Pedro Lovell was an
ArgentineArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
heavyweightHeavyweight is a division, or weight class, in boxing. Fighters who weigh over 200 pounds are considered heavyweights by the major professional boxing organizations: the International Boxing Federation, the World Boxing Association, the World Boxing Council, and the World Boxing...
boxerBoxing, 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...
, a
knockoutA knockout is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, Karate and others sports involving striking...
artist with a promising
careerCareer is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as a person's "course or progress through life ". It is usually considered to pertain to remunerative work ....
in the 1970s.
Biography
Lovell was born in
Quilmes, Buenos AiresQuilmes is a city in the . It is the capital of Quilmes Partido , and has a population of 230,810. It is located south of the capital of Argentina, the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires....
, Argentina. His father, Santiago Alberto Lovell, who was brother of
Guillermo LovellGuillermo José Lovell was a boxer Argentine heavyweight, who won the silver medal in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.-Silver Medal in 1936:Guillermo Lovell, aged 18, won the silver medal in the heavyweight category at the 1936 Berlin Olympics...
, came from an English Argentine family, and his mother came from an
Italian ArgentineAn Italian Argentine is a person born in Argentina of Italian ancestry. It is estimated up to 25 million Argentines have some degree of Italian descent...
family. Lovell came from a family of fighters. Pedro also has two brothers, the oldest being Alberto Jr., the other being Domino Ismael Lovell.
Lovell was a citizen of Argentina who decided to make his
professionalA professional is a person who is paid to undertake a specialised set of tasks and to complete them for a fee. The traditional professions were doctors, lawyers, clergymen, and commissioned military officers. Today, the term is applied to estate agents, surveyors , environmental scientists,...
career in the United States. He traveled to
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, where, after only a few fights, he became a big drawing card.
While his brother, Alberto, Jr., was fighting in Argentina and knocking out the likes of Jose Manuel Ibar Urtain, Pedro racked up a string of nine straight knockouts. However, Pedro's career was hampered by physical injuries and prostate problems.
In 1973, Lovell was stunningly upset by
TexanTexas 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...
knockout king Terry Krueger. Lovell had been winning the fight. He bloodied Krueger's nose and seemed headed for an easy stoppage. However, Krueger let go with a wild left hook, and Pedro Lovell's undefeated streak ended. He was unconscious for more than three minutes.
A few months later the pair were rematched, and Lovell broke Krueger's jaw on the way to scoring three knockdowns and a first round victory. Lovell went on to destroy former heavyweight contender Billy Daniels in one round.
Lovell was on the road to a title fight. He played the part of Spider Rico in the movie
Rocky in 1976. He appeared in the The Ring Magazine and on television. He took his impressive record of knockouts into a nationally televised fight with
Ken NortonKenneth Howard Norton Sr. is a former heavyweight boxer. He is best known for his 12-round victory over a peak Muhammad Ali where he famously broke Ali's jaw, on March 31, 1973, becoming only the second man to defeat Ali as a professional .He and Ali...
. However, Norton easily took apart Lovell, knocking him out. A short time later, Lovell dropped a decision to fight unbeaten
Leroy JonesLeroy Jones was a heavyweight boxer who won the NABF heavyweight championship and challenged the great Larry Holmes for the world championship.-Boxing career:...
and announced his retirement.
Lovell was at times referred to as "KO King", "The LA Bomber", "The Jawbreaker", and "One Punch".
Some 30 years after the first Rocky film, Lovell reprised his role as Spider Rico for the film
Rocky BalboaRocky Balboa is the sixth and final film in the Rocky franchise, directed by and starring Sylvester Stallone. The film, which was also written by Stallone who plays underdog boxer Rocky Balboa, is the sixth film in the Rocky series that began with the Academy Award-winning Rocky thirty years...
in 2006. Lovell currently lives in
San Francisco, CaliforniaSan Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
and is an American citizen.
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