Eddy Reynoso is The TSS 2019 Trainer of the Year

Years ago a legendary fight manager once advised “don’t be a guy who prepares fighters, be a professor who teaches boxing.”

Those words forever guide our Trainer of the Year for 2019, Mexico’s Eddy Reynoso who mentors dozens of pugilists including four-division world champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez, considered by many the best fighter today pound for pound.

It all began in a boxing gym in Guadalajara while watching his father Jose “Chepo” Reynoso work with hundreds of hungry Mexican youngsters starving for fame and stardom in a tiny gym called Julian Magdaleno.

Jose “Chepo” Reynoso was already established as a boxing trainer in the Guadalajara area. At day he was a butcher, at night he toiled in the boxing gym showing youngsters the tools of the fight trade.

“I was eight years old when I first walked into the gym in Guadalajara,” remembers Eddy Reynoso. “Thank God I listened to my father who said I should become a trainer in my father’s gym.”

Their first world champion together was Oscar “Chololo” Larios in 2002.

“I started doing some of the training during the entire time that Larios was a world champion. That’s when I learned together with my father,” said Reynoso.

Another who remembers that period is Riverside trainer Willy Silva, a friend of the Reynosos, whose gym was a stopping point for Larios and for Javier Jauregui, another of their world champions who would fight in the U.S.

“It was about 15 years ago when they used to bring “Chatito” Jauregui and “Chololo” Larios to our gym. Eddy was training and also trying to lose some weight. At that time he didn’t know that much, but he was very good at studying things about boxing,” said Silva, who trained Mauricio Herrera, Carlos “El Elegante” Bojorquez and Jose Reynoso, the nephew of Chepo Reynoso.

Mendoza Influence

While continuing to work with his father, a legendary fight manager, Rafael Mendoza noticed the younger Reynoso working with many of the aspiring prizefighters. One day the manager and advisor for 25 former world champions approached the son of “Chepo” Reynoso and gave the advice that would be his guiding light in the world of professional boxing.

“He told me anyone can hold the mitts,” said Eddy Reynoso about Mendoza’s advice. “Be a professor that teaches boxing. Show them the art of boxing.”

It fueled his desire to create his own path and boxing philosophy.

During this time a redheaded youngster walked into their gym who was one of six Alvarez brothers – his name Saul “Canelo” Alvarez.

“Really his hair is what I remember most. He really surprised me with his red hair and face, it was not very common in Mexico,” said Reynoso who was 25 at the time and Alvarez 13. “He caught my attention for being how small and strong he was.”

Though Alvarez was very powerful even at a young age, the Reynosos preferred to teach him a style not too common with Mexican prizefighters – counterpunching.

“It’s something we had been taught as kids and I as a kid always liked counter punching. I always studied fighters like Jose Medel and Gilberto Roman. I started implementing that as well as the old school style of fighting,” said Reynoso.

Both father and son realized they had a special fighter in Canelo Alvarez. From the very beginning they realized he could advance further than even their previous world champions.

Mayweather to Kovalev

Through all of Alvarez’s fights, the Reynosos always felt he was the stronger fighter. But they also realized that defense and tactics could derail any fighter regardless of strength. After seven years of burning through opponents they finally wrangled a match with the preeminent boxing strategist Floyd Mayweather on Oct. 2013.

Alvarez was 23 years old when they met and was defeated by majority decision. It was an impactful moment for the team from Guadalajara.

“From fighters like Mayweather, we learned a lot. It wasn’t for nothing, he was the best in the ring,” said Eddy Reynoso about that encounter for the WBA and WBC super welterweight world titles in Las Vegas. “Fighting against Mayweather you learn a lot of different levels. The loss teaches you to do better on certain things and you gain a lot of good especially when you fight somebody like that.”

It also sparked an even greater desire to learn the different levels of the sweet science.

After that loss Alvarez seemed to jump to an accelerated level of prizefighting against  opponents of various styles and strengths. When he defeated Puerto Rico’s Miguel Cotto it opened eyes and when he shut out Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. it convinced naysayers that the Mexican redhead and his trainer were capable of defeating any style, and perhaps, moving up in weight.

Reynoso was never in doubt.

Two massive encounters with Gennady Golovkin in 2017 and 2018 proved that Alvarez was more than capable of clashing with the best in the world regardless of weight or experience. And when he demolished super middleweight titlist Rocky Fielding, it further enhanced Canelo’s reputation as a fighter willing to take risks and overcome physical and size advantages.

Last year Reynoso consented to work with sterling prospect Ryan “the Flash” Garcia and world champion Oscar Valdez. Both young fighters watched the development of Alvarez with awe and sought to enhance their own defensive prowess.

Frank Espinoza, who manages undefeated former WBO featherweight titlist Valdez, has witnessed Reynoso in action and marveled at his boxing wisdom.

“What I like is he is a teacher. It makes a difference. He’s not a guy that just holds up the mitts. If you train with him you will become a better fighter,” said Espinoza who has been involved as a boxing manager for several decades. “The way I see it, Jose Reynoso taught Eddy everything since he was a child. He has learned from his father and Eddy has taken over the next generation.”

Espinoza said he’s also visited Reynoso’s boxing library where he has tapes and books on everything concerning boxing.

“Eddy is very knowledgeable in the boxing game. He goes back and we’ll talk about things. He has every Ring Magazine all the way to the 1930s,” said Espinoza, who occasionally visits the small boxing compound in San Diego. “He studies the old trainers like Jorge Rivero and fighters like Miguel Canto. He studies old trainers and old boxing styles, he reads up.”

It’s a trait that Espinoza and others admire.

Studying potential foes and their styles – even those far above the middleweight division — has become a staple of Reynoso. That’s how he discovered former light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev during one of his excursions through the boxing landscape.

“When I saw Kovalev in the fight in Frisco, Texas with Eleider Alvarez, it was a good fight and I knew before that Canelo could fight him,” said Reynoso about Canelo moving up to the 175-pound light heavyweight division to contest Kovalev for the WBO light heavyweight world title. “We always knew he had the strength to knock out somebody at light heavyweight. He had done it in sparring. We were sparring a heavyweight and he sent him to the canvas.”

Of course, sparring and fighting in the prize ring are two different obstacles. One who felt it was a bad idea was old friend Willy Silva from Riverside, California.

“I was thinking Canelo was not going to beat Kovalev because he has a good punch,” said Silva, who was reminded of an old 1974 clash between welterweight king Jose “Mantequilla” Napoles and middleweight king Carlos Monzon. In that fight Monzon tore right through Napoles in six rounds. “Monzon was a good puncher like this guy Kovalev. I thought it was going to be the same thing. I wasn’t crazy about it but Canelo did a good job and knocked the guy out.”

It proved to Silva that Reynoso was teaching at a different level.

Espinoza sees it too.

“Eddy has knowledge of the history of boxing. He picks up and learns the boxing of the past. He doesn’t get away from that. He is young but he has that old school mentality,” Espinoza said.

Now Canelo Alvarez reigns as a conqueror of the light heavyweight, super middleweight, middleweight and super welterweight divisions. It’s lofty territory for not only Alvarez but his young professor Eddy Reynoso.

The world awaits their next move but for now, knowledge that he has been named the Trainer of the Year has brought him to an unexpected moment.

“I’m very happy and excited. It fills me with pride and makes me keep going forward and growing as a trainer from Mexico. It personally shows me that we are doing the best things possible,” said Reynoso.

It also proves that the words that shaped his boxing philosophy have rung true – “to be a professor who teaches boxing.”

Congratulations to Eddy Reynoso, this year’s Trainer of the Year.

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