Punching In : San Pedro’s Tony Dumas Works to Make the Olympics

Shirtless and sweating, Tony Dumas punched a heavy bag suspended from the ceiling of a Long Beach gym.

Pop! Pop-pop-pop! The bag shuddered each time he made contact with a pair of black boxing gloves.

Dumas, a student at San Pedro High School, wore boxing trunks made out of an American flag. The red, white and blue trunks, he said, remind him of his personal mission for America: “I want to win a gold medal in the Olympics. I want to do it for my country.”

A service door led to the alley of this downtown storefront facility. A cool breeze wafted over Dumas’ shoulders. A homeless man slept on a wooden box nearby.

Dumas, oblivious to his surroundings, continued to punish the heavy bag.

Pop! Pop-pop-pop!

Jeremy Williams, the highly touted 16-year-old amateur Senior Open Division heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic hopeful, looked on.

“We want the same things,” Williams said. “We want to be champions. We want to go to the Olympics.”

Dumas, 17, is a relative newcomer to the sport, having fought less than three years. Williams, who has boxed since he was 7, thinks Dumas can challenge for an Olympic title. Dumas is 9-2 and has won two junior boxing tournaments, including the California novice Golden Gloves crown. Later this month, he’ll box in a regional tournament in Arizona. There will be lots of exposure there. A good effort could begin the process by which he receives consideration as an Olympic hopeful.

Williams and Dumas form a stable with which Jeremy’s father, Charles, hopes to make an impact. The senior Williams manages both fighters.

“I figure to spend $80,000 in the next three years just for these two kids,” said Williams, who operates the American Fitness Gym on Long Beach Boulevard near 10th Street where the youths train.

“Very few guys can win the Golden Gloves their first time out,” Charles Williams said.

Dumas weighs 165 pounds and is expected to add another 10-15 in the next three years. That would put him into the light heavyweight division, a weight class below Jeremy Williams, his sparring partner.

“We push each other hard,” Jeremy said of his friend. “It’s intense between us.”

Dumas didn’t impress Charles Williams at first when his father, Joe Dumas, brought his youngest son into the gym.

“I thought he was a butterball,” Williams said. “He didn’t look like much of a boxer to me.”

Tony Dumas recognized the look in Williams’ eyes and wanted to prove he could stick. He credits six years in military school with teaching him the discipline to do it.

“Charles didn’t think I’d last,” Dumas said with a smile.

But he would not recommend boxing to others.

“Boxing is not a sport for anybody. There’s a certain half that can’t hack it. It is a rough sport.”

Back in the gym Dumas turned to shadow-boxing in a small ring. Rap music filled the room. Dumas sprayed water on his chest from a bottle at ringside next to smelling salts and hydrogen peroxide. Photos of boxers and news clips of previous fights covered the walls. Several photos of Charles Williams with Muhammad Ali stood out.

Joe Dumas watched his son dance about the ring jabbing at imaginary opponents. He isn’t surprised that Tony stuck with boxing.

“You can’t force any kid into this,” he said. “He has to enjoy it.”

Joe Dumas also credits the Signal Hill military school he chose for his son as a motivator. When Tony left the school at age 14, he had obtained the rank of cadet commander, the highest available. When he enrolled at San Pedro, Joe Dumas said, Tony needed to find new pursuits.

“I brought him (to the gym) to get him in physical condition.”

Charles Williams said Tony is showing the benefits of training.

“All kids see on television is the hitting,” Williams said, not the hard work that precedes it.

As Dumas trained, Williams constantly promoted amateur boxing.

“Boxing fitness is great,” he said, demonstrating a combination of punches. “It is a concentrated aerobic workout.”

Joe Dumas nodded in agreement, which pleased Williams. A big factor in the success of Tony Dumas to this point, Williams insisted, has been the support of his father.

“Mr. Joe is very involved,” Williams said. “Nine out of 10 kids that walk through the door (to box), we will never see their parents.”

Tony Dumas stopped shadow-boxing and waited for Jeremy Williams to enter the ring. After more than a month of separation, the two would spar again.

“There is a lot of tension between them. Both want to do well against the other,” Joe Dumas explained. “Charlie has kept them apart.”

The taller Jeremy, 10 pounds heavier yet quicker, faster and more skilled, presents a challenge for Dumas, who Charles Williams says “fights in the (Mike) Tyson mold.”

“He doesn’t have the face of a warrior yet, but he fought three fights with a broken nose,” Williams said.

Dumas is a slow starter and hard puncher, his trainer said.

“But Tyson doesn’t let you hit him 10 times before he hits you back.”

Dumas is too laid-back out of the ring, which affects his fighting style, Jeremy Williams said.

“He’s very quiet. If you don’t know him, he won’t talk to you,” he said.

Charles Williams said the key to Dumas’ future is preparing for bouts by getting into a “decent rage.”

“He has to get his mind in a situation where he doesn’t feel the punches,” he said.

In the ring Dumas and Williams dodged and pranced. Suddenly the leather flew. Combinations of punches were thrown by both. For two rounds they hammered each other, despite pleas by Charles Williams for both to ease up.

“This was good for them,” Charles Williams admitted later, a smile creeping along his face. “They have been apart too long.”

Dumas will fight six to eight matches a year for the next three years, Charles Williams said. The rest of his time will be spent training.

“The timing for this kid is right,” Charles Williams said. The Arizona tournament will serve “as a showcase.”

The year 1991 will be his proving ground.

“He can lose fights this year and still learn,” Charles Williams said. “And he can lose the following year and still be OK. The third year, he will be about 20 years old: He has to be ready to win by then.”

Dumas says he understands the time line.

“I have the desire,” Dumas said. “I have to keep pursuing it.”

The baby-faced kid from San Pedro will continue to pound out his goal in the ring. At night, like every other amateur boxer in every corner of the country, he dreams that an Olympic medal hangs around his neck as Old Glory flaps in the breeze.