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A Fighting Life

My Seven Decades in Boxing

By Lou Duva
Foreword by Evander Holyfield / With Tim Smith

For more than seven decades, Lou Duva has been a mainstay in the boxing world. With his craggy face and the bulbous nose of a boxer with questionable defensive skills, Duva is one of the most enduring images of boxing, having climbed in and out of rings for championship fights on six different continents. In Lou Duva: A Fighting Life, you’ll hear firsthand the exhilarating story of how Duva balanced family life and his work with nineteen different world champions.

The son of Italian immigrants who landed at Ellis Island and lived in Manhattan before moving the family to Paterson, New Jersey, Duva had the odds stacked against him. Rather than settling, Duva was able to claw his way out of poverty to reach the pinnacle of the boxing business, where he laid the foundation of Main Events Promotions—one of the most powerful boxing promotions companies in the sport.

Lou Duva: A Fighting Life chronicles an amazing boxing career filled with ups and downs. From his training of champions including Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis to staging some of the biggest bouts in the history of boxing, including the classic match between Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns, to the notorious “Riot at the Garden,” Duva pulls no punches as he shares his Hall of Fame life for the first time.

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“Lou would fight for you—literally. I’ve seen him go after other fighters, trainers, referees ... basically anybody that was in his way when he got mad.... I didn’t realize how important Lou was to me in the corner until he wasn’t there anymore. Sometimes you don’t appreciate people until after they’ve left.”
—Evander Holyfield, from his foreword

“A Fighting Life is an intimate and enjoyable read on the legendary boxing trainer and manager Lou Duva. Coauthor Tim Smith does a superb job in delivering firsthand accounts that capture Duva’s Hall of Fame career, especially his partnerships with so many world champions.
—Nunyo Demasio, coauthor of Parcells: A Football Life and former Sports Illustrated staff writer

"Lou Duva is one of boxing's cherished figures, a kind of Bowery Boys throwback to the 1930s."
—Los Angeles Times

"Relieve some of boxing’s biggest moments as told in firsthand accounts by Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva. . . . Duva became the definable face of boxing with his bulldog features, that told of toughness and dogged determination the same way Winston Churchill’s did. Spans his entire seven decades in the sport (traveling six continents to engage in fights) and, of course, how he got into and out of boxing with a mix of love and melancholy."
—Marty Mulcahey, Undisputed Champion Network

"Duva is tenacious in the corner and a master motivator. He never stops fighting for his fighters. And he goes to great lengths to be with them."
—International Boxing Hall of Fame

“Lou would fight for you—literally. I’ve seen him go after other fighters, trainers, referees ... basically anybody that was in his way when he got mad.... I didn’t realize how important Lou was to me in the corner until he wasn’t there anymore. Sometimes you don’t appreciate people until after they’ve left.”
—Evander Holyfield, from his foreword

“A Fighting Life is an intimate and enjoyable read on the legendary boxing trainer and manager Lou Duva. Coauthor Tim Smith does a superb job in delivering firsthand accounts that capture Duva’s Hall of Fame career, especially his partnerships with so many world champions.
—Nunyo Demasio, coauthor of Parcells: A Football Life and former Sports Illustrated staff writer

"Lou Duva is one of boxing's cherished figures, a kind of Bowery Boys throwback to the 1930s."
—Los Angeles Times

"Relieve some of boxing’s biggest moments as told in firsthand accounts by Hall of Fame trainer Lou Duva. . . . Duva became the definable face of boxing with his bulldog features, that told of toughness and dogged determination the same way Winston Churchill’s did. Spans his entire seven decades in the sport (traveling six continents to engage in fights) and, of course, how he got into and out of boxing with a mix of love and melancholy."
—Marty Mulcahey, Undisputed Champion Network

"Duva is tenacious in the corner and a master motivator. He never stops fighting for his fighters. And he goes to great lengths to be with them."
—International Boxing Hall of Fame

A Fighting Life

My Seven Decades in Boxing

By Lou Duva
Foreword by Evander Holyfield / With Tim Smith