Black Belt magazine recently did an extended profile on retired fighter, prolific promoters, and lifelong student of the martial arts, Lou Neglia, It began when Lou witnesses a “Karate vs. Kung Fu” demonstration in the late promoted by Aaron Banks Neglia started training in American Karate under Warren Siciliano, who was already known for training undefeated heavyweight boxing champ Rocky Marciano.
Inspired by Full Contact Karate/Kickboxing pioneer Joe Louis, Neglia determined to become a professional fighter himself, despite misgivings on the part of his father, who ended up being his greatest fan. In 1972 he founded Neglia Karate Academy on Avenue U in Brooklyn, New York, where he continues to teach to this day. In 1980 Neglia won a World Kickboxing Championship in Madison Square Garden, was named fighter of the year in 1984, and retired in 1985 with a record of 34-2. Neglia would also continue to expand on his knowledge as a martial artist, training in Japanese Goju, American Goju, Ju Jitsu, Muay Thai, Wing Chun, and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Lou views teaching as a two-way street.
“I’ve trained many disabled children over the years, and there’s one specific time that sticks out,” he explains. “I’d just finished a session when the child’s mom came over to thank me. She began telling me all the ways I had helped her son and changed his life, but I stopped her and told her how it was really the other way around. Her son had helped me more than I could express to her and forever changed my outlook on life. We all have bad days and want to complain or think life is against us, but then you meet these children with all the odds against them and they are there smiling and learning martial arts in spite of it all. It gives you a whole new sense of gratitude and appreciation.”
Teaching is not Neglia’s sole route to giving back. He went on to become one of the biggest and most successful fight promoters in New York and New Jersey by creating one of the pioneer promotions in mixed martial arts, Ring of Combat. Starting with kickboxing, Lou Neglia started holding events in New York and Atlantic City.
Through his years of training in different disciplines, Neglia recognized that the UFC and this emerging sport of NHB (short for “no holds barred” and eventually called MMA) was something that had staying power, even though it would still take another decade before it would become more widely accepted. In the summer of 2000, during one of his kickboxing shows Neglia held the first sanctioned MMA fight in New Jersey, which was the first state to legalize the sport. In order to get the fight sanctioned, he worked closely with New Jersey’s Athletic Commissioner Larry Hazzard and his Deputy Commissioner Nick Lembo to help create the first sanctioned MMA rule set in the country. Neglia’s MMA promotion, Ring of Combat, has gone on to hold over 70 events and has sent well over 150 fighters to the UFC, Bellator, and other top-tier MMA promotions.
After all these years, Neglia’s passion for the martial arts is still strong and he is still as active as he has ever been. Whether working at his desk to prepare for a new ROC show, or teaching at his school which is still there on Avenue U in Brooklyn, you can find Grandmaster Louis Neglia guiding future generations of martial artists down the same path that changed his life. As he likes to say, “pursuing your passion is one of life’s greatest pleasures,” and Lou Neglia has done exactly that.
Read entire article by Matt Culley for Black Belt magazine …
