Calvin Brock went up the hill, through secluded woods to a clearing and into Buzz Garnick Jr.’s Round 2 Gym, to fetch a heavyweight title.
Brock, 31, is unbeaten in 28 bouts. He came to this lesser-known California from his Charlotte home to train for a Nov. 11 title shot against World Boxing Council champion Wladimir Klitschko at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
Accompanying Brock on his uphill climb to this western Pennsylvania training camp were America’s best hopes for a U.S.-born heavyweight champion.
The division was once boxing’s most prestigious and was long dominated by Americans. Neither is true today.
A place to focus
Exercise equipment, punching bags and a red-roped boxing ring are housed in a tidy, low-slung gray building that serves as Garnick’s gym. With five bedrooms and nine beds, it serves as a home away from home for a cadre of fighters and sparring partners preparing for bouts.
“Here you can train free from distractions,” said Brock, seated at the kitchen table with trainer Tom Yankello and finishing a breakfast bowl of oatmeal with raisins and blueberries. “You can sleep right next to the ring, you get your meals on time. … It gives you a free mind, a clean atmosphere.”
Talk soon segued into action. Brock moved from the kitchen to a wall hook from which a profusion of long red and yellow cloth tapes hung like ribbons from a maypole. He pulled off two yellow strands, wrapped his fists in them and was soon shadowboxing in the ring. Then he put on boxing gloves and slammed punches into Yankello’s padded mitts.
America’s most recent heavyweight champions–Lamon Brewster, Chris Byrd, Hasim Rahman and John Ruiz–did little to enhance their reputations before all were unseated in the last year.
Their successors? Sergei Liakhovich, Oleg Maskaev, Nikolai Valuev and Klitschko, all born in the former Soviet Union and all with reputations ranging from slim to none in the U.S.
There is a waiting line of American challengers, including New Yorkers Monte Barrett and Shannon Briggs. Barrett lost to World Boxing Association champion Valuev on Saturday night at Allstate Arena. Briggs is slated to fight International Boxing Federation titlist Liakhovich on Nov. 4.
Brock says he’s most capable of bringing at least one title belt back to this country.
“If anybody has the chance to be the next big-time American heavyweight champion,” he declared, “I’m the man.”
Spotty pro cachet
A relatively late bloomer as a pro, Brock has an extensive amateur background that includes making the 2000 U.S. Olympic team but coming up short of a medal at the Sydney Games.
His best win as a pro came last year against journeyman Jameel McCline, when he rebounded from being knocked down to pull out a decision. Trainer/TV analyst Teddy Atlas says Brock’s amateur achievements and professional experience give him a reasonable pedigree.
“He is not going from the wading pool straight into the ocean against Klitschko,” Atlas said. “Could he have had one or two more fights at the McCline level? Maybe. But I don’t think it’s too soon for a title shot.”
Veteran TV analyst Al Bernstein, currently with Showtime, shares Brock’s view of himself as the top American contender.
“The obvious answer to who’s the best American hope is Calvin Brock because he hasn’t lost yet and he’s at center stage,” Bernstein said.
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Asked to name a top American prospect other than Brock, Bernstein said: “Why not ask me if I know the cure for cancer? If there’s a great young heavyweight out there, I don’t know who he is.”
Atlas has worked the corners of heavyweights Mike Tyson, Michael Moorer and Briggs. Among the up-and-coming fighters he has seen while working ESPN’s weekly boxing telecasts is Damian “Bolo” Wills, 26, a 6-foot-4-inch, 250-pound heavyweight who is undefeated in 21 pro bouts with 15 knockouts. Wills fought journeyman Cisse Salif on Aug. 18 in Temecula, Calif., on an ESPN telecast. Hollywood star Denzel Washington was a ringside spectator.
Wills won by decision after eight dull rounds, showing “a lot of flaws technically,” Atlas said. “Wills didn’t impress me. Denzel Washington did.”
Salif, Atlas recalled, “was not committed to winning the fight. So his shortcomings served Wills more than Wills’ strengths.”
A shallow pool
Eddie Chambers, an unbeaten 24-year-old, has impressed Atlas and Bernstein with his boxing skills. But they agree that Chambers’ shortcomings in size, weight and punching power–6-1, less than 220 pounds for most of his fights, 15 knockouts in 27 bouts–could limit his upside.
Jason Estrada, the U.S. super-heavyweight at the 2004 Athens Olympics, has fought eight times since turning pro that year. At 6-1 and 240-plus pounds, he has the size to fit into today’s crop of heavyweights. But he has been less than dominant, with one knockout and one no-decision on his 7-0 record.
The two top amateur heavyweights listed by USA Boxing, which grooms boxers for Olympic competition, are undersized among the big, modern-era heavyweights. Mike Wilson, who fights at super-heavyweight as an amateur, weighs about 210 pounds. That is nine more than Adam Willett, who is ranked as the top American amateur heavyweight.
Nigel Collins, another longtime observer of pro boxing, summarizes the current crop of heavyweights rather bleakly: “The field is thin, and the field of Americans is even thinner.”
But Collins, editor-in-chief of the venerable Ring Magazine, does not despair.
“Throughout history, whenever a dominant heavyweight champion like a Lennox Lewis retires, there is nobody out there to succeed him right away,” Collins said. “There is a fallow period.”
He termed it a “common phenomenon” that followed the Jack Dempsey-Gene Tunney era, the reign of Joe Louis, and Rocky Marciano’s unbeaten run to retirement.
“Even though I don’t see anybody at the moment, I don’t doubt that in a couple of years, another dominant champion will show up,” Collins said.
He attributes the foreign-born champions’ current dominance to disparities in amateur boxing.
“The U.S. does not put a lot of money into amateur boxing,” Collins said. “As a result, heavyweights who came up through better-funded programs in the former Soviet Union, for example, turn pro with better skills.”
Almost by default, Atlas, Bernstein and Collins agreed that Brock is the great American hope at the moment.
“The best thing he has going for him is a question mark,” Collins said. “He hasn’t lost yet, but he has been on and off in his performances. If he can land the big punch against Klitschko, who has shown himself to be vulnerable to the big punch …”
That is the question. Pending the answer, Collins said, “I haven’t yet seen the fire and passion in Brock that characterizes great fighters.”
Impressive intangibles
But if Brock hasn’t shown that, his dossier does include a strong Christian upbringing in a stable, two-parent family, a college education, employment as a banker, tap-dancing as a hobby and a wife, Yolanda, who is completing her law degree at Duke University.
He also has the wealth of fighting experience Collins cited: Before turning pro in 2001, Brock had 188 amateur bouts.
He and trainer Yankello, only four years older than Brock, insist they have the hunger that motivates the best.
Aware that Klitschko is trained by iconic Emanuel Steward, Yankello said: “I’ve dreamed of being at the pinnacle of the sport, and this is the pinnacle. I’m getting the chance to be the best just like Calvin is.”
Brock, 28-0 with 22 knockouts, realizes the importance of the big finishing punch in any heavyweight’s profile. But he believes it is “no big deal” if he doesn’t knock out Klitschko.
Acknowledging the paucity of Americans atop the heavyweight hill, he said: “Winning by knockout would be icing on the cake. But any way I win, the U.S. is happy.”
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