla Fudge and Mountain, before moving into boxing in the late 1970s...
, a powerful boxing power broker who convinced Alex Ramos
Alex Ramos
Alex Ramos is a former middleweight boxer from the 1980s. A native of Manhattan, New York, he is Puerto Rican by his parents' side. He was nicknamed "The Bronx Bomber", after Joe Louis, whose nickname was "The Brown Bomber"....
, future world Jr. Welterweight champion Johnny Bumphus
Johnny Bumphus
Johnny 'Bump City' Bumphus , is a former boxer who was world light welterweight champion.-Professional career:...
, future world Heavyweight champion Tony Tucker
Tony Tucker
Tony Craig Tucker is a retired professional heavyweight boxer. Tucker fought professionally from 1980 to 1998. Nicknamed "TNT," he won a gold medal at the 1979 Pan American Games, and was briefly a world heavyweight champion as a professional.-Amateur career:Tucker had a notable amateur career,...
, troubled prospect Tony Ayala Jr. and future Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson
Michael Gerard "Mike" Tyson is a retired American boxer. Tyson is a former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world and holds the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF world heavyweight titles, he was 20 years, 4 months and 22 days old...
rival Mitch Green to join Main Events. Lou was trainer and manager.
In 1981, Main Events became the promoter of the first bout between Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard is an American retired professional boxer and occasional actor. He was named Ray Charles Leonard, after his mother's favorite singer, Ray Charles...
and Thomas Hearns
Thomas Hearns
Thomas "Hitman" Hearns is a retired American boxer. Nicknamed the "Motor City Cobra" and more famously "The Hitman", Hearns became the first boxer in history to win world titles in four divisions. He would also become the first fighter in history to win five world titles in five different divisions...
, won by Leonard by a knockout in round 14. It was the largest grossing non Heavyweight bout until then, making $40 million dollars. But Lou could not celebrate long, as wife Enes had been diagnosed with Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...
.
In 1984, he was a highly successful year for Duva and Main Events. He had Bumphus, Lockridge, Bramble and Mike McCallum
Mike McCallum
Mike McCallum is a retired boxer. Nicknamed "The Body Snatcher" for his fierce body punching. McCallum won world titles in three weight classes.-Amateur career:Claimed an amateur record of 240-10...
crowned as world champions, and he signed future world champions Mark Breland
Mark Breland
Mark Anthony Breland is a former world champion boxer, who won five New York Golden Gloves Titles and a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics...
, Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname "The Real Deal"...
, Pernell Whitaker
Pernell Whitaker
Pernell Whitaker , nicknamed "Sweet Pea", is a professional boxing trainer and retired American professional boxer...
and Meldrick Taylor
Meldrick Taylor
Meldrick Taylor is a former Olympic gold medalist and world boxing champion in two weight classes.-Amateur career:...
right after their participation in the Olympics
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. He also signed Olympian Tyrell Biggs
Tyrell Biggs
Tyrell Biggs , is an American heavyweight boxer. He won the gold medal at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, CA in boxing at the Superheavyweight division, after gaining bronze the previous year at the 1983 Pan American Games....
.
In 1985, he was named manager of the year by the American Boxing Writer's Association. Holyfield was the next to be crowned world champion, when he beat Dwight Muhammad Qawi
Dwight Muhammad Qawi
Dwight Muhammad Qawi is a former world boxing champion in the light heavyweight and cruiserweight divisions...
in 1986. That was the year that his beloved wife, Enes Duva died, after fighting her disease for five years.
Breland and Vinny Paz
Vinny Paz
Vinny Paz, formerly Vinny Pazienza is an Italian-American former boxer and world champion in the lightweight and light middleweight weight classes...
ienza followed the championship route for Main Events, winning their first world titles in 1987, year in which he was named Trainer of The Year by the WBA
World Boxing Association
The World Boxing Association is a boxing organization that sanctions official matches, and awards the WBA world championship title at the professional level. It was previously known as the National Boxing Association before changing its name in 1962...
. Taylor followed Whitaker and Pazienza by beating Buddy McGuirt in 1988 for the world's Jr. Welterweight title.
In 1989, he was another triumphant year for Duva and Main Events, when Whitaker, Darrin Van Horn
Darrin Van Horn
Darrin Van Horn was a professional boxer and a world champion in two weight divisions.Van Horn turned professional in 1984, just five days before his 16th birthday...
and Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
's John John Molina
John John Molina
Juan Molina , better known as John John Molina in the world of boxing, is a former boxer whose career transcended boxing in Puerto Rico. A multiple time world champion, this boxer was also known as quite a socialite...
crowned themselves champions, adding to the Main Events line of world champion boxers.
Holyfield gave Main Events another championship, when he knocked out Buster Douglas in three rounds to win the world Heavyweight title with Lou Duva his co trainer along with George Benton.
After that, Lou Duva reached immense mainstream fame, appearing in cameos at different television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
series and even visiting the "Late Night With David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman
Late Night with David Letterman is a nightly hour-long comedy talk show on NBC that was created and hosted by David Letterman. It premiered in 1982 as the first incarnation of the Late Night franchise and went off the air in 1993, after Letterman left NBC and moved to Late Show on CBS. Late Night...
" show as a guest. He also acted as wrestler
Professional wrestling
Professional wrestling is a mode of spectacle, combining athletics and theatrical performance.Roland Barthes, "The World of Wrestling", Mythologies, 1957 It takes the form of events, held by touring companies, which mimic a title match combat sport...
Rowdy Roddy Piper's trainer in a WWF show. In 1992, Eddie Hopson
Eddie Hopson
Edward Lamar Hopson is a former professional boxer.-Amateur career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Hopson took up boxing at the age of seven. Hopson earned a Junior Olympics gold medal in 1987, and was the National Golden Gloves Featherweight Champion the following year...
became Duva's 13th world champion.
In 1996, Dan Duva (his brother) died of cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
and his widow, Kathy, became chairman of the Board and Dan's brother, Dino Duva
Dino Duva
Dino Duva is an American boxing promoter.Duva is the son of trainer/manager Lou Duva, and the younger brother of the late Dan Duva. The Duvas have been given the title of "the first family of boxing"...
, became president. After four years Dino left the company and Kathy Duva became the Chief Executive Officer
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
. Dino went on to form Duva Boxing.
Lou has worked with such other former or future world champions as Michael Moorer
Michael Moorer
Michael Lee Moorer is a retired American boxer who is a former light heavyweight and heavyweight World Champion.-Biography:Moorer is a native of Monessen, Pennsylvania, which is in Southwestern Pennsylvania.-Professional career:...
and Arturo Gatti
Arturo Gatti
Arturo "Thunder" Gatti was a Canadian professional boxer. Born in Cassino, Italy, and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Gatti relocated to Jersey City, United States as a teenager...
among others. On the night of the infamous riot after the first Andrew Golota-Riddick Bowe
Riddick Bowe
Riddick Lamont Bowe is a retired American boxer. He is a two-time heavyweight champion and a former undisputed heavyweight champion...
bout, Duva was crane-lifted out of the ring on a stretcher after his defibrillator went off. He was found out to be ok after testing was done to his heart later that night.
For a period during the 1980s Lou was involved in a restaurant named "Lou Duva's Place" in Totowa, NJ.
This avid autograph
Autograph
An autograph is a document transcribed entirely in the handwriting of its author, as opposed to a typeset document or one written by an amanuensis or a copyist; the meaning overlaps with that of the word holograph.Autograph also refers to a person's artistic signature...
signer, who has been to many countries around the world as a trainer, is also a devout family man- once quoted as saying "The only thing more important to me than boxing, is my family, my grandkids.... i do it all for them."
Duva was inducted into the International Boxing Hall Of Fame
International Boxing Hall of Fame
The modern International Boxing Hall of Fame is located in Canastota, New York, United States, within driving distance from the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown and the National Soccer Hall of Fame in Oneonta...
in 1998 and currently lives in Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne, New Jersey
Wayne is a Township in Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, located less than from midtown Manhattan. As of the United States 2000 Census, the township had a total population of 54,069....
, just a few miles from where his poor family once lived in Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson is a city serving as the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, its population was 146,199, rendering it New Jersey's third largest city and one of the largest cities in the New York City Metropolitan Area, despite a decrease of 3,023...
. To this day, Mr. Duva continues active as an advisor and manager for a few select fighters and is also involved in his son Dino's company, Duva Boxing. He remains an outspoken advocate of fighter's rights and of helping inner city kids get "off the streets and into the ring".
Always in support of the local boxing community Lou attended the 2007 New Jersey Diamond Gloves Finals held on November 2, 2007 at Linden NJ in Linden High School. When introduced, Lou graciously said a few words to the crowd and spoke kindly about one of the bouts that took place comparing it to a Hagler/Leonard fight. Lou was also seen signing autographs and taking pictures with some of the fans at attendance.
Champions
Evander HolyfieldEvander Holyfield
Evander Holyfield is a professional boxer from the United States. He is a former undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, earning him the nickname "The Real Deal"...
Pernell Whitaker
Pernell Whitaker
Pernell Whitaker , nicknamed "Sweet Pea", is a professional boxing trainer and retired American professional boxer...
Michael Moorer
Michael Moorer
Michael Lee Moorer is a retired American boxer who is a former light heavyweight and heavyweight World Champion.-Biography:Moorer is a native of Monessen, Pennsylvania, which is in Southwestern Pennsylvania.-Professional career:...
Arturo Gatti
Arturo Gatti
Arturo "Thunder" Gatti was a Canadian professional boxer. Born in Cassino, Italy, and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Gatti relocated to Jersey City, United States as a teenager...
Meldrick Taylor
Meldrick Taylor
Meldrick Taylor is a former Olympic gold medalist and world boxing champion in two weight classes.-Amateur career:...
Mark Breland
Mark Breland
Mark Anthony Breland is a former world champion boxer, who won five New York Golden Gloves Titles and a gold medal at the 1984 Olympics...
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Lewis
Lennox Claudius Lewis, CM, CBE is a retired boxer and the most recent British undisputed world heavyweight champion. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship...
Joey Giardello
Joey Giardello
Carmine Orlando Tilelli was an American boxer who was the middleweight champion of the world from 1963 to 1965, and was better known by his professional pseudonym of Joey Giardello.-Early life:...
Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge
Rocky Lockridge , is a former boxer and world champion. As a professional, he is perhaps best known for handing Roger Mayweather his first defeat, in a first-round knockout for the WBA super featherweight championship.-Amateur career:...
Bobby Czyz
Bobby Czyz
Robert Edward "Bobby" Czyz is a retired American boxer. A New Jersey native of mostly Polish and Italian descent, he is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion.Czyz was born in Orange, New Jersey...
Livingstone Bramble
Livingstone Bramble
Ras-I Alujah Bramble is a boxer. However, Bramble was raised on Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. He became the first world champion from Saint Kitts and Nevis. As of 2005, Bramble is still active in professional boxing...
Johnny Bumphus
Johnny Bumphus
Johnny 'Bump City' Bumphus , is a former boxer who was world light welterweight champion.-Professional career:...
Tony Tucker
Tony Tucker
Tony Craig Tucker is a retired professional heavyweight boxer. Tucker fought professionally from 1980 to 1998. Nicknamed "TNT," he won a gold medal at the 1979 Pan American Games, and was briefly a world heavyweight champion as a professional.-Amateur career:Tucker had a notable amateur career,...
Mike McCallum
Mike McCallum
Mike McCallum is a retired boxer. Nicknamed "The Body Snatcher" for his fierce body punching. McCallum won world titles in three weight classes.-Amateur career:Claimed an amateur record of 240-10...
Vinny Pazienza
Darrin Van Horn
Darrin Van Horn
Darrin Van Horn was a professional boxer and a world champion in two weight divisions.Van Horn turned professional in 1984, just five days before his 16th birthday...
John John Molina
John John Molina
Juan Molina , better known as John John Molina in the world of boxing, is a former boxer whose career transcended boxing in Puerto Rico. A multiple time world champion, this boxer was also known as quite a socialite...
Eddie Hopson
Eddie Hopson
Edward Lamar Hopson is a former professional boxer.-Amateur career:Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Hopson took up boxing at the age of seven. Hopson earned a Junior Olympics gold medal in 1987, and was the National Golden Gloves Featherweight Champion the following year...
Hector Camacho
Héctor Camacho
Héctor Camacho , nicknamed "Macho Camacho", is a Puerto Rican professional boxer. His son, Héctor Camacho Jr., is also a boxer.- Early life and amateur career :...
Fernando Vargas
Fernando Vargas
Fernando Vargas is a retired Mexican American boxer and two-time world champion, who won a bronze medal as an amateur at the 1995 Pan American Games in Mar del Plata. His nicknames include "Ferocious", "The Aztec Warrior" and "El Feroz"...