Pete Nebo: Boxing Career and Later Life
Pete Nebo, also known as Kid Indian, was a Cuba-born boxer associated with Key West, Florida. BoxRec identifies his birth name as Pedro Nebot and records his death on August 18, 1972, aged 62. His career included competition across several weight divisions and a junior-welterweight championship challenge against Barney Ross in 1934.
Career and championship record
Nebo appeared in The Ring’s world rankings before that title opportunity. BoxRec records him as the magazine’s fifth-ranked featherweight in 1928 and fifth-ranked junior lightweight in 1929. Ross defeated him on points in Kansas City on February 7, 1934. The championship challenge therefore came after his recognition in two lighter divisions.
His surviving fight ledger also includes a points defeat against Tony Canzoneri in Kansas City in March 1934. In Philadelphia the following month, Nebo defeated Tony Falco before losing their return meeting. His international schedule included appearances in Havana as well as contests in France and Spain, illustrating the geographical range of his professional work.
The final seven entries in the compiled ledger are defeats. They include Kid Chocolate and Joe Coego in Havana during 1935, followed by Battling Battalino, Bushy Graham, Milt Aron and Charley Gomer in 1936. The last listed contest was a technical-knockout loss to Norment Quarles at Atlantic Beach on June 26, 1936.
Nebo later became a patient at Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee. Accounts differ on the admission date: Joseph R. Svinth’s biography of Manuel Velazquez gives September 1938, while BoxRec gives January 1940. BoxRec also cites the 1940 census as recording Pedro Nebot at the hospital. That disagreement should remain visible rather than being resolved by assumption.
Svinth describes Nebo as a friend of Velazquez, whose subsequent collection of boxing-injury reports informed his campaign against the sport. That history connects Nebo’s later circumstances with an important boxing-safety archive. It does not independently establish a medical explanation for his illness or identify the effect of any particular contest.
Sources
Additional sources: https://boxerlist.com/boxer/pete-nebo/8577; https://www.ejmas.com/jcs/velazquez/velazquezbio.html
Additional sources: https://boxrec.com/wiki/index.php/Pete_Nebo
