Pedro Lovell (born June 9, 1945) is a retired Argentine heavyweight boxer, a knockout artist with a promising career in the 1970s. He played the part of Spider Rico in the 1976 movie Rocky, whose boxing image was also used in the 1988 arcade video game of the same name and the 2004 PlayStation 2 video game. Pedro also appeared as a more aged Spider Rico in the 2006 Rocky Balboa film, who, after becoming friends with Rocky and Paulie, was working in the kitchen of Adrian's, Rocky's Italian restaurant in South Philadelphia.
Biography[]
Lovell was born in Quilmes, Buenos Aires, Argentina. His father, Santiago Alberto Lovell, who was brother of former boxer Guillermo Lovell, came from an Afro-Argentine, English Argentine family, and his mother came from an Italian Argentine family.[1] Lovell came from a family of fighters. Pedro also has two brothers, the oldest being Alberto Jr., the other being Domingo Ismael Lovell.
Lovell was a citizen of Argentina who decided to make his professional career in the United States. He traveled to California, 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 Texan 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 1976 movie Rocky. He appeared in the The Ring magazine and on television. He took his impressive record of knockouts into a nationally televised fight with Ken Norton. However, Norton easily took apart Lovell, knocking him out. A short time later, Lovell dropped a decision to fight unbeaten Leroy Jones and announced his retirement.
Lovell was at times referred to as "KO King", "The LA Bomber", "The Jawbreaker", and "One Punch".[2]
Some 30 years after the first Rocky film, Lovell reprised his role as Spider Rico for the film Rocky Balboa in 2006. Lovell currently lives in San Jose, California and is an American citizen.
References[]
External links[]
- Professional boxing record for Pedro Lovell from BoxRec
- Pedro Lovell at the Internet Movie Database
- MSN Profile