Elite Trainer Jesse Reid Has Schooled Some of Boxing’s Most Mercurial Champions

Published

2 years ago

September 11, 2022

Elite Trainer Jesse Reid Has Schooled Some of Boxing’s Most Mercurial Champions

In olden days, the boxing coach of an athletic club was invariably called a professor. To take but one example, the man that taught James J. Corbett the rudiments of boxing at San Francisco’s Olympic Athletic Club, Walter Watson, was almost always referenced as Professor Walter Watson.

At Tru Nevins’ DLX boxing gym in Las Vegas, there are two professors in residence. Drop in any afternoon and you will most likely find Kenny Adams and Jesse Reid on the premises, each there to pass on his knowledge to the young men (and young women) that walk in the door, many of whom are too young to drive. Adams and Reid are both now in their early eighties and each can boast of having trained more than two dozen world title-holders.

Jesse Reid, the subject of this story, was born in 1942 in East Los Angeles when that densely populated census tract wasn’t yet thoroughly Hispanic. Sicilian on his mother’s side, Reid played football in high school and at Cal State LA (then called Los Angeles State) before joining the Navy where he first laced on a pair of boxing gloves. In 1968, he was an alternate on the U.S. Olympic boxing team representing the Alameda (CA) Naval Base. In those days, the bulk of America’s top amateur boxers were members of the Armed Forces.

Reid had a brief pro career, finishing 5-1-2. His final bout with fellow unbeaten Rudy Robles was the headline attraction of a 1971 show at the Olympic Auditorium. Robles, a future world title challenger who lasted 15 rounds with Rodrigo Valdez, won a lopsided decision.

Reid’s manager Jackie McCoy who hung his hat at LA’s Hoover Street Gym could see that Reid had a dim future as a pro boxer but saw something in Reid that suggested to him that Reid would make a fine trainer. McCoy had recently acquired the contract of Guadalajara lightweight Rodolfo Gonzalez and Reid started working with him.

On Nov. 10, 1972, Gonzalez challenged WBC 135-pound champion Chango Carmona at the LA Sports Arena. Carmona had won the belt from another Jackie McCoy fighter, Mando Ramos, and would enter the ring a 3/1 favorite. In a major surprise, Gonzalez not only de-throned Carmona but in a dominant fashion, winning virtually every round until Carmona was pulled out after the 12^th frame.

Jesse Reid had his first champion.

Reid’s work caught the attention of Billy Baxter, a high-stakes gambler who had become smitten with boxing after acquiring the contract of Las Vegas super welterweight Rocky Mosley Jr, a parcel he purportedly won in a poker game. Baxter subsequently purchased the contract of Bruce Curry from Fort Worth, Texas promoter Dave Gorman.

With Reid in his corner, Curry, the half-brother of the brilliant Donald Curry, won the WBC world super lightweight title in 1983 and made two successful defenses before losing the belt to Billy Costello. But what seemed like a healthy relationship turned toxic in a hurry.

Curry was showing signs of paranoia before his match with Costello and the defeat preyed on his mind. On the afternoon of Feb. 3, 1984, five days after losing his title to Costello, Curry confronted Reid at the old Golden Gloves gym in downtown Las Vegas and started punching him. Reid retaliated and opened an old cut between Curry’s eyes. The boxer then ran to his car and returned with a handgun, firing a bullet through the front door of the gym. Reid had the presence of mind to have locked it and was out of harm’s way.

At Reid’s recommendation, Curry was released without bail with the proviso that he return to Fort Worth and seek psychological help. “Bruce went through a lot growing up,” says Reid, looking back. “I didn’t want him to go to prison, because I knew that someone would kill him in there.”

Reid was then involved with Roger Mayweather who had signed with Baxter coming out of the amateur ranks. A multi-belt champion, Mayweather won his first world title in his fifteenth pro bout, unseating Puerto Rican veteran Samuel Serrano in San Juan. Roger would go on to train his famous nephew, applying some of the principles that Jesse Reid had taught him.

The next future champions that Reid helped develop – middleweight Frank Tate, featherweight Calvin Grove, and the Canizales brothers, Gaby and Orlando – represented the fertile but short-lived Houston Boxing Association, an entity founded by Josephine Abercrombie, the heiress to a Texas oil fortune.

“Josephine was a wonderful lady,” says Reid, who notes that she sponsored the 1984 U.S. Olympic team that prepared for the LA Games at her 5,000-acre Texas cattle ranch. (Abercrombie, a noted philanthropist, died earlier this year at age 95.)

The under-appreciated Frank Tate won the vacant IBF middleweight title at Caesars Palace in 1987 with a one-sided decision over Michael Olajide. It was a battle between former Olympic gold medalists, both undefeated, and was a particularly gratifying night for Reid as he had worked with Tate from the very onset of Tate’s pro career, not to mention the fact that his guy was a 2/1 underdog. “Winning a world title is always sweeter when your guy upsets the odds,” says Reid.

The younger Canizales brother, Orlando, and Jesse Reid had one of the most successful runs of any boxer-trainer tandem in boxing history. Canizales, who entered the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2009, holds the bantamweight record for successful title defenses with 15.

“We never had a formal contract,” says Reid. “Orlando was a great guy to work with. A guy with a very high ring IQ and very loyal.”

Reid wasn’t with Lamon Brewster when Brewster won the WBO version of the world heavyweight title with a fifth-round stoppage of Wladimir Klitschko. But Brewster’s performance was lacking in his first title defense – he was lucky to escape with a split decision over unheralded Kali Meehan – and that led him to reach out to Reid who had worked with him in his amateur days.

Brewster brought to Reid what is every boxing trainer’s dream, the opportunity to work with a world heavyweight champion. He made two successful title defenses with Reid in his corner, the first a 52-second blowout of Andrew Golota in Chicago.

The late Erie, Pennsylvania promoter Mike Acri would figure prominently in Reid’s life. Acri was best known as a re-furbisher; as someone adept at taking a high-profile fighter whose best years were behind him and orchestrating a late-career surge.

Hector Camacho had fallen out of favor after one-sided defeats to Julio Cesar Chavez and Felix Trinidad. Acri picked up his contract for peanuts and navigated him into good paying matches with 45-year-old Roberto Duran and 40-year-old Sugar Ray Leonard, preludes to a more lucrative match with Oscar De La Hoya.

The De La Hoya fight didn’t go well (the Macho Man fought a survivor’s fight and lost every round) but with Reid on board, Camacho toppled Duran and Leonard, sending Sugar Ray off into a final retirement with a fifth-round stoppage.

Camacho had the reputation of someone who was difficult to handle. That went double for Johnny Tapia who had Reid and the great Eddie Futch in his corner for what was arguably his biggest fight, a match in Las Vegas with Albuquerque rival Danny Romero with two world title belts at stake. Romero, considered the bigger puncher, went to post the favorite. Tapia outclassed him.

Dealing with Tapia meant dealing with Theresa Tapia, Johnny’s over-protective wife and manager. “One time I showed up at the gym wearing a Roberto Duran tee shirt,” recalls Reid, laughing at the memory. “Theresa didn’t appreciate that and made me buy 25 of her Johnny Tapia tee shirts.”

Mike Acri, the re-furbisher, proved that he could also “move” a good prospect when he took Paul Spadafora under his wing. Spadafora, who was from McKees Rocks, a rough-and-tumble former iron works town on the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, went from being the house fighter at the Mountaineer Racetrack and Casino in West Virginia to the IBF world lightweight champion.

Spadafora was two fights into his title reign when Acri hired Jesse Reid to assist Paul’s longtime trainer Tom Yankello. Five more successful title defenses would follow preceding a 12-round draw with rugged Romanian-Canadian battler Leonard Dorin, the first blemish on Spadafora’s record.

Spadafora, dubbed the “Pittsburgh Kid,” had his demons. Before turning pro, he was shot in the leg by a policeman while riding in a car that was the subject of a police chase. In his most infamous incident, he shot his girlfriend Nadine Russo in the chest at a McKees Rocks gas station. After that alcohol-infused incident, which he doesn’t remember, he was out of the ring for 27 months while serving time in various correctional institutions.

Spadafora reeled off 10 straight wins after returning to the ring, bumping him into a bout with Venezuela’s Johan Perez, a match sanctioned for the interim WBA 140-pound title. Perez won the decision, becoming the first and last man to defeat Paul Spadafora who had one more fight before leaving the ring with a 49-1-1 (19) record.

Spadafora would be arrested twice more after his final fight. The catalysts were disturbances at the home of his mother and at a Pittsburgh-area tavern.

Before his next-to-last fight, there had been talk of Spadafora moving up in weight to challenge Floyd Mayweather. They had shared the ring once previously, a 6-round sparring session at Richard Steele’s North Las Vegas gym.

Jesse Reid remembers how that came about. “Floyd’s father, Floyd Mayweather Sr, came up to me and said, ‘Why don’t you let that paisan of yours spar somebody good for a change?’ Paul felt disrespected and asked me to make it happen.”

Ask Jesse Reid and he will tell you that Spadafora had all the best of it. “I told him to get in Floyd’s grill and concentrate on the body and he brought out the puppy dog in Mayweather.”

Floyd and his dad, needless to say, likely remember things differently. Regardless, talk of a possible fight between Spadafora and Mayweather ceased when Spadafora was upset by Johan Perez.

Jesse Reid has stayed loyal to Spadafora, as has Nadine (a story for another day). Nowadays, you can find Paul and Nadine and their 17-year-old son Geno Spadafora, an amateur boxer, most afternoons at DLX. The erstwhile Pittsburgh Kid, now 46 years old, isn’t merely an observer. He works out ferociously, setting an example for Geno and the other young boxers going through their paces.

“He’s doing great,” says Jesse Reid, the professor of pugilism who may not be done manufacturing champions.

Arne K. Lang’s latest book, titled “George Dixon, Terry McGovern and the Culture of Boxing in America, 1890-1910,” has rolled off the press. Published by McFarland, the book can be ordered directly from the publisher (https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/clash-of-the-little-giants) or via Amazon.

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

Published

10 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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