Contender trainer Tommy Brooks.
Scott Duncan photo
Most boxing fans know the name Tommy Brooks. It might
surprise you to know though, that Brooks has been training since he was 14
years old. He has trained some of boxings' most famous fighters, most notably
Mike Tyson, Vitali Klitschko, Yuri Foreman, Junior Jones, and Evander
Holyfield, to name but a few. He admitted that he has been very fortunate. In
fact, he is working with Holyfield right now, and that fight should be sometime
in May. He told me that the fight would be a rematch between Holyfield and
Nikolay Valuev, who he fought last December in Switzerland.
But Brooks was also a fighter, and won seven in a row before
experiencing two consecutive defeats. I was wondering if that was what caused
him to give up his career in the ring. He laughed before answering. “I felt I
had other attributes – I didn’t have to fight if I didn’t want to. That’s not
taking anything away from those I came through the amateurs with, like Ray
Leonard, the Spinks brothers, and Aaron Pryor.”
Brooks did not find out until relatively late that he was
going to Singapore as a trainer for The Contender. Actually, he was expecting
the other trainer to be Buddy McGirt, but John Bray ended up replacing McGirt
at the last minute. No problem there though, as Tommy and John get along just
fine. “I get along with everybody!” he said, laughing. He continued to chuckle
when he said, “John’s a piece of work, they broke the mold when they made him,”
He then got a little serious. “He’s a sweetheart though, he’s a real good
person.”
After the first two fights which Bray’s fighters won,
Tommy’s men dominated the tournament. To Brooks, there was an easy explanation.
“The guys that listened were the guys that won! Like I told them when we were
there, ‘I can tell you how to beat anybody, but you’ve got to do it.’ This is
business. If they do what you tell them to do they can be successful, if not,
well, they’re going home.”
When I mentioned that I was a little disappointed that Felix
Cora, Jr. did not go on, Brooks said, “You get caught, you get caught. You get
one opportunity. That was the thing I was trying to get across to the guys. You
get one opportunity, and if you make one mistake it costs you the whole ball of
wax.
“And not just in the Contender program,” he continued, “but
in the fight business.”
There was one question that I wanted to ask both of the
trainers. I wondered what one fighter was a surprise with his tenacity and
which one was a bit of a disappointment. “There wasn’t really a
disappointment,” Tommy told me. “I thought that Hino and A.K. stepped up to the
plate. I really didn’t see them doing as well as they did.”
As far as the finale is concerned, Tommy has no idea whose
corner he will be in. But it really doesn’t matter to him. “I’ll be happy to
work with either one of them, both of them are nice guys.
“I really enjoyed myself,” he continued. “It’s fun seeing
new talent, but even more so, it’s working with the guys. They’re trying to
achieve something in their lives, and some of them just don’t realize that this
is the kind of business where you can make it overnight. A tournament like The
Contender can put you out there. Like I was telling the guys, you’ve got to
sell yourself. Win, lose or draw, sell yourself, because people will come back
and ask to see you again.
“It was an honor and a privilege to be involved,” he told
me. “The Contender people did one hell of a job putting that program together
for those guys. They had everything at their disposal. They had a chef, they
had a masseuse, you name it, they had it. Some of the guys just didn’t take
advantage of it.” That’s kind of like that “you can lead a horse to water”
thing.
Don’t forget, if you can’t be there in person, watch The
Contender Finale this Wednesday on VERSUS. Check your local listings for the
time.
My thanks to Tommy for speaking with me. Good luck to he and
his fighters in the Contender Finale, and of course also with Evander
Holyfield!
