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- This is One-On-One.

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(upbeat music) - Welcome to "Remember Them."

Steve Adubato with my colleague, our co-anchor, executive producer of "Remember Them," Jacqui Tricarco.

Jacqui, you did not know, but you heard about Lou Duva, the great, important, significant... What a character in boxing.

He was a trainer.

He was a manager.

And we honor and remember Lou Duva.

His autobiography is behind me.

What did you take from the interview that I did with Dino Duva, Lou's son, about the great Lou Duva, born in New York City, then to Paterson, and ultimately, Totowa, New Jersey?

Go ahead.

- I think it's so important to note that he was just such a fierce advocate for his boxers, the folks that he was training, and really treated them like family and advocated for them in and out of the ring.

And it was such a pleasure to be able to hear directly from his son who is in the family business, was in the family business, so saw his dad firsthand in the job that he loved doing day in and day out.

And something we didn't touch upon is Lou's time at Stillman's Boxing Gym in New York City and just some of the celebrities that he became friends with, like Frank Sinatra and Frankie Valli.

- Sinatra.

Yeah, and this is interesting.

I didn't get into this with Dino that much, but so much of who Lou Duva was was about family, but Italian-American families.

And also he connected with people like Sinatra and Frankie Valli.

Frankie Valli from my old neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey.

Frank Sinatra from Hoboken.

Lou Duva, Paterson.

You get it.

There's an urban connection.

Also Lou Duva, born and raised in Little Italy in Lower Manhattan.

Lou Duva was one of these people that had a heart of gold.

He was also the manager and trainer for the great Evander Holyfield, but there were so many others.

Jacqui, we can't go into it, but there is a crazy story that Dino Duva tells about a 1996 boxing match where Lou Duva was the trainer for Andrew Golata.

Should people check that?

Should people be interested in that?

- Yes, yes.

- I know it's a long story, but it's worth it.

- Yeah, and you'll hear that next from Dino and his firsthand knowledge and remembrance of that time.

And Steve, I know we talk about North Jersey a lot, but I love to say that boxing in Atlantic City was big during that time.

Lou was down there in Atlantic City a lot with his boxers, and that was, you know, somewhere where we saw a lot of these fights take place, especially during his time.

- Hold on.

Who was the casino owner who people may know about now who used to have a lot of boxing matches there?

- I don't know.

Trump?

(Jacqui laughing) - Yeah, it was Donald Trump.

(Jacqui laughing) - Yes, of course, of course.

- And Donald Trump's best friend in boxing?

His best friend was Don King and Mike Tyson.

- Yep.

Oh, yes.

- And see, just a little boxing history, that's all.

- Yep.

- Hey, so we talked to Dino Duva about his dad, the great Lou Duva.

(bright music) - We honor, we remember, we pay tribute to the great Lou Duva by talking to Dino Duva, longtime boxing promoter and Lou Duva's son.

Good to see you, Dino.

- Great to see you, Steve, again.

How's everything?

- Everything is great.

And by the way, I went back and read your dad's book.

It's called "A Fighting Life: My Seven Decades in Boxing", over my left shoulder.

If you haven't read it, folks, go out there and get it and read about Lou Duva.

Hey, listen, your dad, so interesting, so complex, shaped boxing in this country, in the world.

Who the heck was Lou Duva?

Please, Dino.

- My dad was... I mean, he came from a simple Italian immigrant family.

His parents came through Ellis Island right after the turn of the century, I'm gonna say around 1910, 1912.

- Settled in New York City.

- Yeah, they started in New York City in Little Italy.

Some of them, from what I understand, moved up to Rochester, New York, and then some of them came to New Jersey.

But my father grew up in Little Italy, and then Brooklyn, and then he came to New Jersey once he got settled in and met my mom and- - Paterson?

- Yes, I think his first house was in Clifton.

- Okay.

- Then they moved to Paterson, and then ultimately, we all grew up together, my brother and sisters in total.

- Yeah, so listen, I'm gonna throw some things out at you, Dino, and I told you right before we got on the air that as a young man growing up in Newark, New Jersey, who loved and still, I'm obsessed by boxing, we went to Ice World, in Totowa.

I was obsessed with all the guys in our neighborhood.

We'd go to Ice World.

There was a certain guy in our neighborhood who was boxing there.

People can look him up.

His name is Tommy Merola.

We used to follow Tommy.

What was Ice World like, quote, as we say back in the day, Dino?

- Well, Ice World, what it was it was was a ice skating rink.

It had two rinks in it.

And it was actually famous initially for the New Jersey Devils.

It was the practice rink.

So we, when we were starting out as a family business, and, you know- - Boxing was the family business, Dino.

Sorry, boxing was the family business.

- Yeah, it was all family.

My father started it, then as each of us got out of college, joined the company, my brother and my older sister- - Your brother Dan.

- My brother Dan, my older sister Donna and my two other sisters, Denise and myself, we all joined the family business.

By the late '70s, we were all involved with the business.

And we started doing these club shows at Ice World.

It was a strange operation.

We used to have to cover the ice skating rink with this particle board in order to be able to set up the ring and chairs.

And one side of the arena had bleachers.

So we used to fill the bleachers, we used to set up chairs on top of these boards.

And the crazy thing was people always used to say how cold their feet was when they were in the chairs.

But it was just a great atmosphere, a great club show atmosphere.

We focused on a lot of local boxers from Northern New Jersey, sometimes New York, and they just all brought their friends, sold a lot of tickets from their neighborhood.

- That's right.

- Just a great atmosphere.

- But Dino, your dad sold a vision.

I mean, you started Ice World and then obviously he had world champions with like Evander Holyfield, we'll talk about in just a second.

Where the heck did his business... I knew he knew boxing, I knew him as a trainer, but where was the business sense, Dino?

- In all honesty, and he would've even told you this, it wasn't with him.

- Laughter.

He was a boxing guy, hung out in the gyms.

He was a gym rat when he was young, his brother- - Did he love Marciano?

In the book, there's a chapter about Rocky Marciano.

Was he obsessed by the only undefeated world champ, heavyweight world champion, Rocky Marciano?

- Well, Rocky was a very close friend of my father's.

And you know, he always said that Rocky was the best.

I'm sure part of it was because he was a close friend.

But you know, the heavyweight division changed over the years.

Boxers got faster, so it was a different time era.

But Rocky was a very close friend.

He always thought he was the greatest.

And he always used to say, you know, "I wish Rocky was around to see our success."

But unfortunately, Rocky died in a plane crash.

And I'll tell you a story.

Well, it's not funny, but when Rocky was planning this trip that he had, it was to, I think it was to Iowa.

- Right.

- He was meeting with some business people who wanted to start a fast food chain and use Rocky's name for the food chain.

I think it was a fried chicken franchise.

They wanted to use Rocky's name.

Rocky actually asked my father to come on the trip with him.

And for whatever reason, at the time, my father couldn't go or he didn't go.

And the plane ended up crashing and Rocky died in the plane crash.

- Wow.

It's tragic on so many levels.

And I'm fascinated in the book, when your dad, in his book, he talks about the relationship with Rocky Marciano.

But he loved boxing, but the business sense, what's interesting to me is you go from Ice World and how the heck does he connect to people?

Like, I'm gonna throw some names out.

So he connects with Evander Holyfield.

How?

- My father always spent a lot of time working with the amateur boxers in the US, going way back to the 1960s and 1970s before we even really got main events going.

He was always very close with some of the people who ran US amateur boxing, and he always followed the Golden Gloves, the state championships, and also followed the Olympics.

And when we got established as a real company, operate in a business where we had the ability to do bigger shows, bigger events, and sign bigger fighters, we started focusing on recruiting Olympic boxers.

And the first real top amateur boxers and Olympic boxers we signed were from the 1980s Olympic team.

Now 1980, the US ended up boycotting the Olympics.

- That's right.

- And it was in Moscow, and there was that boycott, but we signed some of the best fighters from that team.

And I sent you a picture of "Ring Magazine" with my father.

It had two fighters on there.

They were our first world champions, his first world champions.

They were from that 1980 Olympic team, Johnny Bumphus and Rocky Lockridge.

And then we built it from there.

And then when the 1984 Olympics came, we were already established.

We started gaining a great reputation, was taking care of the boxers real well, solid business situation.

And that's when we signed, to me, what was probably the greatest US Olympic boxing team ever.

Evander Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland, and several others.

And from there, everything just took off to another level.

- We're honoring and remembering the great Lou Duva talking to Dino Duva.

And boxing was and is family business for the Duvas.

And also we recognize and pay tribute to your late brother, Dan, who was so important to this operation.

So let me ask you this.

I'm gonna throw a name out, and I know I'm jumping around in terms of the chronology.

'96, 1996.

All right, I'm gonna get a smile out of you Dino, right away, Dino, you ready?

1996, Madison Square Garden.

- Laughter.

Okay, so we ready for this?

I'm on the air.

I'm working for another network in New York City.

We're on doing a live show out of New York City.

And Andrew Golota... See, I knew I'd get that Dino.

So set the scene.

Andrew Golota is fighting at Madison Square garden against Riddick Bowe.

- Describe, and I'm doing a live show when there reports are coming in, it's before the internet.

And we're actually on 33rd Street where I was doing this show.

Madison Square Garden, right there.

Oh yeah, I was doing a live show out of the New Yorker Hotel.

Describe that night the match between Golota and Andrew, excuse me and Riddick Bowe, and what the heck happened, and why is it one of the most historically insane nights of sports and boxing in American history?

Go ahead, Dino.

It's yours.

- Well, I'll tell you.

Yeah, you just called it.

So it was a big heavyweight fight.

Riddick Bowe was recognized at the time as one of the top heavyweights in the world, maybe the best heavyweight in the world.

Andrew Golota was my father, and our fighter, main event's fighter.

He was a Polish guy from Chicago, but he ended up living in New Jersey for a while.

Who expected Andrew Golota had to have any chance to beat Riddick Bowe at all?

He was just, well, you know, one of those, quote, opponents.

And, but my father always believed that Golota, and we knew Golota was a pretty good fighter.

So make a long story short, during the fight, Golota was really doing a toll on Riddick Bowe, punching him, beating to the punch, hurting him.

But then, and no one will ever know why, Andrew Golota started hitting Riddick Bowe behind the belt, below the belt.

- Way below the belt.

Like consistently.

It wasn't- - Okay, and no one knows why he is doing it because he is winning.

- Right, it made no sense at all.

- And your dad says what to Golota in the corner?

- He said a lot.

He said, "Only aim for the head."

He came up with a couple great one-liners during those rounds in between.

But all I remember is he was always saying just only hit him, punch him in the head.

- Kept hitting him below the belt.

- Yeah, and Golota just, he just zoned out and just didn't listen.

To this day, whenever you ask Andrew Golota why he did it, he can't explain it.

But the bottom line is he hit him so many times below the belt, the ref ultimately stepped in and disqualified.

- And then what happens, Dino?

- All hell broke loose.

Riddick Bowe and his team, they had about 150 of their friends, family, hoodlums, whatever you want to call it.

They were around the ring.

- Was rock in his corner?

- Rock Newman was- - Rock Newman was in his corner.

- Newman, who was his manager.

He didn't work his corner, but he was close by.

He was sitting close by.

And what happened was Rock Newman, his manager, somehow, he gave ring pass credentials to over a hundred people that were friends of Riddick Bowe and him from Brooklyn, whatever.

When the ref stopped the fight, every one of those people who had the ring credentials stormed into the ring.

- And where's your dad in all this?

- Yeah, my father was right in the middle of it.

You know, he was trying to hold people off.

They were going after Golota.

Security jumped in, but my father was right in the middle of it all.

It was a riot.

I mean, it was- - A riot in Madison Square Garden.

- Right.

- And they took your dad out in a stretcher.

- Well, what happened was, is at some point during the riot, and you couldn't even see much because there's so many people there.

But all of a sudden, and I was ringside, I wasn't going into the ring, but I was right there by the stairs.

All of a sudden, you see my father fly backwards, and he was on his back spread eagle in the middle of the ring.

We thought he had a heart attack 'cause he had had heart problems before that.

We thought he had a heart attack.

Ultimately, the paramedics got into the ring.

They dragged him out under the ropes.

He was knocked out.

He wasn't awake.

They dragged him out under the ropes, put him onto a stretcher.

We honestly thought he had died.

So they carried him out on a stretcher.

And for whatever reason because the, you know, Madison Square Garden, if you remember the seats are sunk down into the ground.

So in order to get out to an ambulance, they had to walk up the stairs to the crowd.

While they're walking up the stairs, they're carrying him on a stretcher.

And the HBO cameras, HBO had televised the boxing.

- They did.

- The HBO cameras were following him.

They were following the paramedics, walking him up the stairs.

And everybody thought he was dead.

He was out.

All of a sudden, the paramedics started tilting the stretcher by mistake and he almost fell off.

And all of a sudden he woke up, and he said, "What the hell are you doing?"

And it all got caught on camera by HBO.

It was bizarre.

So anyway, my father ended up recovering.

He was okay.

And I remember also at the hospital that night, he stayed the night in the hospital because it ended up being his defibrillator that he had.

It triggered him, and that's what knocked him unconscious in the ring.

But that, just a side note, Rudy Giuliani was the mayor at the time of New York.

He went and visited him and hung out with my father in the middle of the night for about an hour.

But anyway, so it actually changed the whole way boxing events and arenas issue credentials.

- How?

Oh, you mean meaning they would limit the number of credentials - Limited, they started, from that point on, they started doing very strict rules on who can get a credential.

And it wasn't just the Garden, it was every arena.

- Right.

They also required photos from that point on.

And it really changed the way security ran those type of events going forward.

- By the way, I'm sorry for bringing that up.

I was so obsessed by that night and some of us who are old enough to remember it and appreciate it.

But being in New York City that night was wild.

I'll just say this.

Hey, listen, I wanna do this about your dad.

1990, welterweight champion.

He was there in the corner for Meldrick Taylor.

This is just real quick on this, Dino.

Meldrick Taylor fighting Julio Cesar Chavez.

Seconds left Meldrick Taylor about to win the welterweight championship in 1990, two seconds left.

What happens?

Go.

- Meldrick was winning the fight pretty easily.

And there was two seconds left in the fight.

And right before the final bell round sounded, the referee, Richard Steele stepped in and stopped the fight.

Now Chavez was winning that round.

He was punching Meldrick Taylor pretty good, but he stepped in the last second and stopped the fight in Chavez's favor.

And it was a crazy night.

My father went nuts.

We all went nuts.

Richard Steele, as a referee, was never the same after that.

A lot of criticism.

- You know, let me ask you this.

I mean, I'm sorry for those who are asking, why is Adubato so obsessed about these fights?

Again because I'm a fan and I remember them, but talk to us for a minute or so about the... It's not only Italian families like mine that have issues and who's not talking to whom.

And you know where I'm going right away.

When the family's in business together, stuff happens.

Fair to say, Dino?

- It's very fair to say.

- How did the boxing business impact your family and the stress that it put on your dad?

- Well, look, it was always my father's dream.

And he always told people, it was always my father's dream to set the company up where we ran the promotion part of it.

We became the promoter.

When I say we, I mean me, my brother, my sisters, my brother's wife, Kathy was involved, a few other people.

And my father wanted to focus full-time on training and managing the fighters, working with them.

You can't be both.

In the old regulations, you can't be a promoter and a manager.

So (indistinct) was something my father always worked towards, and we accomplished that.

But as a family, it's great working with your family.

You talk about it over Sunday dinner, but things get emotional.

Sometimes, you know, nobody knows the discussions that you have as a family and talking in a very high stress business.

And look, I have no problem talking about it.

My father dreamed of that.

And unfortunately, things ended in a terrible way.

My brother was the president of the company.

I was the vice president of the company.

And in 1996, my brother passed away from brain cancer, and I was named president.

And from there, we had some successful years.

In 1999, 2000, my brother's widow, Kathy, she had taken some time off after my brother passed away to spend time with the kids and just chill out.

And she came back to the company in 1999 and things just kind of fell apart.

On a personal level, without going into too many detail, there ended up being a court case.

- I know.

- The company and the family split up.

- And how did it impact your dad?

- It broke my father's heart 'cause everything he built towards kind of fell apart at that point.

And honestly, he was never the same after that.

Now we stayed in the business.

- Obviously, yep.

- (Indistinct) company, my sister-in-law, Dan's wife, myself, my sister Donna, and my father, we started a new company called Duva Boxing.

You know, we operated for about 10 years.

But the fact that the family business and unity broke up really affected him in a negative way.

- In a few seconds we have left.

Dino, how would you want folks to remember your dad, Lou Duva?

- Well, it was always about family.

I mean, that's an easy one.

Everything with him was family, and all the great times we had together.

There were some negative times.

Unfortunately, some things ended in a bad way, but everything with him was family.

And he always felt like we had two families.

He treated boxers like family also.

And we used to say, I had about 30 brothers who were boxers.

It was always two families.

The boxing family and our blood family.

And that's what he was about.

- Dino Duva, longtime boxing promoter, Lou Duva's son.

We honor, we recognize the great, the iconic, charismatic, and always interesting, fiery, I'm using that word, Dino, Lou Duva.

Hey, Dino, thank you, my friend.

We really appreciate it.

- Great talking to you.

I appreciate it.

- Same here.

I'm Steve Adubato.

This has been "Remember Them" on "One-on-One."

We cannot thank you enough.

And do yourself a favor, Wikipedia, Lou Duva, check him out.

We'll see you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato is a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by The New Jersey Economic Development Authority.

New Jersey Board of Public Utilities.

The Turrell Fund, a foundation serving children.

Newark Board of Education.

Johnson & Johnson.

United Airlines.

Atlantic Health System.

And by Kean University.

Promotional support provided by NJBIA.

And by BestofNJ.com.

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