Q&A: Calvin Brock!
October 24, 2006
By Boxing Bob Newman
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Photo: Ed Mulholland
Calvin Brock has never taken the easy road in life. Some would argue that Brock did have it easier than other boxers coming up. He didn’t come from a broken home, the ghetto, or even do a stint in prison. Instead, Brock took the road less traveled for a boxer. He finished high school, obtained his bachelor’s degree and began employment in a management trainee program in banking, all while pursuing his amateur boxing dreams, winning scads of amateur accolades and finally a spot on the 2000 U.S. boxing team in Sydney, Australia. To many observers, that’s where Calvin Brock’s boxing road seemingly ended…but not if you ask Calvin Brock. Read on to hear what’s on Brocks’ mind as he prepares to walk another hard road, taking on the consensus “best” of the heavyweight champions, IBF champ Wladimir Klitschko on November 11th at Madison Square Garden.
Calvin, how’s training going?
Training is going better than ever.
How did you wind up training in California, Pennsylvania? Have you used this training camp before?
Come December, I’ll have used this place for two years. I was training about an hour from here in the Pittsburgh area. I was training, having to travel to the gym twice, which took about 25 minutes each way, so an hour and forty minutes a day riding there and back again to an extended stay hotel. I had to cook for myself, wash my clothes, shop. It was just wearing me out, so I asked Tom (Yankello) about this place up here in California, PA because Paul Spadafora used to come up here and train. I told him I wanted to go here too no matter how it was and it turned out to be real nice.
So there are a lot less hassles at this place?
Yeah, there are no hassles here because the living quarters, the boxing gym, the kitchen is all in one. The camp owner, he does all the work, he does the cooking, the cleaning, the washing clothes. All I do is get up in the morning and walk into the gym.
What is your mind set and level of focus like as you approach the fight?
If I had to box Wladimir Klitschko this weekend, I could do it and win no problem. I’m in great shape now but I will be in superb shape come November 11th. I’m confident, mentally prepared and will become the new heavyweight champion of the world on November 11th.
Some fighters are very intense in the ring, while others seem amazingly relaxed. Do you use a blend of these approaches in the ring?
Yes, absolutely. It’s intensity with calmness and reserve together at the same time. I don’t ever get excited or worried during my boxing matches because I have the experience, the confidence, the skill level and conditioning. I just have a good time in the ring. I have a good time training as well.
I’m sure you’ve seen fighters who end up drained physically because they can’t remain calm, get psyched out before the match even starts.
My mind remains stress free the whole time. Obviously I think about my strategy but I don’t psych myself out. I’m made for this man. I have a very strong mind.
You’ve been in the ring with some pretty tall opponents, especially Jameel McCline. Are you using opponents in sparring to prepare you for Klitschko’s height?
Well yes. Some are his height, some are not. My sparring partners are close enough to Wladimir’s style that I won’t have a problem with him. I always tailor my sparring partners according to who my opponent is.
Much has been made of Wladimir’s losses being due to his loss of composure when he gets hit in the chin. Are you taking any of that into consideration while drawing up your battle plan?
I’m not looking at making him lose his composure. I’m focusing in hitting and not getting hit which is the sweet science of boxing. Although, I’m taking into consideration that in a very tough boxing match, he tends to get hit a lot and I’m better than all the guys who beat him. He’s never faced anyone like me before. I’m not underestimating him because he’s been through some trials and maybe he’s matured. Maybe he won’t fall under pressure and give up in heart and spirit after getting punched a lot. Normally, 99% of the time at the level that Wladimir is at, with the years and experience that he’s had in boxing, how he is, is how he is. There is no changing. So the world can expect...and I can also pretty much expect and be surprised…if he doesn’t break up after getting hit. But if he don’t, I’m prepared if he doesn’t. I’m prepared for a tough boxing match. Whether he folds or not, I don’t know, but he will get tested.
Do you look at him as the best guy you’ve fought, compared to your previous opponents?
I won’t know that until after I get in there with him.
So you don’t have a preconceived notion about that before you get in there with him, that perhaps you need to have your “A-game” with him, or do you do that with all your opponents?
I do that with every opponent- go in with my top game. I think of myself that I’m just that good- that I beat good opponents easily. Wladimir is good, but…I can foresee myself beating him without a problem. I know how good I am and I know how good he is, and I know that he’s not good enough! (laughs)
That being said, do you feel like you’re taking on the best of the four recognized heavyweight champs?
Yeah, I think I’m taking on the best of the four recognized heavyweight champions. I don’t think that any of the other champions out there can beat him, not any of them.
Speaking of the other champions out there, I wanted to know your thoughts on each of them. Of course we all got to see Nikolai Valuev a couple weeks ago on American television for the first time in most cases. What do you think of him?
Valuev is good. He’s big. But he’s more big than good! He’s conditioned really well, and being big, not many opponents know how to handle his size. The kind of dimensions that he presents, his conditioning, his heart, that’s what most opponents fall short to. Height-wise, that’s what most opponents of Wladimir fall short to. They can’t handle his height, reach, movement and style.
How about Oleg Maskaev who just won his title? What are your thoughts on him?
I think he’s a good boxer. I don’t think he’s great, but he’ good. I think he boxes smart- big man, strong man. His best asset is that he gets a game plan and sticks with it.
What about the “X-factor” or “Wild Card” of the four belt holders- Serguei Lyakhovich?
I think Serguei is good. He has good skills. He’s well conditioned and has a lot of heart. Well, he fights hard. I can’t say he has a lot of heart.
Well, he showed some heart in coming off the deck against Brewster didn’t he?
Yeah, he did. He has good skills and is well conditioned.
With the recent fights between Maskaev and Rahman and then Valuev and Barrett, there has been a common theme in the build-up to these fights of America vs. former Soviet Union, etc. Are you glad this isn’t being used in your fight on November 11th?
It doesn’t matter to me. I don’t even think about it. That’s not my motivation. My motivation is to become the undefeated and sole undisputed heavyweight champion of the world, to secure my future financially and to accomplish my goals in this sport. If I end up being the only American heavyweight- that is if Shannon Briggs don’t beat Sergeui Lyakhovich, that’s just an added benefit that makes me more marketable, more of a star that hopefully, people will recognize and attach to it. Other than that, I’m just in there to win for the same purposes that I’ve always had.
I was at your only Olympic match- a loss to Paolo Vidoz- in Sydney at the 2000 games. You had to be disconsolate after all your hard work to get there. Could you have imagined that six years later you’d be at the point where you are now when so many so-called experts didn’t think you would be?
Man, I knew this day would come where I am about to be, back in 1983 when I was eight years old! God put purpose in me, in my spirit and my heart and directed me to be a boxer and to give him the glory through boxing. I was very disappointed. The other people couldn’t see that. I was one of three members on the twelve-man team that was predicted to win the gold medal. That’s the way boxing is: fickle! They see you only as good as your last fight. There were a lot of things outside of my control such as my preparation at the training camp at the Olympics. I just wasn’t properly prepared and this should be quite obvious having won the national championships prior to the games, having won the trials and the Americas qualifiers to go to the Olympics and I haven’t lost since. So if anybody was right, it was me! I was right and everybody else was wrong who didn’t agree with me.
Can you elaborate about your preparation not being right at the games, since you obviously got it through the trials, etc.?
I was over trained. Simply over trained, over ran. I mean…somebody crazy in the brain would run a team the way we ran. You just don’t do that, along with weight lifting, training twice a day, we didn’t get enough rounds of sparring. The body stays broke down and when the body is over trained like that, it can take two… three weeks to recover.
For a coach to say that I don’t want to train hard, when I was 5-time national champion, made the Olympics, boxing thirteen years…people don’t make it to the Olympics or to the elite level of anything, without consistent hard work, paying the price that most regular people aren’t willing to pay. Obviously that same work ethic came over to the pros and now here I am. It was just ridiculous to think you could take twelve different weight classes with twelve different coaches, where everyone has their own way of training, and rather than tailor the group, just train everybody the same way. To expect to receive positive results is just downright idiotic. That’s what we had- we had an idiotic coach. Personally, I didn’t dislike him because of his name, I disliked him because he really wasn’t qualified to take the position of Olympic coach. When you can’t demonstrate so much as how a punch is supposed to be thrown, then you shouldn’t be coaching boxing. And he couldn’t do that. Not one punch could he (Tom Mustin) demonstrate.
It makes one wonder how someone can get assigned an important position like that.
It’s all political. In USA Boxing, the more you volunteer over time, then the more political power you get, the more favors you get from people who have political power, and that’s how you get voted on the team man. Whether you’re fundamentally or experientially qualified to do the job, it’s not about what’s best for the boxers, it’s what’s best for their clique.
There’s been so much talk about the rise of Eastern European boxers as professionals and their strong amateur background being responsible for this rise. Teddy Atlas and Emanuel Steward have spoken publicly about this. What are your thoughts about their philosophy of a solid amateur background and it’s impact on a good pro career?
The amateur program doesn’t have anything to do with whether you’re weak or strong, or with whether an American heavyweight can make it to the top and hold the title. What is has to do with is whether the individual chooses to start boxing late rather than to start boxing young. I was twelve years old when I started boxing. Now Europeans start boxing young, so when they turn pro, they have way more experience. Now Americans, they try to make it other professional team sports, and when they fail, they say, “I’m not ready to get a job yet, I think I’ll try boxing.” Then it’s too late man, after high school, after college sometimes. There aren’t many athletes like Hasim Rahman. He’s one of those exceptions to the rule. Besides him, the only person that did that was George Foreman. They were very talented, worked very hard and things went well for them. Those guys were the exceptions. That’s the situation. In a way, I agree with them, but that’s not to say that our amateur boxing program is weak.
Now you had your Bachelor’s degree before you even went to the 2000 Olympics. What is it about you that enabled you to juggle college studies and stay on course to train and compete towards becoming an Olympian?
I had a hard work ethic, determination to see my dreams come true. I put in the work and everything that came along with that: sacrifice, the long days and long nights. Getting up at six o’clock in the morning, going to bed at eleven o’clock at night, being tired all the time, taking homework with me when I went to the state, regional and national tournaments, not caring about what other people did, eating by myself, training in between the school day. I paid the price a lot of people aren’t willing to pay man. That’s how I got here, having the desire.
Which came first: the boxing gloves or the dancing shoes?
The boxing gloves came first, but the desire to dance came first. I wanted to first tap dance at age seven years old. That’s not to say I still didn’t want to do other things like play football and baseball, but I never got to start tap dancing until I was like twenty-six!
Talk about starting something late, that’s pretty late, but obviously you’ve taken to it like a natural.
Oh yeah, it’s something that’s been burning in me since a young age, it’s like a God-given talent. After seven months of tap dancing, I had progressed to a five year level. When I had my first recital, people asked me if I started dancing when I was a kid because I looked like I had been dancing all my life. I told them I had been dancing only seven months and that I’m God-gifted at that. It comes easy for me.
Where did that interest come from? Did you see somebody on t.v. as a kid? What was your inspiration?
I don’t know. I obviously knew it existed, I must have seen it somewhere, but I wasn’t inspired by anything. It’s just something that I wanted to do. I must have seen it on television because I had never been to a live recital. It must have been something that God had planned for me.
Have you found that some elements of dancing- tap specifically, have complimented your boxing at all?
Boxing and tap dancing are two totally different disciplines. I tap dance for the enjoyment of it. But it contributes to boxing as far as making me lighter on my feet. Tap dancing is mostly on the toes. There’s a lot of bouncing on the toes. It gets the legs in condition man! Also, tap dancing makes me sweat way harder than boxing does. I’m tap dancing for a minute and I’m already sweating. It keeps my weight down when I’m doing it. I’m looking forward to getting back into it when my wife gets out of law school and we move back into Charlotte rather than me having to live between two different cities. I haven’t even taken lessons or gone into the studio in the last year and a half. I’m gonna get back to it because that fire is still burning.
Well you’re in good company because Sugar Ray Robinson even toured Europe doing tap dancing while he was still actively boxing.
Yeah, took it up during one of his retirements from a guy named Henry LeTang. I think he’s still alive too. If you look at Sugar Ray Robinson’s documentary and see him dancing on stage with those women, you’ll see “LeTang Dancing,” (in the background).
Now switching gears here, had you started working in the banking field after graduation and before the Olympics?
Yeah. I think I started working in the banking field from August 1999 until about October 2000. When I got back (from the games in Sydney), the bank manager asked me if I was going to stay or turn professional. When I said I was going to turn professional, he said “You can resign today,” and they would put me into the system as a rehire, which is a very honorable way to get released from a job. I was in a management trainee program and it’s very expensive to train. They were the process of moving to a new location and using new technology so there was no need to waste time and money training me if I was going to leave anyway.
Have you given any thought to getting back into the field after your boxing days are over?
Not much thought man. If I do, it won’t be as an employee, that’s for sure! Unless God has some other plans for me, I’d like to open a couple dance schools, get into some acting. I think I like show business and entertainment. Boxing falls under entertainment and I like the entertainment world.
Maybe when your wife graduates fro law school and passes the bar, she can represent you!
I don’t know man, I don’t know! We’ll just take one day at a time!
Well, Calvin, I want to thank you for taking the time out of your training to speak with FIGHTNEWS.COM. Best of luck to you on November 11th!
Thank you man!
Brock is going to get stopped early.
