In 2000, the State of California and i came to a mutual agreement that it would be in my best interests to move, so I did. I came to Montana and got involved, in a fooling around sort of way, with the 'club-boxing' thing that was going on. After 2 1/2 years I decided to move to a place where I could make a living and involve myself in boxing.
So I had 'my people', boxing guys that knew me from around the US, start calling boxing people in the city I was going to move to. In this way I became acquainted with a guy that was training and managing a fighter that, in his career, fought Trinidad, DeLa Hoya, Oba Carr, and has over 100 wins as a pro. I went to his gym, so we knew one another.
I started working at another gym, where I began training a guy that had begun his career with the other guy. We often went there for sparring, and he brought guys to my gym. (This was about when I came aboard here)Later, I would take my girlfriend's son there to get him mitt work and sparring. So we knew one another pretty well.
Then this guy got involved in a conflict with the state commission, claiming that they were shorting his fighter's purses. It got to the point where he was carrying a gun and making threats in the newspaper, with a writer that had kind of helped me get a gym job in that town. About this time, I took my friend (himself a former pro; his ex trainer was known by everybody-Ali wrote a letter to get him a sentence reduction, as did Zora Folley, while Joe frazier refused. His xtrainer graciously spent a week in 1993 teaching me about defense) to that gym to meet this guy.
It was dark, and the gym is surrounded by a high fence topped with barbed wire to begin with. I buzzed to be let in and the guy came out with his hand on the gun in his belt- keep in mind, he knows me! He starts in about how he saw us coming on his cameras, but he can shut them off if he needs to move some bodies. then he gets into how he's from Jersey (@brocktonblockbuster) and is Blinky Palermo's cousin, and, if he calls the shot, we'll end up floating in a river.
Now, I know this guy and he is a Mexican from texas, and he knows I know that, but he plays it off. My friend and I leave, kind of dumfounded, because none of it made sense. two days later, I went over there with my girl's son and he told me that sure, he recognized me, but thought that maybe I was bringing in a hired killer to do him in and he wasn't takling chances. You can't trust anybody, he said. That's boxing.