THE LOVE OF THE GAME
Serhii Bohachuk has rediscovered his old form under Robles’ tutelage.
defending titleholder. “The report time was at 12 p.m. We were there early; everybody was there early – except for Nick Ball,” Robles lamented. “Nick Ball never showed up. I’m like, ‘Hey, it’s time to weigh in. Where is our opponent?’” Robles said he was told that Ball was retrieving his championship belt at his home. Which didn’t make sense to Figueroa’s team, given that there was a ceremonial weigh- in later that afternoon. “It’s time to weigh in. I got my guy on the scale, [weighed] him in, he makes the weight. I told my guys, ‘Get him out of there. Take him to go eat and hydrate himself.’ And there I was, waiting. Fifteen, 20 minutes later, Nick Ball shows up. Fortunately for us,
team (which includes his son, Manny Jr., Edgar “Estrillita” Jasso and strength-and- conditioning coach Matias Erbin) turned the page for their next assignment. The hectic schedule, the travel, the long flights – like Robles said, he wouldn’t have it any other way. This is what Robles, whose father, “Chato,” was a noted trainer himself, asked for growing up. “At a very young age, when I was working for my dad – I was my dad’s assistant coach – I saw myself doing this for the rest of my life. I had many jobs. I was a carpenter; I worked in a carpenters union for many years. That was a job. That was work. This isn’t work. I had to pay the bills; I had
couple of weeks. See if you feel comfortable and if this is a good place for you,” explained Robles. His message to Figueroa was simple: “If you feel like you’re in a place where you can learn and get better, you’re more than welcome to stay here.” Figueroa decided to stay. In his first outing with Robles, the former two- division titleholder eked out a decision over Joet Gonzalez in July, but it was
“Four title defenses in a year – who does that? Especially for a woman. She fought the mandatory, had three more [WBO] title defenses, and not only did she take Fighter of the Year, she also got the Ring belt.” After sticking around the Big Apple to see the Ring 6 card at Madison Square Garden, which was headlined by Teofimo Lopez and Shakur Stevenson, Robles was on an early morning flight back to the West Coast. Serhii Bohachuk had a Sunday night assignment at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas, where he was up against the rugged Radzhab Butaev. This was a must-win situation for Bohachuk, who looked flat and listless last September in dropping his second fight versus Brandon Adams. Against Butaev, Bohachuk looked much more stout and lively in winning a grinding, hard-fought 10-round split decision. Instead of looking like an old Bohachuk, he looked much more like the old Bohachuk. So what was the difference? “The weight,” said Robles, who pointed out that this was a full-fledged middleweight bout. Bohachuk came in at 159½ pounds for this fight, as opposed to 155 for Adams. “It was time for him to move up. That’s why he wasn’t
able to perform at his best. He’d been struggling with weight. It was time to move up to the middleweight division. He proved that when he fought Butaev, a very, very tough fighter with a great corner, great coach in Joel Diaz. They gave us hell, and he came up on top. It was a very close fight and a very, very entertaining fight.” It’s one that could’ve been fought in the proverbial phone booth. All three cards read 96-94, with two of them favoring Bohachuk. The fight was closely contested throughout all 30 minutes. After a quick trip back home, where he picked up his passport, Robles and his crew were off to the U.K., where Figueroa would be challenging WBA featherweight titlist Nick Ball on February 7 at M&S Bank Arena Liverpool. For Robles and Figueroa, this would be their second outing together. Last year, Figueroa’s father called and said they were looking for a new coach. Robles invited them out to his gym, which is located in the working class city of South Gate. “We gave each other an opportunity. We had him come in, no strings attached – just come in, work for a
far from a dominant effort. Arriving in England to face Ball, they found more than just Saturday’s fight awaiting them. Robles said they were dealing with conflicts from the time they landed. “They put us in a hotel that doesn’t have a treadmill, doesn’t have a gym itself,” explained Robles. “That’s not going to help, as cold as it was. How do you expect us to make weight? So [we needed] another hotel that had a gym – at least a treadmill so we could get him to run and lose weight. Promoters want both fighters to make weight so they can have a show. You don’t make weight, and there’s a possibility that we don’t even have a fight.” Robles continued, “They didn’t provide us with a driver. This is the main event, a world title. I think we deserve that. Accommodate us with a gym, a driver. None of that was done.” It was at that point that Robles relied on his vast experience traveling overseas to call up sources who could make things happen for his fighter. “We found a gym. We moved Brandon to another hotel the week of the fight.” But the chicanery didn’t stop there, according to Robles. There were shenanigans at the weigh-in from the
Armando Resendiz defeating Caleb Plant was a colossal upset
he makes weight. But they let him get away with that. Here [in the U.S.], you get penalized.” Then, on fight night, there was confusion as Ball got his hands wrapped without someone from the opposite camp observing, which is customary in title bouts. The deck certainly seemed stacked against Robles and Figueroa. But all of that was rendered inconsequential when Figueroa scored a 12th-round stoppage in what was a hard-fought contest. Early in the round, Figueroa landed a left hand that sent Ball down, and then another barrage left the Brit dangling on the ropes, at which point the fight was waved off by referee Steve Gray. In recent years, there’s been nothing scarier for the team of a favored fighter than to go up against an opponent who is trained by Robles, who has become known for engineering upsets. From Andy Ruiz shocking Anthony Joshua
to take care of the family. But then one day, boxing started providing for me. It started putting food on the table.” The greatest lesson he learned from his father was very simple, according to Robles: “Hard work pays off. That’s it. It’s a matter of fact. I was talking to my son about that. The thing I took away from my dad is: hard work. He taught me how to work, and that it will come together. Just put in the work. Sure enough, here I am.” Robles is now considered one of the elite trainers in the sport. He is a testament to a strong work ethic and commitment to his craft and his boxers. Sure, there may not be enough time for him to always stop and smell the roses, but there’s no other place he’d rather be than in the gym preparing his charges for their next battles. “If you love your job, you never have to work another day in your life,” said Robles. “And this is exactly it.”
in 2019 to Rafael Espinoza’s late comeback against Robeisy Ramirez in 2023 – and of course Resendiz, who bucked the odds by outpointing Plant last year. But this one might have taken the cake for Robles “because of everything we went through.” And then there was the aftermath, where a member of the opposing corner tried to kick them as they celebrated the win. Soon it was a bit like Marvelous Marvin Hagler and his crew getting pelted with debris after winning the middleweight title versus Alan Minter. “I never expected the reaction we got after the win. We’re lucky we came out alive,” Robles said with a laugh. But just as quickly, Robles and his
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