Training Camp Won’t Be a Big Bear

The altitude and solitude of Big Bear Lake has been good enough for Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas, Shane Mosely and countless other world champions who have set up training camp in the mountain resort town.

But it is not good enough for Huntington Beach’s Julio Gonzalez, who is staying in La Habra to train for his July 28 light-heavyweight world title fight with Roy Jones Jr. at Staples Center.

Mack Kurihara, Gonzalez’s longtime trainer, has never been a fan of isolation or high-altitude training and he wasn’t about to change for the biggest fight of Gonzalez’s career.

“I don’t care what the other fighters do,” Kurihara said Thursday from Gonzalez’s camp at La Habra Gym. “I can tell you about a lot of champions who’ve gone up there and gotten their behinds kicked. Julio won 27 fights without even going to the hills of Huntington Beach. So why should I change? We are isolated here. Nobody is welcome here. Not even the rats.”

Norm Kaplan, Gonzalez’s manager, wanted to set up camp in Big Bear and he briefly talked Kurihara into a two-week stay in the mountains. But three weeks ago, Kurihara consulted his former physiology professor at the University of Connecticut and his daughter, who recently graduated from Chapman with a degree in physical therapy.

They both told Kurihara to stay in La Habra.

“It’s been a proven point that high altitude training doesn’t help,” said Kurihara, who went back and listened to tapes of his 1990 physiology class. “When you go to high altitude, you have an increase in red blood cells. With an intake of oxygen, you have even more of an increase. When you come down to sea level, and you don’t fight right away, you get your behind kicked.”

Kurihara, 69, also doesn’t believe that training in a remote setting helps a fighter psychologically.

“If you can’t make it in the city, you’re not going to make it anywhere,” he said. “You go to Big Bear and you’re looking at four walls and four ugly sparring partners. Julio’s got a family. If he’s at home, he’ll be more relaxed when he comes to the gym. At Big Bear, he’d be so upset he’d want to punch my head in.”

Gonzalez, who is 27-0 with 17 knockouts, said he wasn’t bothered that he didn’t leave home to train.

“If you are concentrating, it doesn’t matter where you’re training,” said Gonzalez, a graduate of Edison High. “I know when it’s time to start training seriously. Having my family at home pushes me. Every day I’m reminded that I’m doing all this for them.”

Kaplan pushed for a compromise site in Palm Springs. But he finally deferred to Kurihara.

“I think it would have been beneficial to go away to a camp, but I’m not going to second guess Mack,” Kaplan said. “He’s the trainer. I’m not qualified enough to know what’s best.”

Kurihara feels he is.

“I’ve been in this business 50 years and I’ve trained three world champions,” he said. “I don’t follow someone’s career. I’ve done it my way all along. If Julio becomes a world champion, I can say I did it my way.”