Bob Santos and the Pero Brothers: A Heavyweight Trifecta

On Aug. 20, 2022, in Hollywood, Florida, two Dominican fighters trained by Bob Santos won world titles. Alberto Puello upset Botirzhon Akhmedov to capture the WBA 140-pound diadem. Hector Luis Garcia wrested the WBA 130-pound title from Roger Guitierrez. (Earlier that year, Garcia scored one of the bigger upsets in recent years when he won a wide decision over previously unbeaten Chris Colbert.)

One might say that Santos hit the Daily Double that night. Now he is pursuing a “double” of a different sort. Named the 2022 Trainer of the Year by ESPN and Sports Illustrated, Santos believes that two of his fighters are future world heavyweight champions.

Meet the Pero brothers, Lenier and Dainier, who, says Santos, are the Cuban version of the Klitschko brothers. Both are former Olympians. Lenier, 32, fought at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio. Dainier, 26, competed in the 2020/21 Summer Games in Japan where he lost on points to eventual silver medalist Richard Torrez Jr, a man he had previously defeated.

The brothers, notes Santos, had different amateur coaches, making their analogous exploits more remarkable. Dainier had the distinction of being the youngest boxer in his weight class to ever make a Cuban Olympic team.

Both are undefeated as pros. Lenier Pero (pictured) advanced his record to 13-0 (8 KOs) on Nov. 1 with a 10-round unanimous decision over England’s Jordan Thompson on a DAZN card in Orlando.

Jordan Thompson was a ringer, although he wasn’t.

In his previous fight, Thompson had been whacked out in four rounds by defending IBF world cruiserweight champion Jai Opetaia, suffering his first defeat after opening his career 15-0. That prompted a 25-month layoff during which the Brit, who stands six-foot-seven, put on 40 pounds of muscle. He was a completely different guy than the scrawny cruiserweight manhandled by Jai Opetaia.

“[Thompson’s promoter and the event’s co-promoter] Eddie Hearn wasn’t too happy with the way things played out,” says Santos with a twinkle in his eye. Hearn thought he had the joker in the deck.

Lenier Pero became persona non grata in Cuba when it became known that he was planning to leave the country, putting his boxing career in limbo. He had a lot of ring rust to shed when he made his pro debut in Germany in May of 2019. He fought twice more in Germany and then in Argentina and Colombia before managerial issues prompted a move to Miami.

A recommendation from Pedro Roque brought Lenier to Bob Santos. A renowned coach within the international amateur boxing community even before defecting from Cuba in 2009, Roque has been a consultant to several national teams (including Team USA) and in recent years has worked with a handful of pros from his base in Miami including former IBF world cruiserweight champion Yuniel Dorticos.

Lenier Pero is currently ranked #2 by the WBA, a notch below British sensation Moses Itauma.

Dainier Pero

Dainier Pero (11-0, 8 KOs) has been with Bob Santos since the very onset of his pro career. He’s built along the lines of his older brother, carrying in the vicinity of 240 pounds on his six-foot-five frame. However, while Lenier is a southpaw, Dainier fights from an orthodox stance.

Dainier Pero

Dainier Pero made his pro debut in December of 2022 at the Outlaw Saloon in wintry Cheyenne, Wyoming, an unlikely place for a Cuban, let alone a former Olympian, to have his first professional fight. Why Cheyenne? “There was an opportunity there, so we took it,” says Santos matter-of-factly.

They were there and gone in a heartbeat. Dainier dismissed his opponent in 81 seconds.

***

Bob Santos, a youthful 54, is no Johnny-come-lately in the fight game, but it’s only in the last few years that the San Jose native has become a household name in the houses of serious boxing fans. And now he’s finally reaping the fruit of his labors, manifested in his new digs.

Santos recently acquired and re-named the gym where Bones Adams hung his hat. (Adams, the former super bantamweight world champion, is still there, training, among others, former two-division title-holder Rances Barthelemy for his forthcoming match with Frank Martin.)

The gym, originally the workshop of a custom glass maker, sits in the rear of a deep backyard behind a spacious, 4-bedroom home in a quiet neighborhood where it shares a wall with a studio apartment. Mirroring to some extent Abel Sanchez’s compound in Big Bear, California, the house will serve as a dormitory for some of Sanchez’s fighters and the apartment will be available to sparring partners.

“I don’t call this place a gym,” says Santos. “I call it a fight camp and it is the only one of its kind for boxers in Las Vegas.”

The sign on the iron gate at the front of the driveway informs passersby that this is a private gym. If one (perhaps both) of the Pero brothers becomes a long-reigning heavyweight champion, he may need to put some barbed wire on that gate to deflect autograph-seekers.

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