Fighting Chance at Stardom : Talented DeGrandis Sets Timetable for Success at Pro Level as a Middleweight

A boxing quiz: Name a rough and powerful middleweight boxer from Massachusetts who worked with the famed trainer-manager tandem of Goody and Pat Petronelli.

If you answered Marvelous Marvin Hagler, you are correct.

If your answer was Joey DeGrandis, you also are correct--and, in all likelihood, a relative or close personal friend of DeGrandis. Few in boxing have heard of DeGrandis. But if words mean anything, DeGrandis just might become a boxing great.

“He has all the tools,” said Dan Goossen, president of the Van Nuys-based Ten Goose Boxing Club, which recently signed the hard-hitting DeGrandis to a contract. “He has a chin of rock and a very, very hard punch.”

And from the boxer himself: “In two years I expect to be ready to fight any middleweight in the world.”

Big talk from a 21-year-old who has fought just once as a professional and was forced in that bout to go the four-round distance to earn a unanimous decision over two-fight novice Jason Burrel of Corona. Although Burrel avoided a knockout, unlike most of DeGrandis’ opponents in 26 amateur fights, DeGrandis showed in that June 26 bout at the Country Club in Reseda that he does indeed have a chin of stone. And heavy, thudding hands to match.

“Geez, I croaked a lot of guys as an amateur,” DeGrandis said, his Boston accent as thick as chowder. “And I hit this guy Burrel just as hard as any of ‘em. And he kept standing. I kept going back to my cawnah after each round saying to myself, ‘What do I have to do to this guy?’ He was tough.”

DeGrandis quickly learned what many had been telling him: Amateur boxing is as similar to pro boxing as a fishhook to a left hook. DeGrandis pounded his way to the New England Golden Gloves championship in 1988 as a middleweight then stepped up to the light heavyweight division and won the New England championship again in 1989.

And along the way, he, in his words, croaked most of ‘em.

“But the first pro fight was so different,” he said. “For one thing, I was so nervous before it started I was shaking. But once the bell rang I was OK. But this guy wouldn’t go down for nothing. When it was over, it was a great feeling, though. But I found out that this is the major leagues. These guys are very serious about boxing. It wasn’t always like that against guys in the amateurs.”

DeGrandis will make his second appearance as a pro Tuesday night at the Country Club when he takes on Orange County’s Richard Jones, who will be making his pro debut, in a scheduled four-round fight. Headlining the card will be Rafael Ruelas of Arleta, the unbeaten featherweight who will bring an 18-0 record with 15 knockouts into a scheduled 10-rounder against veteran Rosendo Alonso of Bakersfield (32-24-3).

DeGrandis’ trail across the country to the Ten Goose Boxing Club was blazed by an older brother, John, who cornered Goossen at a fight night at the Country Club in the spring and told him about Joey, who had worked out for a few months with the Petronellis at the same gym where they trained Hagler.

“We get this all the time,” Goossen said. “Guys coming up to me saying they fight or their brother fights or their uncle fights. I gave John my business card and said to call me in two days. Most of the time, that’s the last you hear from them. But he called.”

A few weeks later, Joey made the trip, and a meeting with Goossen was arranged. After learning of DeGrandis’ Golden Glove accomplishments, Goossen decided to give the kid a chance. He sent him to the Ten Goose trainer, Joe Goossen, who liked what he saw.

“Before anything else, we liked Joey,” said Dan Goossen, who signed International Boxing Federation middleweight champion Michael Nunn and now has two rising boxing stars, Gabriel and Rafael Ruelas, in his camp. “He is a great kid, a great person. That’s how we size up our prospects first. A man has to be a good person. We would not, however, waste anyone’s time working with a very nice young man who had no ability to fight.”

That ability to fight came early for DeGrandis, one of four brothers in, well, let’s say in an area of South Boston that does not have many back-yard swimming pools or Porsches parked in the driveways. None, at least, that are legally owned by the residents.

“My brothers and me, we fought about anything,” DeGrandis said. “And I had some street fights with other guys. I didn’t always go looking for a fight. Some days I didn’t want to fight at all. But other days I did.”

He turned to ring fighting when he was 16, and DeGrandis found that he liked that much more.

“I fell in love with the sport immediately,” he said. “It was just such a great challenge to me. I watched Sugar Ray Leonard develop into a great fighter, and of course there was always Marvin. I met him a few times. Once I had my New England Golden Gloves championship jacket on and Hagler looked at it and just smiled.”

Smiling, perhaps, at what he knew would be a long, perilous and painful road ahead for DeGrandis. But it is a road, he said, that he is willing to travel.

“I wasn’t always willing to do the work,” he said. “I wasn’t willing to get in the best shape. But now, with Joe Goossen, I’m ready. I get up every morning and run four miles and work hard the rest of the day to get in the best shape. Joe pushes me, but now I want to do it.

“I’ll take my time and let Joe and Dan work with me, and I’ll work as hard as I can. And someday, sooner or later, good things will come to me and this work will pay off.”

In the meantime, it would be wise not to make any unnecessary comments to DeGrandis about that bit of an accent he has.

“I heah people talking about me,” he said. “They say ‘Bahston’ and all that stuff. But to me, Californians sound really goofy. All this brand new carrrr stuff. It’s a cah , that’s all.”