MAY-PAC STIRS MEMORIES OF HAGLER-LEONARD FOR SUGAR RAY

Published

10 years ago

April 3, 2015

It has been said in Hollywood that there are no original ideas, just variations of familiar plots and story lines. And so it is in boxing, which perhaps is why the movie industry has ventured so often into the drama-drenched world of fights and fighters.

The great Sugar Ray Leonard has seen and done it all, and at 58 his perspective is such that he can pretty much tell when an old script is being dusted off for a contemporary audience. When he looks ahead to the May 2 superfight pitting Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao, he has a sense of déjà vu, that he’s been there and done that. It is a feeling rooted in reality, at least to an extensive enough degree to make comparisons between May-Pac and Leonard’s April 6, 1987, showdown with Marvelous Marvin Hagler take on a sheen of legitimacy.

A fight five years in the making? Check, and check. A stylistic matchup between a mobile, quick-handed boxer and a relentless, southpaw punching machine? Check, and check. Global interest at a fever pitch? Check, and check. One fighter demanding, and getting, a laundry list of concessions from the other side in order to close the deal? Check, and check.

“There are distinct parallels,” Leonard told me. “The buildup to Mayweather-Pacquiao has taken, what, five years? Same as my fight with Hagler. No one thought Mayweather-Pacquiao would ever happen; no one thought that my fight with Hagler would ever happen. In fact, for a long time I never thought that it would happen for me with Hagler.

“Also, had Hagler and I fought five years earlier I don’t think it would have turned out to be as big as it was, or as spectacular. The wait made it an even bigger event, and that’s what’s happening with Mayweather-Pacquiao.”

Even with all the instances where Mayweather-Pacquiao appears to tearing pages from the Hagler-Leonard reference book, it should be noted that there are differences between then and now. Leonard, whose ring attributes more closely mirror those of Mayweather, was the underdog and the smaller man coming up in weight, with the added burden of a long period of inactivity in which he had fought only once in the preceding five years. Pacquiao is a southpaw, like Hagler, but let’s not forget that Marvelous Marvin pulled a switcheroo and opened his bout with Leonard in an orthodox stance, which came as a pleasant surprise to the guy in the other corner. Don’t expect “PacMan” to follow suit.

“I looked for every possible thing that would give me an edge,” said Leonard, a list which included wringing a grudging agreement from the Hagler camp to the larger ring, larger gloves (10 ounces instead of eight) and reduced number of rounds (from 15 to 12) demanded by Team Sugar. “Not a big edge, but a slight edge. When Marvin came out orthodox,that helped me. It was another edge. But if he had come out southpaw, I would eventually have figured it out because I fought southpaws pretty well. It would have just taken me a little longer to get into a groove.”

Before an accord was reached for Mayweather-Pacquiao, “Money” demanded a favorable 60-40 split of the huge financial pie and for other perks, such as having his name listed first in all promotional materials and being introduced after the fab Filipino. Where pride is concerned, such things matter, maybe even as much as money to fighters who are already unfathomably wealthy. Pacquiao finally acquiesced, as had Hagler when presented with Leonard’s non-negotiable preferences. But someone has to give a little at the bargaining table, as well as inside the ropes, and the Hagler side yielded to the comebacking legend Hagler sneeringly referred to as the “little dictator.”

Leonard’s response to that is, “Hey, who wound up winning?” Oh, sure, there are those who dispute the split decision for Sugar Ray, not the least of whom is the still-bitter Hagler, but the outcome is what it is and so shall forever remain.

“This fight (May-Pac) is about bragging rights, like my fight with Hagler was,” Leonard continued. “You can talk all you want about the money, and it’s ridiculous money, crazy money. But to these guys, it’s about more than that. Each wants to be able to say he won. There’s so much personal pride at stake, and you can’t put a price on that.

“When all is said and done, this fight, of all fights, means everything to these guys. Because the bottom line is, and should be, who beat who, not how much money you made.”

It remains to be seen how the final chapter of the Mayweather-Pacquiao saga is written, but here is the tale of Hagler-Leonard, and how that year’s Fight of the Century painstakingly came to be.

There was a widespread perception, dating back to Leonard’s gold-medal star turn at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, that the kid from Palmer Park, Md., with the megawatt smile, Muhammad Ali-like skills and affable personality was destined for superstardom, that all the good things life and his sport had to offer would be served up on jewel-encrusted platter. For those who came up the hard way, like Hagler – a product of the meanest streets of Newark, N.J., who moved to Brockton, Mass., as a teenager in 1969 and in the mid-’70s had to put in regular shifts at the Petronelli Construction Company before going to the gym to log hours more of hard labor as a fighter enrolled in the Petronelli School of Boxing. To Hagler, who was not quite so marvelous then, Leonard was not someone to be admired, but a source of jealousy and irritation. In the weeks leading up to the long-delayed faceoff with Leonard, Hagler derided his opponent as a “pretty HBO face” who took a shortcut to the superstardom the best middleweight in the world had had to claw and scrap to even approach.

They hadn’t fought earlier because Leonard as a welterweight had no problem making 147 pounds, while Hagler was a full-fledged middleweight who scared the hell out of most would-be foes, Leonard included. Leonard saw the weight difference as too wide a chasm to even attempt to bridge.

“Hagler, to me, was a unique machine, a unique beast,” the Leonard of today recalled. “There was fear inside of me. Most fighters won’t admit it, but there’s always an element of fear. We’re all scared of what could happen. But fear can be good as well as bad. Fear can paralyze you, which is bad, but fear can also make you so sharp your eyes are as big as headlights. You’re looking for every damn punch, every conceivable thing the other guy can throw at you. And that’s good.”

Any chance that Hagler and Leonard might share the same ring appeared to vanish when Leonard was diagnosed with a detached retina in 1982, an injury that, in those days before medical advances, often was a career-ender. It appeared that would be the case with Leonard, who retired with no thought of coming back at the risk of perhaps losing his eyesight, strangely ironic in light of the fact that his full birth name, Ray Charles Leonard, was in tribute to Ray Charles, the legendary blind musician and singer.

Without boxing and out of the spotlight that in which he had become so comfortable, Leonard admits to losing his way, drinking too much and doing cocaine. Nor was his sole attempt to recapture what had been lost a rousing success; he was floored in the fourth round of his May 11, 1984, bout with journeyman Kevin Howard before going on to stop the tough but limited Philadelphian in nine. Embarrassed that he had been knocked down for the first time as a professional, Leonard retired again, saying he had lost what he had that had made him such a special fighter.

A year and a half earlier, Leonard had taken his first leave, doing so with a dramatic and unexpected flourish. He invited Hagler to attend “A Night With Sugar Ray Leonard,” a black-tie charity event on Nov. 9, 1982, at the Baltimore Civic Center that was emceed by Howard Cosell. Hagler showed up in anticipation that Leonard would finally announce that he was ready to move up in weight and take on the finest 160-pounder on the planet. And why shouldn’t he have felt that way? Leonard had advised the media that there would be a “major press announcement.”

“A fight with this great man, with this great champion, would be one of the greatest fights in history,” Leonard said as a beaming and tuxedoed Hagler looked on. There was a dramatic pause before Leonard delivered the words that stung Hagler more than any punch ever could: “Unfortunately, it’ll never happen.”

So what convinced Leonard to return after his desultory performance against Kevin Howard? One was the unflagging belief that he still had more to give, and at a high level, if only if he could root around inside himself and rediscover it.

“I believe every good fighter believes he has one big fight left in him,” Leonard said. “And I believed mine would be against Hagler. As it turned out, it was.”

There were other factors involved in Leonard’s decision to not only return to boxing, but to go directly to the biggest, baddest threat out there. As was the case with Max Schmeling before his first fight with Joe Louis, he thought he “saw something” that would enable him to confound the oddsmakers (Leonard opened as a 3-to-1 underdog and went off as a 2½-1 longshot) and make history as the first man to win world titles in four different weight classes. Yeah, Hagler was still a monster, but maybe not quite as monstrous as he had been.

“When Duran fought Hagler (a close but unanimous decision for Hagler on Nov. 10, 1983), I was doing commentary for HBO,” Leonard said. “After 15 rounds, Duran came over and said to me, in English, `You fight him, you box him, you beat him.’”

If that didn’t plant a seed of inspiration in Leonard’s mind, Hagler’s last pre-Leonard bout, an 11^th-round knockout of John “The Beast” Mugabi, did. Mugabi, a tough-as-nails Ugandan, got the better of several toe-to-toe exchanges, landing hard hooks and uppercuts, before Marvin put him away.

“When Hagler beat Mugabi, I wasn’t exactly inebriated, but I was on my way,” Leonard admitted. “I was drinking so much back then. But still, I saw what I saw. It wasn’t that I thought Hagler was slowing down; I just thought that with my speed and my talent, I could do something with him.”

So The Return was set in motion, much to the relief of Hagler and, initially, to the consternation of an admittedly rusty Leonard.

“I feel very excited about the fact that he finally got his courage up,” the 32-year-old Hagler told reporters at his training camp in Palm Springs, Calif. “But when he made his move, he made it at the wrong time. I’m at my best right now, so I’m glad it’s happening now.

“If it had happened years ago, he had too much popularity, the Golden Boy out of the Olympics. Now, he’s just a curiosity. People want to see if he can come back and fight with an eye like that. I’m not a curiosity. I get asked why I’m giving him an opportunity even though when I wanted the opportunity, he didn’t give it to me. He was waiting for me to get old.”

Leonard’s return to serious training, meanwhile, was sluggish and frequently painful.

“For the first few months, my sparring partners were kicking my butt,” Leonard said. “They were banging the crap out of me. I would come home, my head down, walk in the kitchen and Juanita, my wife back then, would say, `Are you sure you want to fight Hagler?’ I’d get so mad. I got defensive. But when I think about it, she was right. I wasn’t ready – then.

“But every day it got a little bit better, a little bit better, until it all came back to me. It was frustrating when I knew I didn’t have it, that coordination, that touch. I had to fight through it. It was the most painful and agonizing experience of my life. I had to bite the bullet. I’d say to myself, `I know it’s there, I just know it.’ But I hadn’t found it yet.

“Then one day, about three months before the fight, I was in the gym and everything just fell into place. I snapped off a jab like I used to and I was, like, `Holy crap, this still works!’ I don’t know how to describe how that felt. It was ecstasy. But when you’ve been off as long as I was, you can’t really know for sure until you’re in that ring.”

Leonard said his fight plan – lots of movement, getting in and out, flurries late in each round to leave an impression on the judges – “was choreographed. I knew what I wanted to do.”

It also helped fuel Leonard’s fire that in a poll of 30 boxing writers, 24 picked Hagler to win, most inside the distance. After every round, Leonard would return to his corner and look at the media section “as if to say, `Hey, I’m still here,’” he noted.

The officials scorecards at the temporary outdoor stadium constructed on the tennis courts of Caesars Palace were all over the place. Judge Jo Jo Guerra might have been overly generous to Leonard in favoring him by a 118-110 margin, while Dave Moretti and Lou Fillippo each saw it at 115-113, with Moretti going with Leonard and Fillippo with Hagler.

“This is the greatest accomplishment of my life,” Leonard proclaimed at the postfight press conference. “Marvin never hurt me. He kind of slowed me up a little. I felt his power in the late rounds, but he never hurt me. I was able to do what I wanted to – stick and move, hit and run, taunt and frustrate.”

Hagler, not surprisingly, saw things far differently.

“I feel in my heart that I’m still the champion,” he said. “I really hate the fact that (the judges) took it away from me and gave it to Sugar Ray Leonard, of all people. It really leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

“I rocked him three or four times. He fought like a little girl in there. Those little flurries don’t mean nothing.”

Nor has Hagler, who never fought again, ever softened his stance. In 1995, when in Las Vegas to do commentary on WBC heavyweight champion Oliver McCall’s unanimous-decision victory over longtime former titlist Larry Holmes, he again spoke bitterly of the Leonard fight plan that found favor with Guerra and Moretti.

“That’s all he did all night long,” Hagler said of the furious flurries in the final 30 seconds of rounds that clearly tipped the balance of the scoring. “I thought I was fighting a professional, but he was just an amateur. I gave up everything for that fight I gave him the bigger ring. I gave him 12 rounds instead of 15. But when it came time for him to give me a rematch, he wouldn’t do it.”

Leonard doesn’t expect Mayweather, who got what he wanted in the prefight negotiations with Pacquiao, to reciprocate by giving “PacMan” what he wants inside the ropes. Leopards don’t change their spots, not if they want to continue being leopards.

“You’re not going to see Hagler-Hearns, you’re not going to see Roberto Duran-Sugar Ray Leonard I,” Leonard predicted. “Not going to happen. The way I fought Duran the first time, that was a mistake I made. The way Tommy fought Hagler was a mistake on his part, as far as I’m concerned. Tommy was far more effective as a boxer against a guy like Hagler. You fight Hagler the way Tommy did, he’s going to knock you out.

“A fighter has to fight his fight. You have to play to your strengths. That’s the only way to be effective.”

Which is not to say that Leonard, who is leaning toward Mayweather, is going all-in on a prediction for a fighter whose style is more or less an approximation of his own. If there is a difference, it might be that a prime Leonard had more of a finishing instinct when he had his man in trouble than Mayweather.

“This fight is not easy to call,” he said. “It probably will come down to which guy can get back to his total `A’ game.”

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Bernard Fernandez

Fighting on His Home Turf, Galal Yafai Pulverizes Sunny Edwards

Published

2 days ago

November 30, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Fighting-on-His-Home-Turf-Galal-Yafai-Pulverizes-Sunny-Edwards

The Resorts World Arena in Birmingham, England, was the site of tonight’s Matchroom Promotions card featuring flyweights Galal Yafai and Sunny Edwards in the main event. Yafai went to post a short underdog in what on paper was a 50/50 fight, but it was a rout from the start.

Yafai got right into Edwards’ grill in the opening round and never let up. Although there were no knockdowns, it was complete domination by the Birmingham southpaw until the referee stepped in and waived it off at the 1:10 mark of round six.

“Bloodline” was the tagline of the match-up. Sunny’s brother Charlie Edwards, now competing as a bantamweight, is a former flyweight world title-holder. Galal, a gold medalist at the Tokyo Olympics, is the third member of his family to make his mark as a prizefighter. Brother Kal, also a former Olympian, once held a world title at 115 and brother Gamal was a Commonwealth champion as a bantamweight.

Edwards and Galal Yafai were well-acquainted. They had fought as amateurs and had shared the ring on many occasions as sparring partners. Although Galal was 31 years old, he had only eight pro fights under his belt and was meeting a veteran of six world title fights whose only loss in 22 starts came the hands of the brilliant Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez.

But that loss to Rodriguez in Arizona (Edwards’ corner pulled him out after nine frames) was of the kind that shortens careers. Although Sunny won a tune-up fight since that setback, tonight he had the appearance of a boxer who had grown old overnight. In fact, after the second round, he was heard saying to his corner “I really don’t want to be here.”

Edwards wanted out, but he dutifully answered the bell for the next four rounds. After the bout, he indicated that he had planned to retire after this fight, win, or lose, or draw.

The contest was billed as a WBC “eliminator” which positions Galal Yafai (9-0, 7 KOs) for a match with Japanese veteran Kenshiro Teraji, the long-reigning light flyweight title-holder who moved up in weight last month and captured the WBC flyweight title at the expense of Cristofer Rosales.

Other Bouts of Note

Welterweight Conah Walker, from the Birmingham bedroom community of Wolverhampton, won a clear-cut 10-round decision over Lewis Ritson, winning by scores of 98-93 and 97-93 twice.

A former British lightweight champion, Ritson (23-5) lost for the fourth time in his last six starts, but was game to the core. At various times he appeared on the verge of being stopped, but he may have won the final round when he got the best of several exchanges. Walker, a heavy favorite, improved to 14-3-1 (6).

In a 12-round middleweight match, Kieron Conway won his fourth straight, advancing to 22-3-1 (6) with a split decision over a local product, Ryan Kelly (19-5-1). Kelly got the nod on one of the cards (115-114), but was out-voted by his colleagues who had it 116-112 and 115-113 for Conway.

While the decision was fair, this was a lackluster performance by Conway who had fought much stiffer competition and entered the ring a 6/1 favorite.

Twenty-two-year-old junior welterweight Cameron Vuong, a stablemate of Jack Catterall, stepped up in class and improved to 7-0 (3) with a 10-round unanimous decision over Gavin Gwynne. The judges had it 97-94, 96-94, and 96-95.

Vuong, who is half Vietnamese, out-boxed Gwynne from the outside but was far from impressive. A 34-year-old Welshman and veteran of eight domestic title fights, Gwynne (17-4-1) was the aggressor throughout and there were scattered boos when the decision was announced.

In a scheduled 8-rounder that wasn’t part of the main card, Liverpool’s Callum Smith (30-2, 22 KOs) wacked out Colombian trial horse Carlos Galvan in the fifth round. Smith, whose only defeats came at the hands of future Hall of Famers Canelo Alvarez (L 12) and Artur Beterbiev (L TKO 7), knocked Galvan down in the fourth and then twice more in the fifth with body punches before the match was halted. Galvan declined to 20-15-2.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal

Published

3 days ago

November 29, 2024

David A. Avila

Avila Perspective, Chap. 306: Flyweight Rumble in England, Ryan Garcia in SoCal

With most of America in a turkey coma, all boxing eyes should be pointed toward England this weekend.

Former world titlist Sunny Edwards (21-1, 4 KOs) challenges the fast-rising Galal Yafai (8-0, 6 KOs) for a regional flyweight on Saturday, Nov. 30, at Resorts World Arena in Birmingham. DAZN will stream the Matchroom Boxing card.

Without the fast-talking and dare-to-be-great Edwards, the flyweight division and super flyweight divisions would be in a blanket of invisibility. He’s the kind of personality the lower weight classes need.

The London kid loves to talk and loves to fight even more.

Edwards was calling out Jesse “Bam” Rodriguez when the San Antonio fighter was blasting out feared Thai slugger Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and dismantling Mexico’s Carlos Cuadras. And he did this in front of a worldwide audience.

Of course, he fell short of defeating the young superstar but he kick-started the weight division with new life. And here he is again enticing more eyes on the flyweights as he challenges another potential star.

“I was happy and proud of Galal when he won the Olympic gold medal,” said Edwards who has sparred Yafai many times. “When me and Galal get in a small space, it’s fireworks.”

Yafai, a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist, only has eight pro fights but at age 31 doesn’t have time to walk through the stages of careful preparation. But with blazing speed to go along with big power in his southpaw punches, it’s time for the Birmingham native to claim his spot on the world stage.

Is he ready?

“It’s a massive fight, it speaks for itself. Sunny is a great fighter, a former world champion, a good name and we’ve got history as well,” Yafai said at the press conference.” I’ve got to be a bit smarter, but I know Sunny inside-out.”

Both have blazing speed. Yafai has the power, but Edwards has the experience of pro-style competition.

Promoter Eddie Hearn calls this one of the top fights in British boxing.

“Sunny doesn’t care, he wants to be in great fights, he believes in himself and he is rolling the dice again on Saturday night, as is Galal. An Olympic gold medalist from Birmingham with just a handful of fights really, and already stepping up to take on one of the top, top flyweights in the world,” said Hearns.

Ryan Garcia in Beverly Hills

The budding Southern California superstar Ryan Garcia met the boxing media in Beverly Hills to announce an exhibition match against Japan’s kickboxing star Rukiya Anpo on December 30 in Tokyo. FANMIO pay-per-view will show the match if it takes place.

Garcia is still under contract with Golden Boy Promotions and according to the promotion company an agreement has not been established. But with Garcia under suspension for PED use following his last fight against Devin Haney back in April, an opportunity for the popular fighter to make a living will probably be allowed.

As long as everyone gets their cut.

Now 26, Garcia seeks to get back in the prize ring and do what he does best and that’s fire left hooks in machine gun fashion.

“He tried to knock out Manny Pacquiao and it pissed me off,” said Garcia on his reasons for accepting an exhibition match with the bigger in size Anpo. “That rubbed me the wrong way and now I’m here to show him someone in his prime with speed and power.”

Anpo wants a knockout and nothing else.

“I regret that I couldn’t finish Manny Pacquiao,” said Anpo who met Pacquiao in an exhibition this past summer in Tokyo. “That’s what we train to do in every fight. I have even more motivation this time and I will knock him out and finish Ryan Garcia as a professional.”

Following the press conference on Tuesday, Nov. 26, an e-mail by Golden Boy was sent to the media and stated: “Golden Boy Promotions has exclusive rights to Ryan Garcia’s fights. The organizers of this event (Garcia vs. Anpo) have acknowledged as such and have agreed in writing that our sign-off is needed for this event to occur. As no such sign-off has been given, as of today there is no event with Ryan Garcia.”

Simply said, they get their cut or no fight.

The potential money-making fight has a strong possibility to occur.

Photo credit: Mark Robinson / Matchroom

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The Noted Trainer Kevin Henry, Lucky to Be Alive, Reflects on Devin Haney and More

Published

5 days ago

November 27, 2024

Arne K. Lang

The-Noted-Trainer-Kevin-Henry-Lucky-to-be-Alive-Reflects-on-Devin-Haney-and-More

This past summer, on July 21, Las Vegas boxing trainer Kevin Henry almost died. He was on the Las Vegas Strip, walking north from Caesars Palace, when he was the victim of an auto-pedestrian accident, hit by a careless uber driver exiting the Treasure Island casino after dropping off a passenger.

Henry suffered two broken bones in his neck, shoulder and hip displacements, lost two teeth, and had facial injuries that required plastic surgery. He spent three months in the hospital, the first 20 days in ICU and the final month at an in-patient rehabilitation facility.

The good news is that the pain has subsided and Kevin Henry is back in the gym mentoring boxers and enjoying the camaraderie of his peers.

Kevin, 55, grew up around the sport. His father, the late Norman Henry, was a fixture on the Philadelphia boxing scene going back to the late 1940s when he was Bob Montgomery’s Man Friday. The elder Henry co-managed Jeff Chandler and others and had a long association with Don King where he defined his role as that of a troubleshooter. Kevin was born in Philadelphia, spent several years in the LA area during the days when his father was a matchmaker for Harold Smith’s MAPS (an acronym for Muhammad Ali Professional Sports), and has been a full-time resident of Las Vegas since 1992.

“When I was 16, maybe 17, I was the youngest licensed second in New Jersey” says Henry. “In Philadelphia, I got to hang with great old-school trainers like George Benton. In LA, my home away from home was the Hoover Street Gym. Jackie McCoy, Eddie Futch, and Jesse Reid trained fighters there. A young trainer couldn’t ask for a better schoolhouse.

“The old-school trainers liked me because I was organized. If a kid said to me, oops, I forgot my gym bag or I can’t spar because I forgot my mouthpiece – and this happened a lot – I’d say, no you didn’t, I have it right here. And the kids knew if they went out and did something they shouldn’t have, that I wasn’t going to tattle-tale.”

When Henry moved to Las Vegas, the local heavyweight scene was percolating. Michael Dokes was here as were Oliver McCall and Michael Hunter Sr. The latter two fought each other as they were climbing the ladder and eventually became fast friends.

The ill-fated Hunter would become a member of the family. He married Kevin Henry’s sister. Michael Hunter Jr, a leading heavyweight contender whose victims include the white-hot Martin Bakole and Michael’s younger brother Keith Hunter, a 15-2 junior welterweight, are Kevin’s nephews.

Discounting Devin Haney’s father Bill, no boxing coach has spent more time in the company of Devin Haney. Henry was in Devin’s corner for the vast majority of his amateur bouts, including five of Devin’s six meetings with his great amateur rival Ryan Garcia, and their tie continued after Devin transitioned into a pro.

“He was like a little brother to me,” says Henry. “I remember the first day I saw him. It was at the old Round One gym which isn’t here anymore. A Rolls Royce pulled up out front. Derrick Harmon, who fought Roy Jones, was there with me. We figured that the person in the car was probably some famous professional athlete who had come to work up a sweat. But it was Bill Haney with his nine-year-old son. Neither Bill nor his kid knew anything about boxing; Bill wanted someone to teach Devin how to box. The boy was a blank canvas.

“Bill left and when he came back, he said, ‘how did he do?’ He was so proud when we told him his kid was a natural. Derrick and I couldn’t believe that the boy had never been in the gym before. We were amazed.”

The precocious Haney, who turned pro in Mexico at age 16, proved to be as good as advertised. He won the WBC world lightweight title in his twenty-fourth pro fight, pitching a shutout over previously undefeated Alfredo Santiago, went on to unify the title with wins over George Kambosos and Vasyl Lomachenko, and pitched another shutout in his first venture at 140, whitewashing Regis Prograis to capture another world title belt.

Kevin Henry was there for some of these fights and was lost in the shuffle at others. It remains a sore spot.

No active boxer has been looked-over by as many prominent trainers as Devin Haney. Bill Haney, who would be a finalist for both the 2023 BWAA Trainer of the Year and Manager of the Year, winning the latter, operated on the assumption that all had something useful to contribute and that from their inputs he could build something that was greater than the sum of its parts. He was bucking several bromides including the chestnut that too many chefs spoil the broth and that brings us to the night of April 20, 2024, when Bill Haney’s son caught up with his old amateur rival Ryan Garcia at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

In a memorable fight, Garcia buzzed Haney in the opening minute of the match with his patented left hook and would then go on to dominate the second half of the fight, putting Haney on the canvas three times – in rounds 7, 10, and 11 – en route to a scorching upset.

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As we know, Garcia, who came in three pounds overweight, would have the “W” stripped from him when his urine samples revealed the presence of a performance-enhancing drug, ostarine. The New York State Athletic Commission changed the result to a no-contest and that is how it appears at boxrec, the sport’s official record-keeper.

Devin Haney remains undefeated (31-0, 1 NC) but Ryan Garcia knocked the mystique out of him.

In part because of his tender age – he turned 26 earlier this month – Haney was considered a threat to break Floyd Mayweather’s 50-0 record. No one talks about that anymore and if it should happen, it would command an asterisk.

Kevin Henry was there at the Haney-Garcia fight but, in a sense, he wasn’t there.

“They never put my name on the comp list ” he says, “so there was no ticket or pass waiting for me when I got to the arena. I was actually on the subway heading back to my hotel when Devin called me. He said, ‘where you at ‘bro.’ When I explained the situation to him, he said ‘turn around and come back and go to security.’

“Devin arranged to have a ticket waiting for me. My seat was directly behind his corner. The undercard was already in progress when I got back.

“This will sound arrogant, but I am certain the outcome would have been different if Devin had a different corner. The most experienced guy in his corner that night was Bob Ware, and Bob isn’t a trainer; he’s a cutman. When Devin faced adversity for the first time in his life, there was no experienced head there to get him turned around.

“In preparation for Garcia, we spent 3-4 weeks at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym. I actually suggested to Bill that he use Freddie in the corner. Freddie sees things that other trainers don’t see, even me, and Freddie would have known what adjustments to make. But Bill said no. He didn’t want to cede his authority.”

Kevin Henry’s admiration for Devin Haney, as a boxer and a person, hasn’t waned. “Ryan Garcia came in overweight at the weigh-in and you can just imagine how much weight he put on after he rehydrated. When they stood at center ring to get the referee’s instructions, Garcia looked like a middleweight to me. Devin dug deep and fought a great fight against a guy who was bigger and on steroids. One of the judges even had it a draw.” (True. Veteran arbiter Max DeLuca scored it 112-112. The other judges had Garcia winning by 4 and 6 points.)

As to what to expect from Devin when he returns, Henry says, “I worry about the mental part; some boxers don’t take losing well.” There are no such concerns about Kevin Henry who lost none of his mental acuity in that terrible accident and is back in his comfort zone.

Haney-Garcia photo credit: Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy Promotions

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