STEVE’S SOAPBOX
T he boxing world was stunned and saddened when it was announced in late July that noted trainer Tommy Brooks had passed away at the age of 71 after a battle with colon cancer. Brooks was a fixture in the corner of a multitude of world-class boxers throughout the past few decades. Brooks worked with Rocky Lockridge, Evander Holyfield, Vassiliy Jirov, Mike Tyson and the Klitschko brothers, among several other standouts. He was known for his straightforward, no-nonsense style with boxers and always being cooperative with the media. With Brooks, you knew what you were getting: a consummate pro and a decent human being. There was universal respect for him as both a trainer and a person. Brooks was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, but grew up in San Diego, California. He was the oldest of 11 children. During his teenage years, he began boxing at the Archie Moore ABC Club and became a noted amateur competitor. Brooks won a multitude of national tournaments, a signature accomplishment being a victory against Michael Spinks for the 1975 AAU middleweight championship. After embarking on a short professional career, he retired from the ring and began training fighters in 1982. In due time, he became closely associated with Main Events and the talented stable of boxers who were led in the corner by the dynamic duo of George Benton and Lou Duva. Main Events was on its way to becoming a promotional powerhouse, as they eventually signed most of the highly decorated 1984 U.S. Olympic squad that included Holyfield, Pernell Whitaker, Mark Breland and Meldrick Taylor. Brooks would soon be spending a lot of time around them. As that group of Olympians became standout pros, they were a constant presence on nationally televised shows on various networks, as were those assisting Benton and Duva. You were
invariably going to see either Brooks or another young trainer who himself would go on to big things in boxing – Ronnie Shields. “That was definitely like going to college,” Shields told The Ring. “Lou and George were the best of the best. The best in the world to work with, especially George. He was one of those guys who was so smart. He had seen everything, done everything. He was just unbelievable to work with. I learned so much from him.” Like Brooks, Shields had hung up the gloves and transitioned to training boxers. He caught the eye of Benton and Duva while working the pads with a boxer in the gym and was asked to join Main Events. “I knew I was very lucky,” he said. While Benton and Duva were the two sages in charge, Brooks and Shields were their trusty lieutenants in the gym. Their day- to-day responsibilities were pretty simple: “Whatever George wanted us to do, basically,” said Shields. “He’d say, ‘I want you to do the hand pads with this guy. I need you to make him do certain things.’ Whatever George felt needed to be done, Tommy and I basically had to do that.” Boxing, like many other businesses, is built on relationships. Throughout the years, Brooks made influential friends that would serve him well. One of them was Gary Gittelsohn, who at that time was a close friend of Shelly Finkel (who managed Holyfield, Whitaker, Breland and Taylor) and attended many of the Main Events cards of that era. He quickly struck up a close bond with Brooks. “Almost from the get-go, I thought he was a rare guy in that he was a gentleman – and a gentleman in a very tough profession,” said Gittelsohn, who remembers sharing many meals with the up-and-coming trainer. “So when I started managing fighters, Tommy was a natural fit, both
professionally – because he really knew the craft – and personally, because we got along so well.” Gittelsohn’s most prized client was Junior “Poison” Jones. After the untimely passing of trainer Joey Fariello, it was Brooks who was an easy choice to take over. “It was a really good combination,” said Gittelsohn. “They worked really well together.” In the following years, the likes of
I never really had it with any other trainer. He was remarkable.” And not only did Brooks get into the Duva family business, he became a family member when he married Lou's daughter Donna. Her brother Dino, who worked on the promotional side of Main Events, said: “It was all for the good. My father loved Tommy. He brought him along. Tommy worked under my father and George Benton for a long time and he became one great trainer. He and Donna were married right till the end.” Throughout the years, Dino’s admiration for Brooks only grew. “Just a solid guy,” he said. “Not the kind of guy who is abrasive or anything like that. He was easy to get along with and had a great sense of humor. As a person in private life, he was a great guy.” Duva does have one regret. He says that after his sister and brother-in-law moved to Georgia from New Jersey a few years ago, “I kind of lost touch with them. We all did. That’s something that will always bother me. But life is like that sometimes.” But they will always have memories of when Main Events was on top of the boxing world as they battled the likes of Bob Arum and Don King and put on some of the biggest events in the sport. It truly was the best of times for them. “Yeah, those were the days. Those were the fun days,” said Duva wistfully. “I look back and think about it a lot, and it was just a great time. We were growing. We were all working together. Everybody was happy. It was a great time in the business; we were doing network shows almost every week. It was a great time. It’s a shame how some things ended up with our company and everything in our family. “We had some tragedies we had to deal with, but it was a great time and I look back at that and I feel good inside at the way it was. But I really always thought very highly of Tommy. I always thought he was a great guy.”
Brooks was with Holyfield when he upset Tyson in 1996.
future titleholder Yuri Foreman and Jerson Ravelo were sent over to Brooks by the manager. “I knew when I delivered a fighter to Tommy that my job was already halfway done,” stated Gittelsohn. “Everything about him was professional. The communication was professional. I would know after every workout how much they weighed coming into the workout, how much they weighed leaving the workout, what they needed to work on, what things concerned him. The communication was unbelievable.
A RARE GENTLEMAN By Steve Kim
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