PUGILISTS 3 : Professional Boxing Triplets Troy, Lloyd and Floyd Weaver Aligned in Body and Spirit in Pursuit of Middleweight Titles

You’re a professional fighter. It’s one hour before your bout and you’re sitting in your dressing room, trying to shake loose the butterflies.

Suddenly, you think you see your opponent shadowbox his way down the hall. He returns a half-hour later, bruised and with blood on his trunks.

Several minutes later, you think you see him come shadowboxing down the hall again. But now, the bruises have mysteriously disappeared. So has the blood.

What’s going on?

Again a half-hour goes by. Again he returns, showing the effects of having been in a fight.

By now, you are totally confused. But you march out to the ring for your scheduled match. And there he is again. Looks like the same guy, appearing as fresh as if he hadn’t been in a fight.

Are you losing your mind? Taken too many punches?

Nothing of the sort. You have just been exposed to boxing’s newest phenomenon, the Weaver triplets.

Meet Troy, Lloyd and Floyd, 25-year-old identical Eddie Murphy look-alikes currently training at the Ten Goose Boxing Club of North Hollywood.

The differences are slight, the similarities about what you’d expect for triplets.

Introducing:

Troy: 5-feet-11, 168 pounds, super middleweight, 7-2-2 record and seven knockouts.

Lloyd: 5-10, 159, middleweight, 6-1 and four knockouts.

Floyd: 5-9, 154, junior middleweight, 9-1-1 and seven knockouts.

“It is sort of amazing,” said trainer Joe Goossen, who is working with the triplets. “One or the other of them might have greater strength, more quickness, faster feet, but they have so many similarities in tactics and style that only their mother can tell the difference. They all have their moments. In a sparring session, you might say, ‘Troy looks better’, or ‘Lloyd looks better,’ or ‘Floyd looks better.’ They take turns, but it all balances out.”

The first time Goossen met the triplets, he didn’t know quite what to think.

“We were in Las Vegas for a Michael Nunn fight,” Goossen said, “and I saw them in the lobby of a hotel in identical outfits. Your first reaction is, you might think this is a tightrope act. But once you see them in their tank tops and see them in the ring, you know how serious they are. Plus, they are classy kids.”

It was a seriousness bred at an early age. Three of nine brothers, the triplets literally grew up in the ring, watching first their father, Ardane, fight as an amateur, and then their big brother, Mike, who went on to win the World Boxing Assn. heavyweight title.

But before dedicating themselves to boxing, the Weaver trio caused havoc in other sports. At Edgewood High in West Covina, they played football and ran track. They formed three-quarters of a relay team. And drove many a defender crazy as football’s only true triple threat.

“It kind of intimidated a defensive back to see the three of us coming down the field, going out for a pass. They didn’t know which way to go,” Floyd said.

Or was it Lloyd? Or Troy?

Sometimes it’s all three. Ask a question of one and the other two often join in to complete the sentence.

As amateur boxers, the Weavers were as close in skills as ever. Floyd was 25-7, Lloyd 28-7, Troy 21-4. One fighter saw all of them fight in one day but did not realize he was watching triplets. He approached one of them, scratching his head in wonder.

“You fought three times,” the stunned onlooker said. “You bad!!!”

In those days, the Weavers admit, they were not above switching places.

“Troy, who was born first, was always the biggest and hit the hardest,” Lloyd said. “So if I had to face a big guy, I might have him take my place. Or I might do the same thing for Floyd.”

But asked if they would now, as pros, rather switch than fight, three heads shook no in unison.

Nor did they ever switch places as high school athletes.

“I wanted,” Troy said, “for girls to recognize me for me.”

The Weavers have moved to Canoga Park and fight regularly at The Country Club in Reseda. Floyd will fight in Monday night’s main event against Nate Dryer (10-5, five knockouts) of Phoenix.

The Weavers are also beginning to venture into other fields. They played clones on a Star Trek episode and are currently featured on a billboard and in magazines in national ads for a clothing store.

Modeling and acting are possible careers down the line, but all three insist the immediate goal is a title for each. They’ll stay in separate weight divisions because they feel comfortable where they are and because they never want to be in a position of having to fight each other.

Watching the trio at the Country Club, where all have fought on the same card several times, it is sometimes difficult to ascertain who is fighting. While one of them is in the ring, the other two are crouched in a corner, bobbing, weaving and throwing phantom punches at the opponent while seemingly feeling the pain of every punch thrown at their brother.

“When one of my brothers is tired, I’m tired,” Troy said.

“There’s always a lot of pressure when we all fight,” Lloyd said, “because when one of us loses, it seems like we all lost. We are a unit.”

Like no other.