Boxer From Anchorage Receives Some L.A. Backing

Lee Sentinella’s naivete has apparently been as winning as his left hook.

The clear-eyed innocent, who in the hope of becoming a boxer left his home in Anchorage to set up housekeeping in Westminster for himself, his two small children and his father, has found financial support beyond his dreams.

It appears that several doctors were sufficiently impressed with Sentinella’s story to stake him to $2,000 and to consider forming a syndicate to keep him going for the next two years. Sentinella, 3-0 as a pro when he arrived, was unspectacular in his only fight here, winning a split decision.

Dr. Lincoln Manzi, the ophthalmologist who gave Sentinella the mandatory eye exam before his fight here, said he was somewhat taken with the idea of Sentinella’s making it in boxing as a single parent.

“I saw him in here in the office with his kids,” Manzi said. “He seemed like a pretty good father, a good guy and pretty sharp for a boxer.”

Manzi, who estimates his experience in boxing at zero, got fight fan Dr. Miles Stone to go along and see Sentinella fight at the Irvine Marriott several weeks ago. “Miles watched him fight and thought he looked pretty good. He likes his chances.”

Manzi hopes to persuade six or eight other doctors to watch Sentinella fight on a card at the Irvine Marriott Feb. 24 and interest them in backing the fighter.

“They’ll want to see him fight, but if they like him, we’ll do it,” he said.

Even so, Manzi has no illusions of producing a middleweight champion. “The odds are way against that,” he said. “In fact, we expect to lose all our money, but we don’t care that much (about it).”

On the other hand, it may be foolish to underestimate Sentinella, who keeps challenging the odds, usually not even knowing what they are.

Separated from his wife, Sentinella, 24, not only cheerfully undertook the role of parenting 3-year-old Dustin and 1-year-old Shara Lynn but also transplanted his family to California with absolutely no assurances of a pro career.

Sentinella’s primary experience as a boxer was limited to rough - house fights in Anchorage bars. He was driven, though, to find a real opportunity to box, to find out how good he really was.

“The customers at the bar told me if I didn’t do something, in couple of years I’d be sitting on a bar stool just like them,” he said last month, when his story was reported in The Times.

So he and his father decided on Westminster, which has a gym full of competitors.

That, though, was the extent of their planning. Sentinella, his father, Wally, and the two children didn’t even have a place to stay when they flew in from Anchorage.

But, with Wally scouting the neighborhood on a bike he had bought at an auto parts store, the Sentinellas soon found an apartment and then moved in their 15 cartons, their life’s belongings. Neighbors in the modest complex soon began donating furniture.

The Sentinellas still have neither a car nor a phone, and their recreation is limited to late afternoon walks, Lee pushing the stroller. Still, their naivete continues to be rewarded as neighbors lavish even more furniture on them.

The boxer’s promoter, Don Fraser, a former public relations man, didn’t expect much more than a heart-warming story out of Sentinella’s Southland exposure but said he was pleasantly surprised by Sentinella’s first fight.

“He has a ways to go, but he’s got potential,” Fraser said.

Keeping that in mind, Fraser will match Sentinella with some caution until the fighter begins to realize that potential.

Meanwhile, Manzi and his associates have gathered in Sentinella’s corner, too. “Who knows,” he said. “At least now the kid will get a shot.”