ALL IN ONE
off against Bob Gibson and the Cardinals. “The only time I think I ever remember talking to my dad about boxing, and I’m not even 10 years old yet, was the first Ali- Frazier fight in 1971. And all the kids in the neighborhood were out playing, talking about the fight. “So, I asked my dad, ‘Who’s going to win, Ali or Frazier?’ And his response to me was, ‘It doesn’t matter who wins, because Joe Louis would have beaten both of them.’ “Later in life, I realized that he was representing the generational thing that we still see in boxing today. You ask people today, ‘Do you follow boxing?’ And they’ll say, ‘I used to follow it when Tyson was around’ or whatever. Everybody followed their childhood hero. And my dad’s was Joe Louis.” The Ring: What was it about boxing that gave you the bug and said, ‘This is what I want to do with my life’? RA: “[Former super middleweight contender] Vinnie Curto was the guy I have to credit for giving me my start in the game. When I met Vinnie, I was still training at the Olympic Club in Montreal … you know, hitting the bags. Sometimes I sparred, just working out like one of the guys. And I’d see this short guy with this thick mustache and this full head of hair. And he’s playing with these guys, and I didn’t understand. How come they didn’t ever hit him? I see that this guy looks familiar. So I went home and I started going through my boxing magazines. And I’m looking, looking … and there’s a picture of Vinnie Curto in a feature of top prospects in the sport! “So I go to the gym and I say, ‘You’re Vinnie Curto.’ And he says yeah. I told him I read about him in a magazine, and we started up a conversation. And I asked him if I could go running with him the next day, and he said yes. And it
natural ability to learn. And I think that makes sense. “After that, does the kid keep coming back, no matter what, even if he’s terrible? If he does, I’ll teach him, but I’ll also find him other things in the gym that he can do. He can help with the other kids, help with the novices. Maybe he’s not good enough to compete, but he’s good enough to lead the drills and exercises as the new kids come in. “If he was a competitor and lost, would he come back? David Lemieux lost his first four amateur fights and came back and went on a 16-fight winning streak. He kept coming back, no matter what.” The Ring: You’ve wrapped hands for both Lomachenko and Usyk. These are two fighters with means. They have enough money to pick whoever they want. Why do they pick you? RA: “I’m very meticulous with my hands. In my youth, I worked in a sporting goods store where I was a ski technician. I installed bindings. I sharpened skis. I put wax on cross-country skis. I fixed bicycles. So I take pride that I’m good with my hands, and I always wanted to watch, learn and improve on what I saw. “All of the guys today make a pad with the wraps. And they put the pad over the knuckles and wrap the gauze over it. I make the pad right off of the roll. As I’m wrapping your hand, I’m making it right off the roll. Nobody ever in my years except for my mentor Roger Larivee would do that. I’m careful when I put the wrap on. I make sure it’s smooth. I make sure the tape is laid out properly. I do it so it actually does the job it’s supposed to and holds it in its place. “To be fair, with Lomachenko and Usyk, I was doing that good of a job 20 years before that, but no one gave a shit. As I continued in my career, I started working with more high-profile fighters. When Jean Pascal started fighting for world titles, I got to meet Roy [Jones]. And Roy had me wrap his hands, and he said, ‘Had I known this, I could have avoided all of my injuries
when I was fighting.’ “So word got out. The Lomachenko thing happened because Egis Klimas [Lomachenko and Sergey Kovalev’s manager] was in town when Sergey Kovalev fought Jean Pascal for the first time. And for whatever reason, he was talking with a friend of mine who worked at Rival Boxing. And he said, ‘Do you know anybody who can wrap hands, because Loma has had three fights now and has hurt his hands in each of them.’ And the guy said, ‘Yes, Russ is the best at it. You should give him a try.’ “So Egis called me and asked me to come to the hotel the day of the fight to wrap Lomachenko – kind of an audition, if you will. I told him, ‘Come to the Bell Centre at 3 in the afternoon.’ So he came to the room and I wrapped Lomachenko. Loma liked it. And a couple of days later, I got a call and Egis said, ‘Would you like to come work his next fight?’ And the rest is history.” The Ring: In North America, we see the same eight or 10 cutmen in the sport at the highest levels of boxing. Why is it such a small club? Is it a function of luck and opportunity, or are there certain things that the best do that separate themselves? RA: “I like to think that there’s a certain thing that the best do that separate themselves. And one of those things is to handle doing your job in one minute. And that’s everything, from dealing with the cut or swelling, water, Vaseline, cooling a guy down, wiping him off, giving him instructions. There’s a lot of things that it entails. “There’s a way of doing everything. How do you put the stool in? How do you get the water? How do you wipe a guy off? How do you pull out a cup so he can breathe? There are so many things that you have to do. And if you haven’t studied the sport or watched the greats do it, you’ll never learn it.” The Ring: What would you say is the best night of your boxing career? RA: “You can ask me this for the next
100 years and it’s always going to be the same one: Otis Grant, 12-round decision over Ryan Rhodes for the world middleweight championship. How can it not be? The first kid I took from the cradle to the championship.” The Ring: Through all of your years as a trainer, a cutman and a hand-wrapper, who would you say is the best fighter you’ve seen live? RA: “For me, the obvious and easiest choice has to be Roy Jones. When you get into second place and third, now it becomes a little more difficult, a more slippery slope. Off the top of my head, Usyk and Lomachenko have to be there. And from a purist perspective, which means if you were writing a book in terms of how you stand, how you should throw combinations, how you should defend, technically be perfect … now, for some it might be too early to tell, but for me that guy is Shakur Stevenson.” The Ring: What does the induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame mean to you when you reflect on your career in the sport? RA: “I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it means the world to me. I’m actually surprised, to tell you the truth. Even through all the aspects that I touched in boxing, and I believe I did so at a world-class level, I thought that the new generation of people didn’t have a fucking clue of who I am. I thought that the voting members wouldn’t know who I was or what I contributed. “So when I got the call and I realized that as long as boxing has been around, that I’m the first Canadian trainer to ever be inducted … I’m scared that I’m going to have a fucking emotional moment at the ceremony that I haven’t had since my dog died 15 years ago or whatever it was. It’s a huge moment for me! “You know, I didn’t buy my way into this. I’m not part of a big corporation. I feel like I got in because I’m a fight guy, and I’m proud to say that I’m going in with other fight guys. I’m proud to go in with the legends that are there.”
Anber (left) took Otis Grant to the WBO middleweight crown in 1997.
started going from running to breakfast after that. Then it went from running to breakfast to hanging out all day, then going to the gym, lacing up his gloves, putting Vaseline on him, and afterward driving him home and telling him what he should do and what he shouldn’t do. What he did good and what he didn’t do good. “It was at that point where he gave me confidence and said, ‘You know, you are way beyond your years. I don’t know if you were a trainer in another life. But you’re seeing things that other trainers aren’t telling me in the gym.’ “This was in ’79. You can imagine how ego-building that is, for a guy like Vinnie Curto to be saying something like this. I’m 18 years old and he’s telling me this. He’s the guy who made me believe that I could do this. “I always felt like athletes get a certain gift from God. They are blessed with speed or power, in any sport. It doesn’t matter what it is. I always thought that
my gift was to teach, to coach. I could see things that a layman doesn’t see. I think that in all honesty, without trying to sound egomaniacal here, I think if I had gotten the same opportunity in hockey or baseball that I would have been as successful as I was in boxing.” The Ring: When a fighter comes to your gym, as a trainer, what’s the first thing you look for? What are you hoping to see? RA: “The first thing I’m looking for in a fighter is how quickly he takes to the things that I’m teaching him. Does he get it right away? Because there are people who spend months and months and still don’t get it. I remember an old trainer in Montreal used to say it’s not about having natural ability; it’s about having a
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