L.A. Boxing Club a Main Street Gym Minus the Grit

There was no party or major announcement. About a year after its sister building, the Grand Olympic Auditorium, staged a lavish reopening, the L.A. Boxing Club--2,500 square feet devoted to fistic excellence--simply swung open its doors in February 1994 and waited to see who showed up.

In a sport that had thrived among sacrifice, grime and tight, uncomfortable spaces, here was a huge, clean, well-lighted place, stocked with all the equipment a boxer could need, and waiting for discovery.

It was really a boxing gym done on a health-club scale in the south downtown area. Would they come?

“Once in a while,” gym manager Frank Rivera said, “a good fighter will come in here and say, ‘Well, the place is too clean, it’s too neat. It’s a beautiful gym, but you won’t get anybody in here because it’s too neat and it’s too big.’ ”

Sixteen months later, champions and major contenders swarm its second-floor gym area, popping in and out of the three full-sized rings for sparring sessions, cracking the heavy bags and chattering amid the clamor.

With about $300,000 of refurbishing--thanks to grants from various sources and a two-year rent-free agreement from the Olympic’s owners--L.A. Boxing Club President Richard Allen turned an abandoned building on the same lot as the Olympic, unused for years, without functioning plumbing and caked with asbestos, into a state-of-the-art facility.

And it has been noticed--among the boxing community, at least.

Former champion Genaro Hernandez is here almost every day, as are contenders Shane Mosley, Arnulfo “Chico” Castillo, P.J. Goossen and David Kamau. Rising star Marco Antonio Barrera is here whenever he’s not home in Mexico, and Humberto “Chiquita” Gonzalez, Alejandro “Cobrita” Gonzalez and Jorge Paez have made the building their boxing base.

They can jump on one of the aerobic machines in one room or grab a shower in a clean locker room. Downstairs are scores of weight-training machines.

“They have everything here,” said 16-year-old amateur Refugio Navarro, “except a steam room.”

Most of the time, scores of aspiring amateurs or younger kids roam the floor, tap on the bags and stare at the veterans.

“There’s nothing like working out in a good, clean environment,” said Hernandez, who became the gym’s first name fighter after moving away from the recently closed Brooklyn Gym, which wasn’t much more than a ring jammed into a garage.

“You get a lot of sparring here--from strawweights all the way to heavyweights, everybody’s here.”

Now, with the place quickly becoming a high-profile boxing hub even as the Olympic gives up on the sport, the real survival test begins:

With the bills coming due, and donations drying up, can the L.A. Boxing Club keep its doors open?

“We are in crisis,” said Allen, who used to run the Hoover Street Gym in South Central L.A., but realized the space near the Olympic could contain the full-service community gym of his dreams. “I didn’t anticipate how costly this facility would be to refurbish. And I guess a lot of people in this community don’t even know we exist.

“Though it almost seems like it’s not true, this is the first facility like this in the country. [Referee] Richard Steele opened a gym in Las Vegas, cost him $2.5 million to put together, and people who’ve seen both his and our gym say it’s not even close, we’re the best.”

After two years of rent-free existence--thanks to Olympic owner Steve Needleman--the nonprofit organization that Allen heads will begin to pay rent (though for less than market value) in July.

And though the place is full, Allen charges only $20 a month to members, asks the visiting big-name fighters to donate what they think is appropriate, invites kids in for free, and has had trouble luring the adult business (kick-boxing classes, etc.) that he hoped would provide most of the operating cash.

Allen is frustrated that the downtown businesses he has appealed to have not anted up, disappointed that Rebuild L.A. (an initial grantor) has turned to other areas, but says he won’t give up, and that he maintains a positive outlook. Plus, he says, some anonymous donor could always drop a huge check in his mailbox or the downtown businesses could realize that his gym is keeping kids off the streets.

“Against the odds, it has become an institution in the community, and I hope it’s going to remain an institution,” said Anita DeFrantz, who, as a member of the Amateur Athletic Foundation, has helped funnel about $60,000 in grants to the gym.

“It really is a marvel that it’s there. I believe people need to have a place, to be active, to learn skills, to compete. . . . People want to be fit and strong, and there’s literally nothing like it for miles.”

Other major gyms in the area are nowhere as large or as well-stocked, and the upscale boxing gyms are dominated by those who are in the sport for physical conditioning.

“This gym is more hungry; it has people who want to fight,” said Troy Weaver, who often works out at Bodies in Motion in Pasadena, which is run by his father, former heavyweight champion Mike Weaver, and who, with his two brothers, runs a gym in Santa Monica. “This is a boxing gym. The others are a lot more fitness.”

Rivera says that, with all the young amateurs on hand, he makes sure the professionals are on best behavior, and there are strict rules against trainers trying to poach fighters while they’re in the building.

When Brooklyn closed about three months ago, the pros who wanted to move to L.A. Boxing Club were told they could come only if they adhered to Rivera and Allen’s rules.

“The kids look at these guys as role models, they really do,” Rivera said. “So there’s no sarcastic pros here, and if they are, they’re not allowed in here.

“James Toney tried to work out here a couple times, and we said no, because the past experiences with him have not been too positive. We don’t want kids watching fighters throwing people out of the gym or being vulgar.

“Barrera’s really well-received here because he’s a class act. He’s a superstar, but he just walks in, because he thinks of this place as his home. Barrera will train no place but here.

“It’s happened gradually. But I think if we can keep it going for another year or two, we’ll be like the old Main Street Gym.”

Boxing Notes

Riddick Bowe has spiced up the second week of July by offering to bet Mike Tyson $100,000 that on July 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Tyson can’t knock out Bruce Seldon faster than 1:48 into the first round, the time of Bowe’s knockout of Seldon six years ago. Bowe, who fights Andrew Golota on July 11 in Madison Square Garden, is hoping to egg Tyson into fighting him, perhaps by early next year. Though there was no response from the Tyson camp, Seldon, the World Boxing Assn. champion, had this to say: “I don’t understand why this guy keeps talking about a fight six years ago. He beat me, and I give him credit for that. But this guy sits on his fat . . . stuffing doughnuts down his mouth and wants to disrespect other fighters.”

Pomona lightweight prospect Shane Mosley, whose career has been in limbo for almost a year during a management dispute, has finally completed his contract with Patrick Ortiz, and says he is close to signing a deal with international promoter Cedric Kushner. Mosley says Kushner hopes to get him a fight this summer, then put him into a fight against International Boxing Federation champion Phillip Holiday (who won the title after Oscar De La Hoya vacated it) by December.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Calendar

Wednesday--P.J. Goossen vs. Greg Lonon, welterweights, Warner Center Marriott, 7:30 p.m.

Thursday--Carlos Rubio vs. Manny Castillo, lightweights; Irvine Marriott, 7:30 p.m.

Friday--Antonio Margarito vs. Rodney Jones, welterweights; Joel Garcia vs. Angelo Nunez, lightweights, Culver City Veterans Memorial Auditorium, 7:30 p.m.