Safe Side Of The Ropes

Building a fighter.

 Its systematic, hydrooooooomatic, why it’s greased lightning!! Back in 1977 John Trovolta and his pals were joyously gyrating around in a garage whilst singing about converting a basic automobile, with potential, into a gleaming, souped up dragster, capable of racing against the fastest cars around.

Whilst I can’t exactly envisage Frank Warren and the rest of Team Khan smothering themselves in brylcream and warbling about the overhaul of their prize commodity as he pummels away on the heavy bag, they do in essence face the same conversion job. That is to give British boxing’s brightest new talent a lick of paint, and a roaring new engine in order to transform him from one of the world’s top amateurs in possession of the basic tools to excel, into a smooth running and dynamic ring machine ready to fly out of the garage.                 

 Amir Khan launched what is hoped will become one of the most glittering careers from a native to these shores in July and faces a road to the top, which is potentially perilous. There has been much conjecture of late on how to build a fighter and take them from raw beginnings to the very top of the game, with Warren himself fielding hostilities for the seemingly rusting career of the new light welterweight kingpin Ricky Hatton, prior to his fabulous victory over Kostya Tszyu. In this case Warren’s blueprint was found to be spot on and the promoter vindicated, (although public decries of frustration from Hatton may have forced him to act), which leads us to believe that Khan will be ushered down the same familiar route. However for every Ricky Hatton who is moved correctly, there are dozens of examples of fighters that fell by the wayside or in some cases ruined from the way in which they were moved and how they were matched.

 Britain’s Olympic success story from the games prior to Amir’s was Audley Harrison. Audley won super heavyweight gold in 2000, and switched to the professional ranks to much fanfare and aplomb in Britain. However four years down the line Harrison has seen his contract with the BBC go up in smoke and still hasn’t been in the ring with anyone of note. His career has been the source of ridicule and mirth for many fans and media scribes alike.

The airing of his early fights against hand picked opponents, passed off as prime time entertainment on terrestrial television started the backlash. Perhaps if he had been bouncing his opposition off all four sides of the ring like a Tyson or Nigel Benn, his critics would have been pacified, but that just isn’t Harrison’s style. There was also the small matter of Audley bragging at the beginning of his quest that he’d be shooting straight to the top in a jiffy. However in his most recent bout he struggled to shine against the limited American Robert Davis in seven rounds to edge his record up to 18-0. Former Olympic champs from 1988 at heavy and super heavy respectively, Ray Mercer and Lennox Lewis had faced top ten rated contenders such as Tommy Morrison and Gary Mason at the same stage of their fledgling careers, and had done it in half of the time. For a man on a limited time scale (Audley is now 34), his career is advancing at a pedestrian pace, one that may eventually see the parade pass him by.            

From one end of the spectrum and Harrison doggy paddling around in the shallow end clasping his inflatable rubber ring, to the other, and the over eagerness of Britain’s other recent decorated amateur turned pro, David Haye, who found himself in choppy waters last year. Haye won silver at the amateur World Championships in 2001 and seemed set for a lucrative professional career, touted by many as a future heavyweight star. However after only ten starts against limited opposition, amounting to around a measly 20 rounds of work, he elected to plodge straight into the deep end against grizzled cruiserweight seafarer Carl Thompson last year. Thompson soaked up the young gun’s best work and using the nouse gained from a long and arduous career- drowned Haye in 5, prompting many, Frank Warren included, to lambaste Haye’s overly ambitious management team.

America once seemed to have a monopoly on Olympic heroes who went on to greater glories in the paid ranks. These days their success is more limited and indeed their only gold medallist from Athens last year was Andre Ward. Ward is currently fighting at light heavyweight under the Roy Jones promotional umbrella, hoping to avoid some of the examples set by America’s Olympic crop from 2000. In a bid to replicate the fabulous Olympic team of 1984 consisting of all time greats Evander Holyfield and Pernell Whitaker along with stellar champions such as Meldrick Taylor and Mark Breland, former HBO bigwig Lou DiBella offered team members, none of which had won gold (the likes of Ricardo Williams, Clarence Vinson and Michael Bennett) lucrative signing on fees to join his fold. Southpaw light welterweight Ricardo Williams in particular proved to be a complete bust. Lauded as the most talented of the group ‘Slick Ricky’ was recently charged with drug offences and faced jail time after providing a string of insipid performances and losing two of his twelve starts.            

At the Atlanta games in 1996 Fernando Vargas failed to reach the rostrum and the USA’s only champion was the Philadelphian speedster David Reid. Both team-mates turned professional soon afterwards and campaigned at light middleweight. Within three years and in only his 15th fight Vargas had defeated Yory Boy Campas to win an alphabet strap and Reid in three fights fewer had defeated Frenchman Laurent Boudouani to do likewise. Both fighters had rocketed to the top and been pushed along rapidly by their management, however in 2000 they would both be painfully relieved of their titles, nine months apart by Puerto Rican legend, Felix Trinidad.

After taking a protracted beating Reid was never the same and his career lay in tatters. Talk of a lucrative match up with fellow Philadelphian Bernard Hopkins soon dissipated when it became plainly obvious that the punishment he had taken from his much more experienced foe had in essence ruined him. Reid is now retired. Vargas also took a shellacking from Trinidad and many experts believe he too has been damaged beyond repair; he subsequently took a pounding when being stopped by his far more experienced archrival Oscar De La Hoya in 2002.                

Of course there have been Olympic heroes who have been advanced even quicker. Leon Spinks, the heavyweight gold medallist at Montreal in 1976, famously tackled and defeated the fading heavyweight champion at that time Muhammad Ali after only eight paid starts. Even that though doesn’t compare with the Olympic heavyweight champion of 1956 Pete Rademacher stepping straight up to the plate and battling Floyd Patterson on his debut for the heavyweight title in 1957 losing by knockout despite flooring the champion in the second round. Cuban amateur legend Teofilo Stevenson was often linked with a professional debut against Ali, the amateur master against his professional counterpart, however the two were seemingly destined never to meet.           

Bob Arum, the Top Rank supremo, has been lauded for his ability to build a fighter. He marshalled Oscar De la Hoya’s early career wonderfully, matchmaking superbly to gradually advance ‘The Golden Boy’ fight by fight. He recently oversaw the advancement of Floyd Mayweather, before ‘Pretty Boy’ jumped ship and is now masterminding light welterweight phenom Miguel Cotto’s development. Cotto has bested amateur conquerors, Kelson Pinto and  Mohamad Abdulaev in the pro ranks to indicate that due, in part, to excellent shepherding by Arum his progression has been much greater than his amateur contemporaries.                 

Whilst still under Arum’s wing Floyd Mayweather was matched against the top fighter in his division, Genaro Hernandez after only 17 bouts. Mayweather won and took the WBC super featherweight title, which proves if a fighter is good enough or has extraordinary talent such as Floyd then they don’t necessarily need to be seasoned and battle hardened before they step up to bat. Mayweather’s management were obviously convinced of his ability, and may have felt the need to match his 1996 team-mate’s startling rise to championship class.

Roy Jones possessed a similarly extravagant talent and after medalling in Seoul in 1988 turned to the pro ranks, yet his team and father in particular (who held much sway over junior’s early match making), were much more conservative in their approach. Jones didn’t rise to championship class until his 22nd fight, when he outpointed Bernard Hopkins at middleweight in 1993, yet received much media criticism for his progress to that point. Strangely, even after this breakthrough win, Jones elected to go back into obscurity and fight the likes of Fermin Chimino and Daniel Garcia in non-title bouts rather than build on the Hopkins victory. Not for the first time in his career Roy would buck the trend and do things his own way.

Another factor in successfully building a young fighter is the continuity of a stable training team. Khan has hooked up with Manchester based trainer Oliver Harrison, and it is to be hoped a steady relationship will offer Khan a base as he settles into the pros. The best fighter in Britain, Ricky Hatton has been in tandem with Billy ‘The Preacher’ Graham from the outset and the consensus world’s greatest fighter Bernard Hopkins has likewise stuck with his mentor Bouie Fisher. All too often a successful fighter can start calling the shots in training camp and then, perhaps due to the advent of a bad performance or a sudden aversion to being barked at by the trainer who they once hung on every word, the trainer is ‘let go’. This can signal the end of one of the fighter’s most crucial relationships.

Lennox Lewis swapped the disciplinarian John Davenport for Pepe Correa after breaking into the heavyweight top ten and Naseem Hamed parted company with mentor Brendan Ingle for Oscar Suarez, after which both boxer’s technique and career took a downward turn (Lewis of course regrouped and managed to reverse his regression with Emanuel Steward). When we picture some of the most famous fighters the game has seen, we usually instantly associate a loyal trainer who stood by their side throughout their careers. Ali had Angelo Dundee, Hearns had Steward, Hagler had the Petronelli brothers, Roy Jones had Alton Merkeson, the list goes on.

If these fighters had perfect marriages, then Oscar De la Hoya is boxing’s very own Liz Taylor. Indeed many experts believe that Oscar De la Hoya’s penchant for moving from trainer to trainer, from the likes of Robert Alcazar, to Jesse Reid, Emanuel Steward and on to Floyd Mayweather Snr resulted in him never nailing his own particular style. In the trenches when the heavy artillery is flying, a fighter needs to believe in himself and his technique fully and be absolutely sure of what he needs to do. A familiar voice in the corner can be invaluable.     

Perhaps then there is no exact way to build a successful fighter. Some can be rushed to a world title; others find the accelerated progression too much and can end up on the scrap heap. Fighters like Leon Spinks manage to catch lightning in a bottle, challenging and winning a world title quickly and doing it with single figure fights records, his fall though was as dramatic as his rise. Others can take longer to blossom, Frankie Randall was 32 and had notched up 50 fights before relieving Julio Cesar Chavez of his light welterweight title in 1994. Some boxing greats such as Marco Antonio Barrera are able to turn professional at fifteen or like Wilfred Benitez win world titles whilst still in their teens, others like Lennox Lewis or current light heavyweight king Antonio Tarver mature late.

The management and promotional team have to intuitively know their fighter’s level and the quality of homework they do on the opposition they provide for their charge is imperative. Too often a lowly regarded fighter is brought in for the rising star to knock over and pad their record, only for everyone to receive a shock when the so called stepping stone is made of sterner stuff. Light welterweight Francisco Bojado was pencilled in for superstardom after the 2000 Olympics and touted as a ‘can’t miss’ prospect, yet in his 10^th test he underestimated trial horse opponent Juan Carlos Rubio and was outhustled and defeated. Subsequently Bojado proved he had failed to learn from his earlier setback and was outsmarted and outworked by veteran James Leija.             

    From a purely British perspective, the dream scenario would be for Amir’s career to unfold in the way of the majority of former Olympian stars turned pro, and not the hugely disappointing way of, say an Andrew Maynard or Ricardo Williams. His team will have noted the Audley Harrison debacle; a novice plying his trade against journeymen can’t be passed off as prime time entertainment without facing a backlash from the media and the fans. The hype surrounding Khan will be immense, and he will have to be protected, he is after all still only eighteen years old. Mike Tyson recently publicly lamented his overwhelming success at such a young age. At twenty years old he was just not ready outside of the ring, to handle the overwhelming pressures of being the heavyweight champion of the world.                

Amateur starlets usually progress in the pro game in a much faster way than other fighters, but whilst he may have the raw talent to win an alphabet trinket rather early on, his management must realise he then can’t go backwards. As rookie champions like Vargas and Reid found out, once you own a title you become a target, and if the fighter coming out of the other corner is a championship veteran with a wealth of experience and an assassin’s mentality such as a Trinidad, you could be in big, big trouble.                   

There is certainly an art to progressing a fighter, they should face stiffer competition every time out, without the opposition being too good. A fighter’s education must be gradual so they can reach their full potential at their own pace, however long that may take. Khan must also be fed live opponents, knocking out 25 ‘Mexican road sweepers’, as Nigel Benn termed them, won’t do anyone any good.               

At the end of the day, no matter how perfectly Khan is directed his success will come down to how well he can fight. He has the pedigree, yet he must retain his hunger and focus in the face of impending acclaim. Fighters who receive the attention he will receive can become overconfident, lax and lose their hunger. The recent rise and fall of one Naseem Hamed should be made to be a constant point of reference for the young man from Bolton who has a nation’s hopes resting on his shoulders.