Haymon Boxing on Spike

Published

10 years ago

March 16, 2015

The rollout of Premier Boxing Champions continued on March 13 with Haymon Boxing’s inaugural show on Spike.

First the fights, which were contested at Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California.

Shawn Porter (24-1-1, 15 KOs) was coming off a majority-decision loss to Kell Brook, but had impressive victories over Paulie Malignaggi and Devon Alexander in his two fights immediately preceding that defeat.

Roberto Garcia was the intended ‘B-side” opponent. But Garcia failed to appear at the weigh-in and was replaced by Erick Bone of Ecuador. To make Bone’s task more difficult, he was called upon to take a long flight to California one day before the bout. Porter stopped him at 2:30 of round five in a lackluster fight.

Then, despite the fact that it was Friday the 13th, Premier Boxing Champions had a stroke of luck. Because Porter-Bone ended early, Chris Arreola vs. Curtis Harper was inserted in the telecast as a swing bout.

Arreola entered the ring weighing 262 pounds, 23 more than for his last fight. Harper was a blubbery 265. The assumption was that Curtis would get whacked out early. He’s a club fighter who was taken the distance by Jamal Woods (5 wins in 21 fights) in his last outing, a six-round bout in Arkansas. That assumption was further bolstered in round one when Harper was decked by a right hand and rose on wobbly legs, looking like 265 pounds of Jell-O.

But Arreola was woefully out of shape. And Harper had the mindset, if not the skills, of a good fighter. The bout devolved into two huge guys staggering each other back and forth in what resembled a barroom brawl highlighted by a POP-CRASH-POW seventh round. Arreola won a 76-75, 77-74, 78-73 decision, the latter score being a bit too kind to Chris. It did not speak well for his showing that he was pushed to the limit by a nomadic clubfighter. But it was highly entertaining television.

Then came the main event: Andre Berto (29-3, 22 KOs) vs. Josesito Lopez (33-6, 19 KOs).

Berto is Exhibit A for how Al Haymon was allowed to distort the decision-making process at HBO in an earlier era. Andre was a two-time national Golden Gloves champion, a bronze medalist at the 2003 World Amateur Championships, and a 2004 Olympian (representing Haiti as a consequence of his father’s dual citizenship). He turned pro in 2004, and was ESPN’s 2006 “prospect of the year.” Thereafter, Berto was on HBO too many times against soft opponents for inflated license fees with less-than-enthusiastic viewer response. No longer a “star of the future,” he entered the ring on March 13 having won two fights since 2010.

Lopez is a game fighter who has trouble getting by world-class opposition. He beats the guys he should beat and loses to the fighters that he’s expected to lose to. His marketability was built on a 2012 outing against Victor Ortiz in which Ortiz (ahead on points) retired after nine rounds because of a broken jaw. In Josesito’s next two fights, he was knocked out by Canelo Alvarez and Marcos Maidana.

Berto-Lopez was a fast-paced spirited fight. Lopez was ahead on the scorecards in round six, when Andre landed a sharp right hand that staggered Josesito. Then Berto hit him again, and Lopez went down. He rose, was knocked down for the second time, and referee Raul Caiz Jr. stopped the fight.

Insofar as the production of Premier Boxing Champions on Spike is concerned, the most readily apparent difference from PBC’s fights on NBC is the announcing team.

Dana Jacobson, a former ESPN Sports Center anchor who has hosted a variety of sports radio and television shows, opened the Spike telecast. Later in the evening, she was paired with Thomas Hearns. Hearns was a great fighter. He’s not a great commentator.

Scott Hanson, known primarily for his work as an NFL Network host, was the blow-by-blow announcer. Jimmy Smith (a veteran of Spike’s Bellator MMA telecasts) and Antonio Tarver (an expert analyst for Showtime Boxing before he tested positive for illegal performance-enhancing drugs) served as analysts. Nigel Collins had an off-camera role, unofficially scoring the fights.

Smith made the most credible commentating contributions to the telecast. When Hanson told viewers that Bone was in shape to fight Porter because he’d been working in the gym, Smith correctly noted, “There’s no such thing as fighting shape if you’re not getting ready for a fight.” (EDITOR NOTE: Bone in fact was getting ready for a fight, sometime in April, against foe TBD.) Smith also picked up nicely on an apparent ankle injury suffered by Bone just before he was stopped by Porter. There should have been a follow-up on Bone’s medical condition later in the telecast but wasn’t.

Overall, the announcing team devoted too much energy trying to sell the concept of Premier Boxing Champions. Phrases like “a new era in boxing” and “a new day for boxing” were repeated more than necessary. If the fights are good, viewers will figure it out. If the fights are bad, viewers will figure that out too.

A few more observations . . .

The fighters’ ringwalk music written by Hans Zimmer isn’t effective. I know it’s branding for PBC. But it takes away from the individuality of the fighters and has the homogeneous feel of a television game show. Ditto for the staged visuals of the combatants walking to the ring. That kind of entrance works for Wladimir Klitschko because he’s Wladimir Klitschko. None of the fighters we’ve seen so far on Premier Champions Boxing has a legitimate claim to being King of the World.

As with the March 7 NBC telecast, the ring announcer and roundcard girls were out of sight on Spike.

Once again, there was no mob in the ring before and after each fight. Once again, thank you, Al Haymon.

The 360-degree overhead ring camera was used less often on Spike than on the NBC telecast. In this instance, less is better.

As was the case on March 7, the ring ropes were black instead of red, white, and blue. That effectively highlighted the fighters.

PBC also introduced a new toy on the Spike telecast: a miniature camera installed on a headband worn by referee Jack Reiss during the first fight of the night. But contrary to its billing, the “ref cam” didn’t show viewers “what the referee sees” because it follows the referee’s forehead, not the referee’s eyes.

Where broader business issues are concerned; the past week has seen a flurry of press releases and comments by interested parties on all sides regarding PBC’s March 7 NBC telecast. Many of these statements have been evocative of the spin-doctoring that follows a presidential debate.

If Keith Thurman vs. Robert Guerrero is a “fight of the year” candidate, then 2015 will be a bad year for boxing. Guerrero won two rounds at most and was outlanded 211-to-104. He fought courageously and there was drama in round nine as to whether or not he’d survive. But boxing fans aren’t calling for a rematch.

The key talking points regarding the NBC telecast have revolved around ratings (which will dictate how much advertising is sold in the future – which, in turn, will be crucial to the success or failure of Haymon Boxing).

Team Haymon sent out a press release that declared, “The PBC on NBC telecast averaged 3.4 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched professional boxing broadcast in 17 years (“Oscar De La Hoya’s Fight Night” on FOX, 5.9 million, March 23, 1998).”

This implied to the uninitiated that De La Hoya fought on March 23, 1998. He didn’t. It was a Top Rank show, and the main event was Yory Boy Campas versus Anthony Stephens. Oscar (who was then with Top Rank) lent his name to the promotion.

Also, on October 15, 2005, NBC televised a live fight card headlined by Sergio Mora versus Peter Manfredo that drew 8,000,000 viewers. But Team Haymon and NBC say that doesn’t count because the telecast was the finale of a TV reality show.

Let’s put these numbers in perspective.

On May 11, 1977, Ken Norton fought Duane Bobick on NBC on a Wednesday evening in prime-time. As reported by Carlos Acevedo, that fight earned a 42% audience share and was watched by 48,000,000 people.

Obviously, those were different times. So let’s leave it at this for the moment. The advertisers will sort out the ratings. Either the audience for PBC will grow or it won’t. Boxing fans should hope that it does. But significant growth won’t be easy to accomplish.

The mainstream media is drooling over Mayweather-Pacquiao. Television networks, Internet sites, newspapers, and magazines that haven’t covered boxing for years will be on hand. But that might not translate into broader support.

By way of example; on March 7, the New York Times sports section listed fifty “TV highlights” for that day in its “Sports Calendar.” Premier Boxing Champions on NBC was not among them. Nor did the Times list PBC’s Spike card among the more than thirty “TV highlights” on its March 13 sports calendar.

And a few more thoughts in closing . . .

Berto-Lopez was for the “interim WBA world welterweight” title. Mercifully, that wasn’t mentioned during the Spike telecast. Also, had Haymon chosen to do so, he could have found a belt for Porter and Bone to fight for. He didn’t.

Ignoring the belts on Spike gives more credibility to PBC’s decision to match Danny Garcia against Lamont Peterson in an over-the-weight bout on NBC on April 11 rather than fight for their respective titles. Let’s see how Haymon handles the belts for Andy Lee vs. Peter Quillin on the same card and in other future beltholder fights.

All five of the PBC fights on NBC and Spike to date have matched black against Hispanic fighters. The next Haymon time buy on NBC features black vs. Hispanic and black vs. Irish. Ethnic matchmaking is a boxing tradition, but it’s a tradition that PBC might consider jettisoning. Great fights that become part of boxing lore like Ali-Frazier, Leonard-Hearns, Barrera-Morales, and Vazquez-Marquez stand on their own merit.

Finally, as of this writing, the favorite has won five-out-of-five fights on PBC’s Spike and NBC telecasts. That got old on premium cable a long time ago. And it will get old here fast.

The banner at the top of the home page for the Premier Boxing Champions website trumpets: “Premier Boxing Champions: Where the Next Legends Collide.” Taking Al Haymon at his word, boxing fans will be looking for some of those colliding legends.

* * *

HBO’s March 14 telecast started poorly with Isaac Chilemba vs. Vasily Lepikin and Steve Cunningham vs. Vyacheslav Glazkov. The main event – Sergey Kovalev vs. Jean Pascal – was worth watching.

Kovalev came into the bout with 26 wins, 23 knockouts, 0 losses, and a technical draw that should have been recorded as a win. Four months ago, he solidified his credentials as the best 175-pound fighter in the world with a 120-107, 120-107, 120-106 whitewash of Bernard Hopkins.

Pascal (29-2, 17 KOs) was regarded as a good measuring stick for Kovalev.

Kovalev was the aggressor in the early going and fought at a brisk pace. In round three, Pascal decided to fight with him and wound up being saved by the bell after a hard right hand draped him over the ropes and led to a correctly-called knockdown. It was the first knockdown scored against Pascal in his pro career.

Pascal rallied to win rounds five and six, but he tired noticeably in round seven. In round eight, Kovalev unloaded, leaving Jean on wobbly legs. Referee Luis Pabon stopped the bout at the 1:03 mark with Pascal pinned in a corner but still standing.

It was the first stoppage loss in Pascal’s career. He can take solace in the fact that Kovalev never knocked him off his feet. After the bout, Jean told television viewers and the crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal, “I don’t know why the referee stopped the fight. It’s not hockey.”

Kovalev showed a good chin and an improving left hook to go with his power. The fact that he outlanded Pascal 122-to-68, indicates an effective delivery system for his arsenal. He got hit with too many solid punches, but that makes for exciting fights.

The biggest problem that Kovalev will have in the near future is getting marketable opponents to step into the ring with him. After the bout, Adonis Stevenson claimed that wants to fight Sergey, but he won’t.

* * *

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Staged pre-fight staredowns are stupid.

The latest example of this stupidity was on display at the final pre-fight press conference for Kovalev-Pascal. The fighters got into a shoving match. No damage was done, except to the dignity of the sport. Then the promotion decided that this was a good thing and sent out an email blast with the subject line “Download Kovalev-Pascal Altercation Video.”

Some day, a fighter will be hurt during a staredown altercation and a fight will be canceled. Let’s hope that “someday” isn’t May 1, when Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao face off at the weigh-in for boxing’s next fight of the century.

Thomas Hauser can be reached by email at thauser@rcn.com. His most recent book – Thomas Hauser on Boxing – was published by the University of Arkansas Press.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

Mizuki Hiruta Dominates in her U.S. Debut and Omar Trinidad Wins Too at Commerce

Published

15 hours ago

January 18, 2025

David A. Avila

Mizuki-Hiruta-Dominates-in-her-U.S.-Debut-and-Trinidad-Wins-Too-at-Commerce

Japan’s Mizuki Hiruta smashed through Mexico’s Maribel Ramirez with ease in winning by technical decision and local hero Omar Trinidad continued his assault on the featherweight division on Friday.

Hiruta (7-0, 2 KOs), who prefers to be called “Mimi,” made her American debut with an impressive performance against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez (15-11-4) and retained the WBO super flyweight world title by unanimous decision at Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

The pink-haired Japanese southpaw champion quickly proved to be quicker, stronger and even better than advertised. In the opening round Ramirez landed on the floor twice after throwing errant blows. On one instance, it could have been ruled a knockdown but it was not a convincing blow.

In the second round, Ramirez again attacked and again was met with a Hiruta check right hook and down went the Mexican. This time referee Ray Corona gave the eight-count and the fight resumed.

It was Hiruta’s third title defense but this time it was on American soil. She seemed nervous by the prospect of getting a favorable review from the more than 700 fans inside the casino tent.

For more than a year Hiruta has been training off and on with Manny Robles in the L.A. area. Now that she has a visa, she has spent considerable time this year learning the tricks of the trade. They proved explosively effective.

Though Mexico City’s Ramirez has considerable experience against world champions, she discovered that Hiruta was not easy to hit. Often, the Japanese champion would slip and counter with precision.

It was an impressive American debut, though the fight was stopped in the eighth round after a collision of heads. The scores were tallied and all three saw Hiruta the winner by scores of 80-71 twice and 79-72.

“I’m so happy. I could have done much more,” said Hiruta through interpreter Yuriko Miyata. “I wanted to do more things that Manny Robles taught me.”

Trinidad Wins Too

Omar Trinidad (18-0-1, 13 KOs) discovered that challenger Mike Plania (31-5, 18 KOs) has a very good chin and staying power. But over 10 rounds Trinidad proved to be too fast and too busy for the Filipino challenger.

Immediately it was evident that the East L.A. featherweight was too quick and too busy for Plania who preferred a counter-puncher attack that never worked.

“He was strong,” said Trinidad. “He took everything.”

After 10 redundant rounds all three judges scored for Trinidad 100-90 twice and 99-91. He retains the WBC Continental Americas title.

Other Bouts

Ali Akhmedov (23-1, 17 KOs) blasted out Malcolm Jones (17-5-1) in less than two rounds. A dozen punches by Akhmedov forced referee Thomas Taylor to stop the super middleweight fight.

Iyana “Roxy” Verduzco (3-0) bloodied Lindsey Ellis in the first round and continued the speedy assault in the next two rounds. Referee Ray Corona saw enough and stopped the fight in favor of Verduzco at 1:34 of the third round.

Gloria Munguilla (7-1) and Brook Sibrian (5-2) lit up the boxing ring with a nonstop clash for eight rounds in their light flyweight fight. Munguilla proved effective with a slip-and-counter attack. Sibrian adjusted and made the fight closer in the last four rounds but all three judges favored Munguilla.

More Winners

Joshua Anton, Tayden Beltran, Adan Palma, and Alexander Gueche all won their bouts.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Published

2 days ago

January 16, 2025

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 309: 360 Promotions Opens with Trinidad, Mizuki and More

Best wishes to the survivors of the Los Angeles wildfires that took place last week and are still ongoing in small locales.

Most of the heavy damage took place in the western part of L.A. near the ocean due to Santa Ana winds. Another very hot spot was in Altadena just north of the Rose Bowl. It was a horrific tragedy.

Hopefully the worst is over.

Pro boxing returns with 360 Boxing Promotions spotlighting East L.A.’s Omar Trinidad (17-0-1, 13 KOs) defending a regional featherweight title against Mike Plania (31-4, 18 KOs) on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif.

“I’m the king of L.A. boxing and I’ll be ready to put on a show headlining again in the main event. This is my year, I’m ready to challenge and defeat any of the featherweight world champions,” said Trinidad.

UFC Fight Pass will stream the Hollywood Night fight card that includes a female world championship fight and other intriguing match-ups.

Tom Loeffler heads 360 Promotions and once again comes full force with a hot prospect in Trinidad. If you’re not familiar with Loeffler’s history of success, he introduced America to Oleksandr Usyk, Gennady “GGG” Golovkin and the brothers Wladimir and Vitaly Kltischko.

“We’ve got a wealth of international talent and local favorites to kick off our 2025 in grand style,” said Loeffler.

He knows talent.

Trinidad hails from the Boyle Heights area of East L.A. near the Los Angeles riverbed. Several fighters from the past came from that exact area including the first Golden Boy, Art Aragon.

Aragon was a huge gate attraction during the late 1940s until 1960. He was known as a lady’s man and dated several Hollywood starlets in his time. Though he never won a world title he did fight world champions Carmen Basilio, Jimmy Carter and Lauro Salas. He was more or less the king of the Olympic Auditorium and Los Angeles boxing during his career.

Other famous boxers from the Boyle Heights area were notorious gangster Mickey Cohen and former world champion Joey Olivo.

Can Trinidad reach world title status?

Facing Trinidad will be Filipino fighter Plania who’s knocked off a couple of prospects during his career including Joshua “Don’t Blink” Greer and Giovanni Gutierrez. The fighter from General Santos in the Philippines can crack and hold his own in the boxing ring.

It’s a very strong fight card and includes WBO world titlist Mizuki Hiruta of Japan who defends the super flyweight title against Mexican veteran Maribel Ramirez. It’s a tough matchup for Hiruta who makes her American debut. You can’t miss her with that pink hair and she has all the physical tools to make a splash in this country.

Mizukii Hiruta

Two other female bouts are also planned, including light flyweight banger L.A.’s Gloria Munguilla (6-1) against Coachella’s Brook Sibrian (5-1) in a match set for six rounds. Both are talented fighters. Another female fight includes super featherweights Iyana “Right Hook Roxy” Verduzco (2-0) versus Lindsey Ellis (2-1) in another six-rounder. Ellis can crack with all her wins coming via knockout. Verduzco is a multi-national titlist as an amateur.

Others scheduled to perform are Ali Akhmedov, Joshua Anton, Adan Palma and more.

Doors open at 4:30 p.m.

Boxing and the Media

The sport of professional boxing is currently in flux. It’s always in flux but no matter what people may say or write, boxing will survive.

Whether you like Jake Paul or not, he proved boxing has worldwide appeal with monstrous success in his last show. He has media companies looking at the numbers and imagining what they can do with the sport.

Sure, UFC is negotiating a massive billion dollar deal with media companies, as is WWE, both are very similar in that they provide combat entertainment. You don’t need to know the champions because they really don’t matter. Its about the attractions.

Boxing is different. The good champions last and build a following that endures even beyond their careers a la Mike Tyson.

MMA can’t provide that longevity, but it does provide entertainment.

Currently, there is talk of establishing a boxing league again. It’s been done over and over but we shall see if it sticks this time.

Pro boxing is the true warrior’s path and that means a solo adventure. It’s a one-on-one sport and that appeals to people everywhere. It’s the oldest sport that can be traced to prehistoric times. You don’t need classes in Brazilian Jiujitsu, judo, kick boxing or wrestling. Just show up in a boxing gym and they can put you to work.

It’s a poor person’s path that can lead to better things and most importantly discipline.

Photos credit: Lina Baker

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Boxing Trainer Bob Santos Paid his Dues and is Reaping the Rewards

Published

3 days ago

January 15, 2025

Arne K. Lang

Boxing-Trainer-Bob-Santos-Paid-his-Dues-and-is-Reaping the Rewards

Bob Santos, the 2022 Sports Illustrated and The Ring magazine Trainer of the Year, is a busy fellow. On Feb. 1, fighters under his tutelage will open and close the show on the four-bout main portion of the Prime Video PPV event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Jeison Rosario continues his comeback in the lid-lifter, opposing Jesus Ramos. In the finale, former Cuban amateur standout David Morrell will attempt to saddle David Benavidez with his first defeat. Both combatants in the main event have been chasing 168-pound kingpin Canelo Alvarez, but this bout will be contested for a piece of the light heavyweight title.

When the show is over, Santos will barely have time to exhale. Before the month is over, one will likely find him working the corner of Dainier Pero, Brian Mendoza, Elijah Garcia, and perhaps others.

Benavidez (29-0, 24 KOs) turned 28 last month. He is in the prime of his career. However, a lot of folk rate Morrell (11-0, 9 KOs) a very live dog. At last look, Benavidez was a consensus 7/4 (minus-175) favorite, a price that betokens a very competitive fight.

Bob Santos, needless to say, is confident that his guy can upset the odds. “I have worked with both,” he says. “It’s a tough fight for David Morrell, but he has more ways to victory because he’s less one-dimensional. He can go forward or fight going back and his foot speed is superior.”

Benavidez’s big edge, in the eyes of many, is his greater experience. He captured the vacant WBC 168-pound title at age 20, becoming the youngest super middleweight champion in history. As a pro, Benavidez has answered the bell for 148 rounds compared with only 54 for Morrell, but Bob Santos thinks this angle is largely irrelevant.

“Sure, I’d rather have pro experience than amateur experience,” he says, “but if you look at Benavidez’s record, he fought a lot of soft opponents when he was climbing the ladder.”

True. Benavidez, who turned pro at age 16, had his first seven fights in Mexico against a motley assortment of opponents. His first bout on U.S. soil occurred in his native Pheonix against an opponent with a 1-6-2 record.

While it’s certainly true that Morrell, 26, has yet to fight an opponent the caliber of Caleb Plant, he took up boxing at roughly the same tender age as Benavidez and earned his spurs in the vaunted Cuban amateur system, eventually defeating elite amateurs in international tournaments.

“If you look at his [pro] record, you will notice that [Morrell] has hardly lost a round,” says Santos of the fighter who captured an interim title in only his third professional bout with a 12-round decision over Guyanese veteran Lennox Allen.

Bob Santos is something of a late bloomer. He was around boxing for a long time, assisting such notables as Joe Goossen, Emanuel Steward, and Ronnie Shields before becoming recognized as one of the sport’s top trainers.

A native of San Jose, he grew up in a Hispanic neighborhood but not in a household where Spanish was spoken. “I know enough now to get by,” he says modestly. He attended James Lick High School whose most famous alumnus is Heisman winning and Super Bowl winning quarterback Jim Plunkett. “We worked in the same apricot orchard when we were kids,” says Santos. “Not at the same time, but in the same field.”

After graduation, he followed his father’s footsteps into construction work, but boxing was always beckoning. A cousin, the late Luis Molina, represented the U.S. as a lightweight in the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, and was good enough as a pro to appear in a main event at Madison Square Garden where he lost a narrow decision to the notorious Puerto Rican hothead Frankie Narvaez, a future world title challenger.

Santos’ cousin was a big draw in San Jose in an era when the San Jose / Sacramento territory was the bailiwick of Don Chargin. “Don was a beautiful man and his wife Lorraine was even nicer,” says Santos of the husband/wife promotion team who are enshrined in the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Don Chargin was inducted in 2001 and Lorraine posthumously in 2018.

Chargin promoted Fresno-based featherweight Hector Lizarraga who captured the IBF title in 1997. Lizarraga turned his career around after a 5-7-3 start when he hooked up with San Jose gym operator Miguel Jara. It was one of the most successful reclamation projects in boxing history and Bob Santos played a part in it.

Bob hopes to accomplish the same turnaround with Jeison Rosario whose career was on the skids when Santos got involved. In his most recent start, Rosario held heavily favored Jarrett Hurd to a draw in a battle between former IBF 154-pound champions on a ProBox card in Florida.

“I consider that one of my greatest achievements,” says Santos, noting that Rosario was stopped four times and effectively out of action for two years before resuming his career and is now on the cusp of earning another title shot.

The boxer with whom Santos is most closely identified is former four-division world title-holder Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero. The slick southpaw, the pride of Gilroy, California, the self-proclaimed “Garlic Capital of the World,” retired following a bad loss to Omar Figueroa Jr, but had second thoughts and is currently riding a six-fight winning streak. “I’ve known him since he was 15 years old,” notes Santos.

Years from now, Santos may be more closely identified with the Pero brothers, Dainier and Lenier, who aspire to be the Cuban-American version of the Klitschko brothers.

Santos describes Dainier, one of the youngest members of Cuba’s Olympic Team in Tokyo, as a bigger version of Oleksandr Usyk. That may be stretching it, but Dainier (10-0, 8 KOs as a pro), certainly hits harder.

Dainier Pero

This reporter was a fly on the wall as Santos put Dainier Pero through his paces on Tuesday (Jan. 14) at Bones Adams gym in Las Vegas. Santos held tight to a punch shield, in the boxing vernacular a donut, as the Cuban practiced his punches. On several occasions the trainer was knocked off-balance and the expression on his face as his body absorbed some of the after-shocks, plainly said, “My goodness, what the hell am I doing here? There has to be an easier way to make a living.” It was an assignment that Santos would have undoubtedly preferred handing off to his young assistant, his son Joe Santos, but Joe was preoccupied coordinating David Morrell’s camp.

Dainer’s brother Lenier is also an ex-Olympian, and like Dainier was a super heavyweight by trade as an amateur. With an 11-0 (8 KOs) record, Lenier Pero’s pro career was on a parallel path until stalled by a managerial dispute. Lenier last fought in March of last year and Santos says he will soon join his brother in Las Vegas.

There’s little to choose between the Pero brothers, but Dainier is considered to have the bigger upside because at age 25 he is the younger sibling by seven years.

Bob Santos was in the running again this year for The Ring magazine’s Trainer of the Year, one of six nominees for the honor that was bestowed upon his good friend Robert Garcia. Considering the way that Santos’ career is going, it’s a safe bet that he will be showered with many more accolades in the years to come.

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