Lou Savarese
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Lou Savarese (born July 14, 1965) is a boxer from Houston, Texas, whose boxing career has been filled with unusual circumstances.
Savarese, a Heavyweight contender, began his professional boxing career on April 30, 1989, knocking out James Smith (not the former world Heavyweight champion) in four rounds at Galveston, Texas. Savarese's first win by first round knockout came on his second fight, against Terrence Roberts, on May 25, at Atlantic City.
Savarese won his first eight fights by knockout. On April 19, 1990, Savarese was forced to fight an entire boxing fight for the first time, when he defeated Mike Robinson in Poughkeepsie, New York by a six round decision. He proceeded to win his next seven fights by knockout, and, in 1991, Kayo boxing cards published a trading card featuring Savarese.
On September 20 of that year, he and Robinson had a rematch, with Savarese knocking Robinson out in the fourth round. His next fight, against Mike Faulkner on November 26, at White Plains, New York, resulted in a five round disqualification win for Savarese.
Savarese ran his record to 36-0, with 30 knockouts, but he was a relatively unknown fighter: apart from the 1991 Kayo boxing trading card, no other type of media attempted to make Savarese's name a household one, partly because of the type of opposition he had met. Of Savarese's thirty six opponents, none was known to most boxing fans. So the Savarese management team came with an ingenious, and not very often seen, way to draw the public's attention towards Savarese: a Lou Savarese fan club was created, and, by the middle 1990s, the fan club was being advertised on major boxing magazines, such as Ring and KO. The advertisement offered free membership to anyone, and promised free personalized, autographed photos to each new member.
The idea worked, and Savarese was next faced with his first relatively known opponent, Buster Mathis Jr.. This fight was for the NABF's vacant regional Heavyweight title, and Savarese won the title on November 1, 1996, by knocking Mathis out in round seven, at Indio, California.
Next was a major fight against former two time world Heavyweight champion George Foreman. The fight was held on April 26, 1997, in Atlantic City. It was Savarese's HBO Boxing television show's debut, and for the widely unrecognized WBU "world Heavyweight title". While Savarese lost for the first time, he nevertheless impressed boxing critics and fans, many of whom felt he deserved the split decision that was given to Foreman. Savarese lost by scorecards of 110-118, 112-115 and a favorable 114-113.
Based on his performance against Foreman, the outcome of his next fight, against David Izon on November 1, was considered to be a mild upset. Savarese and Izon fought at New York's famed Apollo Theater, and Savarese suffered his first knockout defeat, when Izon beat him in five rounds.
But Savarese would rebound by scoring two important wins: on April 23, 1998, he defeated Jeff Lally by a knockout in round two at the Sheraton Hotel in Houston, and then, on June 25, he scored what was arguably his biggest career win, beating James Douglas, a former world Heavyweight champion and the first man to beat Mike Tyson, by knockout in the first round of a Pay Per View televised fight, to pick the also widely unrecognized IBA's "world" Heavyweight title. Savarese, it should be clarified, is not considered to be a former world champion by the vast majority of boxing experts.
After that, he fought only twice in 1999, winning a split decision over then prospect Lance "Mount" Whitaker and losing by ten round decision against future Lennox Lewis world championship challenger Michael Grant, on June 19 at New York's Madison Square Garden.
More than one year later, on June 24, 2000, Savarese had his first fight abroad, when he faced Tyson in Glasgow, Scotland. Savarese was knocked out thirty eight seconds into the first round by Tyson, but not before Tyson accidentally sent referee John Coyle to the floor, almost knocking the referee out with a punch to the back of his head. The punch was geared towards Savarese and, apart from the referee's fall, no further consequences came from it. This fight was televised to the United States by Showtime.
Savarese remained active, and, after two wins, he fought for another regional Heavyweight title, beating David Bostice on November 2, 2001 by a twelve round decision to capture the IBO's continental Heavyweight title.
Another major win for Savarese came when, on September 22, 2002, he beat former two time world Heavyweight champion Tim Witherspoon, who had faced Larry Holmes, Greg Page and Pinklon Thomas, among others, by a knockout in round five at Friant, California, to win the WBO's vacant, regional intercontinental Heavyweight championship.
On March 15, 2003, he lost the title to former John Ruiz world title challenger Kirk Johnson, who knocked Savarese out in four rounds at Dallas.
Attempting to win another regional Heavyweight title, Savarese fought Leo Nolan, for the IBA's vacant Americas Heavyweight title, but he lost to Nolan by a twelve round unanimous decision on May 7, 2004. While he has not fought professionally since then, he has not officially announced a retirement from boxing.
His record stands at 43 wins and 6 losses, with 35 wins by knockout.
Savarese is trained by Jesse Reid, who survived a shooting in 1984 when another of his boxers, former WBC world Jr. Welterweight champion Bruce Curry shot him two days after losing to Billy Costello.
Lou Savarese was scheduled to enter the ring on October 22, 2005 against 40-year-old Ron Bellamy. The fight was to take place at Silent Farm in Goshen, NY to raise money for the family of former Chester resident Lou Allen, with all of his purse going to First Lt. Allen's widow and four children. [1] However, an injury to Savarese's left biceps forced the cancellation of the bout [2].
Lou Savarese returned to the ring on March 18, 2006 stopping Marcus Rhode in two rounds at Convention Center in Fort Smith, Arkansas. His record now stands at 44-6-36 ko's.
