Virgil Hunter, Trainer of the Year, Reveals Best Fighter in Ward Family

Published

12 years ago

February 8, 2012

WardAbrahamPrePC Hogan100 His Lordships Restaurant in Berkeley, Ca was the place we met with 2011 Trainer of the Year Virgil Hunter to discuss his life’s work. The retired probation officer and trainer of the 2011 Fighter of the Year Andre Ward, was having lunch facing a backdrop overlooking the San Francisco Bay Bridge with over thirty retired colleagues that also worked in programs to help the troubled youth. Every month, Hunter meets with these old friends to relive old memories and talk shop.

During our visit, Hunter talked of being the generally recognized trainer of the year. In a reflective interview that speaks more of his commitment than accolades do, Hunter shows us where he paid his dues, tells how he broke ground in the fight game, explains the story of the best boxer in the Ward family.

RM: Virgil, congrats on being named the 2011 BWAA Trainer of the Year. What did you think when you heard the news?

VH: I am very thankful. But first, I want to make sure the coaching fraternity that I came up with from 1996 to 2004, guys like Barry Hunter, Leon Lawson, Tony Morrison, Kevin Cunningham, Nazeem Richardson, Joe Sanders, and Don Livingston, get recognition. We grew in a fraternity together. This award is as much for them as it is for me. We had all these world-class amateurs and people would always say when they turn pro somebody else would train them and take them to the next level. But we knew that wasn’t true. So, it’s not just for me, it is for all of them.

RM: How did you start training fighters and why?

VH: I started training fighters when I was working with the probation department. I always knew I could build a fighter. I was always involved in boxing all of my life you know. I never fought professionally but I fought a bit. And I took an apprenticeship course for three or four years, learning different methods from different trainers in the Oakland gyms.

RM: So what did you have to do during your time as an apprentice, carry a bucket?

VH: You carry a bucket. You help with the fighters. You deal with the fighters’ first-hand, help with fight plans. You wrap their hands for them, things of that nature. Basically you see the way these trainers deal with fighters. Each of them had their own way of doing it. As an apprentice, I had a chance to look at the fighters that they had and decide what was successful.

RM: Oakland boxing gyms?

VH: Yeah. I worked at the gyms in Oakland.

RM: Who were some of the trainers you learned from in Oakland?

VH: Guys like Bobby Warren, Jimmie Simmons, Charlie Smith, and Tiger Floyd. These trainers are legends in the Oakland area. They have been doing it for 40 or 50 years.

RM: Did you hit any bumps in the road when you got started on your own?

VH: So when I started, I had a few kids that were undefeated and had good records but I was getting them out of juvenile hall. I would get a few kids to 14-0 or 15-0 and something would always happen. You know, they already had bad habits. They already had outside influences that would conflict with our training. They had a lot of negatives. So it was mentally draining. One time I had a kid really going but then he went to jail for having an affair with his own mother. When that happened I said one promise. If I ever did it again it would be a young kid. I had little patience for older fighters. It had to be a young kid, around nine or ten years old. The goals were to have him successful early so when the temptations came along, he had the conscience to balance it. He had the conscience to stay on the right and know that if he went too far to the left then he would blow all that he built on the right. And it turned out that way when I met Andre.

RM: How old were these older fighters that you speak of?

VH: They were about 17 or 18 years old.

RM: So what does it take to grow from an apprentice to a trainer?

VH: You have to cut your teeth man. You have to take somebody that doesn’t know a left hook from a fish-hook and develop him from scratch. You can’t call the person that paints a house the house builder unless he paved the concrete, raised the foundation, and did the framework.

RM: Are you saying there is a misconception about trainers?

VH: The coaching fraternity is the coaching fraternity. I don’t want to divide it because someone didn’t start the way I started. I am not going to put any coach in a category because people start their apprenticeship in different ways. I’m just saying that I was able to develop a fighter from scratch. I know in my heart that I was always able to do that. And that’s the question you have to ask. ‘Could I develop a kid from scratch?’ It goes deeper than just the physical part of training. There are a lot of things that you have to cope with that goes on outside of boxing.

RM: Like what?

VH: It is about communication. When you are developing a young fighter you deal with a lot of emotions. There is no money on the line, only pride. When there is no money on the line and you see a kid give everything he has to win a trophy you learn different things. It gives you the advantage to look at where you started and learn from your mistakes.

RM: Right. So you started working with Andre Ward when he was nine years old. When did you start feeling like you saw something special?

VH: I knew after six months that if he stayed with it he would be great. I had a great feeling that when we came together it wasn’t for nothing. So I rode with it.

RM: Did you become Andre’s godfather when his father passed away?

VH: No, I was his godfather before his father passed away. There never was a ceremony or anything like that. We just spent a lot of time together. I became a second father to him you know. Godson has more than just a ceremony attached to it. I feel like he is my godson because God sent me another son. And God sent him another father. So it is more of a spiritual connection. We didn’t need a ceremony to confirm that title.

RM: OK. Did you have any doubts with Andre as a fighter? I mean, you spent a lot of time with the kid growing up. Did you ever feel like ‘man, what if this kid doesn’t pan out?’

VH: I had other fighters. I had Andre’s brother Jonathan. He was an amateur national champion with a record of 56-4. Jonathan is well-known in that fraternity. Actually, to be real about it, he had more talent than Andre.

RM: Yeah?

VH: Yeah. But he didn’t like to train. He won tournaments until he was 16. Then he wanted to do other things. But when he stopped he was 56-4. I had Karim Mayfield and Antawn Hicks as amateurs as well.

RM: Well, how did you know you were on the right path with Andre? We have talked in the past about some trainers getting a lack of respect. How did you know you were doing the right thing with Andre?

VH: Because I loved what I was doing and he made boxing fun. He had the same commitment as I did. So I was all the way in.

RM: Now, after all you have been through, you are the 2011 BWAA Trainer of the Year. Does it get any better than this?

VH: Well, it is a tremendous honor. And I’ll just say the goal is to shoot for the moon because if I miss I am still among the stars.

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Raymond Markarian

The Murder of Samuel Teah Calls to Mind Other Boxers Who Were Homicide Victims

Published

2 days ago

November 27, 2023

Arne K. Lang

The-Murder-of-Samuel-Teah-Calls-to-Mind-Other-Boxers-Who-Were-Homicide-Victims

There will be a boxing show this Friday at Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena, a low-budget card featuring the return of former IBF 130-pound world title-holder Tevin Farmer. During the event, there will assuredly be a somber moment when those in attendance stand and silently pay homage to Samuel Teah as the timekeeper tolls the traditional 10-bell farewell. Teah passed away last week on Black Friday, Nov. 24, another victim of America’s epidemic of gun violence. He was 36 years old.

Teah was shot in the mid-afternoon during an altercation that spilled onto the sidewalk of a street in Wilmington, Delaware, and died at a Wilmington hospital. As of this writing, there’s been no arrest, but the shooting was apparently not random. A bus driver for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority, Teah was purportedly in Wilmington (roughly 35 miles from his home in Philadelphia) to visit the mother of his child.

Samuel Teah fought as recently as this past May when he suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of journeyman Andrew Rodgers at a show in Pennsylvania’s Newton Township, reducing his record to 19-5-1. Two months earlier he had spoiled the undefeated record of Enriko Gogokhia, an Egis Klimas fighter (think Oleksandr Usyk and Vasily Lomachenko) on a card in Ontario, California. This embellished his reputation as a spoiler. Earlier in his career, he had spoiled the undefeated record of O’Shaquie Foster, winning an 8-round unanimous decision over the man that currently reigns as the WBC world super featherweight champion.

What made Teah’s death more tragic, if that were possible, were all the tragedies that he had overcome. He was born in Liberia when that country was embroiled in a civil war. The family escaped to a refugee camp in Ghana and eventually reached the United States, settling first in New York and then Philadelphia. On the day after Christmas in 2008, when Teah was 21 and working at a Home Depot, he lost six members of his family in a fire that swept his mother’s West Philadelphia duplex after a kerosene heater exploded.

For some, Teah’s violent death may call to mind the murder of another Philadelphia boxer, Tyrone Everett.

That’s an awkward comparison.

Tyrone Everett was a world-class fighter. Six months before he was shot dead by his girlfriend in May of 1977, Everett, then 34-0, lost a 15-round split decision to Puerto Rico’s Alfredo Escalera in a failed bid to win Escalera’s WBC junior lightweight title, a decision so rancid that it stands among the worst decisions of all time. Moreover, the circumstances of Everett’s murder were sordid. His girlfriend, no stranger to the police, fatally shot him after finding him with a transvestite and there was heroin in the apartment they shared. (Editor’s note: For more on this incident, check out the new book by TSS contributor Sean Nam: “Murder on Federal Street: Tyrone Everett, the Black Mafia, Fixed Fights, and the Last Golden Age of Philadelphia Boxing” available on Amazon).

Samuel Teah was no Tyrone Everett. A man of deep faith, Sam’s positive attitude, despite all his tribulations, was infectious. “Everyone liked Teah,” said prominent Philadelphia sports journalist Joe Santoliquito who, upon hearing of Teah’s death, tweeted, “he will always have a special place in my heart.”

While the circumstances are different in every case, Teah joins a long list of boxers who met a violent death. If we limit the list to fighters who were still active at the time of their passing, here are four that jump immediately to mind.

Stanley Ketchel

The fabled Michigan Assassin, Ketchel met his maker on Oct. 15, 1910, at a ranch in Conway, Missouri. In the immortal words of John Lardner, “Stanley Ketchel was twenty-four years old when he was fatally shot in the back by the common-law husband of the lady who was cooking his breakfast.”

Battling Siki

Famed for knocking out Georges Carpentier when the “Orchid Man” held the world light heavyweight title, Siki was only 28 years old when he was gunned down in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan on Dec. 15, 1925, but by then the Senegal-born Frenchman had already degenerated into a trial horse. Siki’s body was found in the middle of the street with two bullets in his back fired at close range by an assailant, never identified, who was thought to be avenging a beating he suffered at one of the speakeasies that Siki was known to frequent.

Oscar Bonavena

At age 33, Oscar Bonavena was still an active boxer when he was gunned down on May 22, 1976, on the outskirts of Reno, Nevada, at the front gate of the infamous Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel. Bonavena had come up short in his biggest fights, losing a 15-round decision to Joe Frazier and losing by TKO in the 15^th round to Muhammad Ali, but the rugged Argentine was still a major player in the heavyweight division.

The shooter was a bodyguard for the brothel’s owner Joe Conforte, and rumor has that Conforte was the de facto triggerman, having Bonavena assassinated because the boxer was having an affair with Conforte’s 59-year-old wife Sally who was also Bonavena’s manager of record at this point in the boxer’s career. The story about it spawned “Love Shack,” a 2010 movie that despite a seemingly can’t-miss storyline and a formidable cast (Joe Pesci played Joe and Helen Mirren played Sally) proved to be a box-office dud.

Vernon Forrest

While all homicides are tragic, some are more distressing than others and the death of Vernon Forrest on July 25, 2009, was particularly gut-wrenching. Forrest was shot twice in the back by would-be robbers with whom he exchanged gunfire on July 25, 2009 at a gas station in Atlanta.

Forget the fact that Forrest was a two-division title-holder who had regained the WBC world super welterweight title in his most recent fight with a lopsided decision over Sergio Mora. Few in the sport were as widely admired. His philanthropic work included establishing group homes in Atlanta for the mentally disabled. His death came just two weeks after the death of Arturo Gatti who left the sport following a loss by TKO to Alfonso Gomez in July of 2007 and died under suspicious circumstances at age 37 at a hotel in Brazil.

We here at The Sweet Science send our condolences to Samuel Teah’s family and loved ones. May he rest in peace.

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Benavidez Dismantles Andrade: Will Canelo Be Next?

Published

4 days ago

November 25, 2023

Arne K. Lang

Benavidez-Dismantles-Andrade-Will-Canelo-Be-Next?

SHOWTIME aired its final pay-per-view event tonight with a show that aired from Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. The four-fight PPV card included world title fights in the 140 and 130-pound divisions, plus an interim title fight at 168 and the return of former two-division title-holder Jarmall Charlo. The interim title fight was a battle of unbeatens between David Benavidez and Demetrius “Boo Boo” Andrade and that was the featured attraction.

Benavidez, 26, is big for the weight class and lived up to his new nickname, “El Monstro.” He had too much firepower for the 35-year-old Andrade, a 2008 Beijing Olympian who began his pro career at 154 and had won world titles in two lower weight classes. His big moment came in the waning seconds of round four when he knocked Andrade to his knees with a sweeping right hand. The fight turned brutally one-sided at that point although one of the judges had Benavidez ahead by only one point when the sixth round ended. But there would be no seventh round. Andrade’s corner wisely stopped the fight.

A consensus 7/2 favorite in man-to-man betting, Benavidez (28-0, 24 KOs) began his pro career in Mexico at age 16. In his post-fight interview, he called out Canelo Alvarez while brashly predicting that he would be a legend before he left the sport (and you’ll get no argument from this corner). It was the first pro loss for Andrade (32-1).

Co-Feature

Jermall Charlo returned to the ring after a 29-month absence and scored a lopsided 10-round decision over Jose Benavidez Jr. The judges had it 100-90, 99-91, and 98-92.

This bout was slated for the catch-weight of 163 pounds. Charlo came in overweight (166.4) but the match went ahead. Benavides Jr, a world title challenger during his days as a welterweight, had his moments, but was outclassed by Charlo who advanced his record to 33-0 (22). Benavidez falls to 28-3-1.

Matias-Ergashev

In what shaped up as the most action-packed fight of the night, 31-year-old Puerto Rican Subriel Matias retained his IBF 140-pound title, battering Shohjahon Ergashev into submission in a match that was halted by Ergashev’s corner two seconds into the sixth round. The heavy-handed Ergashev, who was undefeated heading in, dominated the first round-and-a-half, but Matias (20-1, 20 KOs) gradually wore him down.

Matias, who avenged his lone defeat to Petros Ananyan with a dominant showing in the rematch, had become something of a forgotten man in the talent-rich 140-pound weight class, but tonight he showed that he belongs among the elite in the division. It was the first pro loss for Egrashev (23-1, 20 KOs), a southpaw from Uzbekistan who fights out of Detroit and had SugarHill Steward (formally Javan “Sugar” Hill) in his corner.

Garcia-Roach

In the pay-per-view opener, Lamont Roach (24-1-1, 9 KOs) wrested the WBA 130-pound title from Hector Garcia (16-2) with a well-earned split decision. The judges had it 116-111 and 144-113 for Roach with the dissenter favoring Garcia 114-113.

A 32-year-old Dominican southpaw, Garcia was making the first defense of the title he won from Roger Gutierrez, a belt he was allowed to keep after moving up to lightweight to challenge Gervonta Davis, a bout he lost on a ninth-round stoppage. Roach, an underdog in the betting making his first start in 16 months, had come up short in a previous world title fight, losing a decision to Jamel Herring in 2019.

Roach was trailing on two of the scorecards through 10 rounds in what had been a ho-hum fight. But he cranked up the juice in the homestretch, rocking Garcia in the 11^th and flooring him with a right hook in the final stanza. Take away that knockdown (an illegal punch as it landed behind Roach’s head), and Garcia would have retained his belt with a draw.

Non-PPV

In his first start at 140 pounds, Puerto Rico’s Michel Rivera rebounded from his first pro loss (a wide decision at the hands of Frank Martin) with a unanimous 10-round decision over Sergey Lipinets. The judges had it 96-94 and 97-93 twice. Rivera, who improved to 25-1 (14) patterns his style and his persona after Muhammad Ali with whom he bears a strong facial resemblance.

It was the first fight in 16 months for the 34-year-old Lipinets (17-3-1), from SoCal via Kazakhstan. He rarely took a backward step but it wasn’t effective aggression.

In the opener on Showtime’s YouTube channel. 21-year-old super welterweight Vito Mielnicki Jr, now trained by Ronnie Shields, scored the best win of his career, advancing to 16-1 (11 KOs). The pride of Vineland, NJ, Mielnicki had Alexis Salazar on the canvas three times before the match was halted at the 2:27 mark of the opening stanza. Guadalajara’s Salazar (25-6) had been stopped only once previously.

Photo credit: Amanda Westcott / SHOWTIME

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Katie Taylor Turns the Tables on Chantelle Cameron in a Dublin Blockbuster

Published

4 days ago

November 25, 2023

David A. Avila

Katie Taylor Turns the Tables on Chantelle Cameron in a Dublin Blockbuster

Underdogs win too.

Katie Taylor changed tactics and changed the outcome to defeat her conqueror Chantelle Cameron by majority decision and become undisputed super lightweight champion on Saturday.

“Two weight undisputed champion, that sounds great,” said Taylor.

It took six months but the sold-out crowd in Dublin, Ireland saw Taylor (23-1) avenge a loss to Cameron (18-1) and re-assume her position as one of the leaders of the female fight world.

It was a different Taylor who returned to Ireland and this time she brought changes against the younger, stronger Cameron that proved effective.

At first it looked grim for Taylor who resumed her style of speed combinations and was met with jolting left jabs from Cameron. One jab actually delivered Taylor to the canvas but a slip of the foot was caught by the referee.

In the second round Taylor showed her cards.

Using her speed and agility, Taylor used her own jabs and movement to score and then would suddenly clinch both arms. And in between clinches, quick uppercuts and rights scored.

It was the recipe used by the Irish fighter for the remainder of the fight.

The change in tactics by Taylor took away Cameron’s most effective weapon, her strong left jab. Unable to use that weapon, she dove in looking to use her strength and was butted by Taylor in the third round. A deep bloody gash on the forehead of Cameron formed quickly.

Cameron never quit attacking and finally found success in the fourth and fifth rounds with pounding body shots. It seemed to slow her opponent down, who had been busier until the body attack slowed her volume.

Both tried their best to control the rounds. Taylor used her hit-and-clinch recipe while Cameron pounded the body and used her strength inside. The best round erupted in the seventh as both unleashed wicked combinations and uppercuts.

The crowd roared its approval.

All that furious action seemed to drain Taylor and allowed Cameron to overpower her with body shots in the eighth. It also forced Taylor to grab Cameron every time she got close. It became so obvious that the referee warned Taylor to stop holding.

A tired Taylor seemed ready to be taken over, but somehow she mustered enough energy to sling quick combos and clinch. Cameron tried avoiding the clinches but was not able to find a solution.

Taylor closed out the fight with speed combinations as Cameron looked to end the fight with one big blow that never arrived. A spent Taylor looked relieved at the final bell as Cameron could not land the big one.

After 10 rounds one judge scored it 95-95 while two others saw it 98-92 and 96-94 for Taylor who becomes undisputed super lightweight champion.

“Whoever wrote me off you don’t know me very well,” said Taylor. “Tonight, you saw the real me. When I’m boxing no one can beat me.”

The win by Taylor sets up a trilogy with Cameron.

“I don’t think there has ever been a trilogy in women’s boxing. This would be the first,” said Taylor.

2024 look out.

Nicolson Wins

Australia’s Skye Nicolson (9-0) controlled every round over Sweden’s Lucy Wildheart (10-3) by hitting and moving against the slow-moving fighter and eventually won by stoppage in the ninth round to retain an interim featherweight title.

Nicolson proved too fast and agile for Wildheart who seemed a second slower and was punished by counter shots. Eventually a bloody nose forced Wildheart’s corner to stop the fight at 1:11 of the ninth round.

The speedy featherweight Nicolson is the number one contender for undisputed champion Amanda Serrano.

Other Bouts

Ireland’s Gary Cully (17-1, 10 KOs) won by split decision over Reece Mould (18-2, 6 KOs) to return to the victory column after suffering a knockout loss six months ago in the same arena.

Cully, a tall lightweight, started slowly but soon found his rhythm and used uppercuts and movement to offset the hard-charging Mould. There were no knockdowns in the back-and-forth battle with two judges favoring Cully 97-93, 96-93 and one for Mould 97-93.

“I’m back baby and it feels good,” said Cully who was stopped by Mexico’s Jose Felix six months ago.

Speed southpaw Paddy Donovan (12-0, 9 KOs) knocked out Danny Ball (13-2-1) in their welterweight clash with a left to the body in the fourth round. He first dropped Ball with an overhand left during an exchange.

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