Lou Duva pugile

Louis Duva (May 28, 1922 – March 8, 2017) 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. Lou Duva was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, the New Jersey Boxing Hall of Fame, the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame, and The Meadowlands Sports Hall of Fame.Duva was born in New York City to Italian immigrants, the sixth of seven children. After spending time growing up in Little Italy, New York, his family then moved to Saint James Place in Totowa, a suburb of Paterson, New Jersey. 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 barroom 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 (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 and all his personal information and they accepted him, thinking that he had been born two years earlier, in 1920. The CCC sent him to Boise, Idaho, and then to Walla Walla, Washington, where he learned to drive trucks.Duva went to the U.S. Army after World War II broke out. He went to Jackson, Mississippi, to train, but was dismissed from the base after many fistfights with fellow soldiers. After that, he was sent to Camp Hood in Texas, where he was given a job as a boxing instructor.He went back home in 1944 to help run a restaurant and to begin a career as a professional boxer, compiling a record of 6 wins, 10 losses and one draw. After retiring, he started a trucking company. Soon after, he met his wife Enes while he was performing as a clown at a ministry. They married in 1949.