Gus Lesnevich: 1940s Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion

Gustav Lesnevich was born in Cliffside Park, New Jersey on February 22, 1915. Known by the shorter, more American name of "Gus," Lesnevich started boxing as a youth and won the Intercity Golden Gloves as a middleweight in 1934. He turned pro later that same year, knocking out a tomato can in Brooklyn.

Lesnevich stood 5'9", and started his career as a 19 year old middleweight. By his early twenties, he had grown into a stocky light heavyweight with a reputation for rugged durability and a hard-punching, brawling style. Lesnevich enjoyed considerable success in his career because he was always willing to mix it up, and an exciting, all-action style like that always puts butts in the seats.

Rise to the Top
Boxing was a different sport in the 1930s, and a rising fighter was rarely the holder of an unblemished, undefeated record. Yet by the standards of the day, Lesnevich suffered few losses. In 1936 and still a middleweight, Lesnevich fought a 24-1-1 fringe contender named Frankie Carris, A rugged fighter of the Philadelphia mold, Carris proved to be an even rougher brawler than Lesnevich was. Carris would have won their March encounter had he not lost points for fouling, with that fight scored as a Draw. The two rising fighters had a rematch in April, and in that encounter Lesnevich prevailed, with Carris shrinking from another trench war with Lesnevich. At an early stage, Gus Lesnevich was already displaying a champion's will to win.

Still, his rise to the top was not all peaches and cream. Later that year, Lesnevich was knocked out by future middleweight champion Freddie Steele, a vastly more experienced veteran with over 100 wins to his name. In March 1937, middleweight contender Young Corbett III (another veteran with over 100 wins on his record) cut Lesnevich and stopped him in the 5th.

After that pair of setbacks, however, Gus Lesnevich's career surged forward. After the Corbett loss, he bounced back a few months later by knocking out fringe contender Johnny "The Bandit" Romero. He then outpointed the Young Stuhley, Alabama Kid and Herbie Katz, In 1938 and 1939, Lesnevich's winning way continued. He beat Lou Brouillard on points, and then traveled to Australia for a string of fights which saw him win decisions over Ambrose Palmer and Bob Olin, and knockout the Alabama Kid in a rematch.

By now, Lesnevich was fighting over the 170 lbs mark and as a full-fledged light heavyweight. Returning to the United States, he defeated Larry Lane and knocked out Dave Clark in one round. Having defeated a string of ranked fighters, Lesnevich was finally in place for a title shot.

Top Contender
In November 1939, Lesnevich met Undisputed World Champion Billy Conn in Detroit. Conn was a masterful boxer who would go on to come within a hair of defeating heavyweight kingpin Joe Louis, and Lesnevich was neither as big or as powerful a puncher as the Brown Bomber. It was a spirited contest, but Conn won a convincing decision.

Lesnevich was stymied. By 1940, he had already beaten most of the light heavyweight boxers worth fighting who were active at the time (the great John Henry Lewis was retired) and Conn was focused on fighting Joe Louis, so big fights were in short supply. As a result, Lesnevich turned to boxing heavyweight journeymen and with some success, although he suffered a loss to Canadian Al Delany.

Champion
Biding his time paid off for Gus Lesnevich. Conn relinquished his crown to make his unsuccessful challenge against Joe Louis. A Greek middleweight, Anton Christoforidis, had picked up the NBA half of the title and was matched against Lesnevich in May 1941 at Madison Square Garden. The thickly muscled, 49-7-5 light heavyweight from New Jersey pounded out a Unanimous Decision over the Greek to become a world champion at age 26.

The New York State championship, representing the other half of the title, had been picked up by Tami Mauriello, a Bronx middleweight. A solid puncher, Mauriello made a real fight of it and held Lesnevich to a Split Decision win. The two scorecards for Lesnevich were razor thin, while the scoring for Mauriello's had him ahead by a margin of 2 to 1. Even so, a win was a win and Gus Lesnevich was now the Undisputed World Light Heavyweight Champion.

A fight like the Mauriello bout led to a rematch three months later, with Lesnevich greatly improving on his performance to win a thumping Unanimous Decision victory and solidify his claim as world champion. Three weeks later, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and America entered the Second World War.

The War Years
Although many fighters avoided military service during the war years and continued their boxing careers, at least as many talented boxers enlisted within months of Pearl Harbor. Lesnevich fought heavyweight contender Bob Pastor in January 1942 and lost a Unanimous Decision. He then fought light heavyweight contender Jimmy "The Cleveland Spider Man" Bivins, and was lucky his title wasn't at stake because he was knocked down in the 2nd and dropped a points loss.

However, soon the world championships were "frozen" for the duration the war, allowing champions to join the military without risk of being stripped of their belts due to inactivity. Gus Lesnevich joined the Coast Guard in 1943 and served until his discharge in 1945.

Post-War Reign
Gus Lesnevich resumed his boxing career in January 1946 as a 52-9-5 fighter just a few weeks shy of his 31st birthday, both rusty and somewhat overweight from years of inactivity. He knocked out his first opponent easily enough, but was in turn stopped by a heavyweight on an ugly cut in what was only the second fight of his comeback.

It therefore did not bode well when Lesnevich traveled to the United Kingdom to defend his title for the very first time since the end of the war, against British contender Freddie Mills. The hard-hitting Lesnevich had to fall back on his rugged, hard-hitting style to win. Mills was also a rough character, and came right at the champion to try to out-brawl him. Lesnevich knocked Mills to the canvas twice in Round 2, but Mills kept coming. Although he at plenty of leather coming on and bulling Lesnevich, Mills was landing more punches and swept most of the rounds of the fight. However, the effort took an enormous toll, and Lesnevich caught and finished Mills in the 10th.

While he was in Britain, Lesnevich fought heavyweight contender Bruce Woodcock and was knocked out in the 8th by a hard right to the jaw. It was the only time the tough Lesnevich was ever knocked out, with all his other stoppages coming from cuts.

Returning to the United States, Lesnevich made his next title defense by fighting Billy Fox (most famous as the man Jake LaMotta took a dive against) at Madison Square Garden. Lesnevich hurt and stopped Fox in a TKO10. It was the start of a roll for Lesnevich, who went on to crush contender Melio Bettina in what was then the fastest knockout ever to take place in Madison Square Garden, followed by a third and fourth bout with Tami Mauriello. Unlike Lesnevich, Mauriello had continued to box through the war years, and had grown into a small heavyweight to boot. The added experience did not seem to matter, though. Lesnevich won a close Unanimous Decision in July 1947, and then knocked him out in October. In March 1948, he fought a rematch with Billy Fox (who had won seven straight fights since their last encounter), and this time knocked him out in a single round.

It was with this solid record of wins that Gus Lesnevich traveled back to Britain to give Freddie Mills a rematch in July 1948. In a severe stroke of misfortune, Mills gashed Lesnevich above both eyes in the very first round of the fight. With blood trickling into his eyes for the entire bout, Lesnevich was unable to fight back hard enough to stem a relentless, swarming assault from Mills. The champ was knocked down, beaten up, and lost the decision and his title.

Aftermath
Lesnevich got on the comeback trail, but failed to make much progress. After knocking out a tomato can in March 1949, the ex-champion lost two back-to-back losses against two great fighters. First he fought Joey Maxim for the vacant "American" Light Heavyweight Title. The bout was competitive, but Lesnevich undoubtedly lost it. Lesnevich then challenged for the heavyweight title (the only time he would do so), then held by the Cincinnati Cobra, Ezzard Charles. A former light heavyweight himself, Charles handed Lesnevich such a beating that his corner threw in the towel in the 7th.

Lesnevich retired after the Charles loss. His record stood at 60-14-5 with 23 KOs. In addition to his worthy reign as World Light Heavyweight Champion, Lesnevich was the Fighter of the Year in 1947.