Joe Hernandez made the near 12-hour flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo five days before former pupil Edwin Valero defended his WBA 130-pound title for the first time with a 72-second blowout of Michael Lozada at the Ariake Coliseum on Jan. 3.
Hernandez, who trained Valero in Southern California from mid-2003 (when the ‘V-nom’ was a skinny 8-0 featherweight) through early ’05 (when the medically suspended KO artist went AWOL), is no longer with the 25-year-old Venezuelan now living in Tokyo. However, Valero made sure to have Hernandez in his corner for his title winning effort against Vicente Mosquera in Panama last August and he asked his Japan-based promoter Akihiko Honda (of Teiken Boxing Promotions) to fly the eccentric trainer/advisor to Tokyo in order “to provide strategy” for the Lozada fight.
Strategy? Did a fighter who had knocked out his 20 consecutive opponents (the first 18 within the first round) REALLY need a strategy for a fighter who was stopped in four rounds by Jose Armando Santa Cruz?
“No,” Hernandez said after the fight. “To be truthful the only ‘strategy’ I had for Valero was for him to relax in the first round and take his time. He had become such a maniac in the ring while he was living and training in Venezuela that all I really wanted him to do in his first title defense was relax.
“I didn’t want him to force anything. In the days before the fight I kept telling him not to be in a hurry and to let the punches come naturally.”
Well, as we all know Valero did what comes naturally to him. He cold cocked Mexico’s Lozada, who had the look of a deer caught in the headlights of a Mack truck from the opening bell, as soon as he was able to.
It wasn’t what Hernandez wanted. It wasn’t what Mr. Honda wanted. It wasn’t what Valero repeatedly told the Tokyo sports press that he planned to do before the fight, but perhaps it was the appropriate result for the first title fight held in Japan in 2007 – the “Year of the Boar” according to the Chinese lunar calendar, which Japan has not observed since the 1800s but the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac and their characteristics are still celebrated along with numerous annual festivals and customs that are part of the national holiday.
One of the main characteristics of ‘the Boar’ is ambition. “They do what they must with all the strength they have,” states one of the hundred websites that explain Chinese astrology, “for their strength is an inner strength that no one can overcome. There is neither left nor right nor retreat when a boar person sets out to do something.”
That pretty much sums up Valero in the ring. At the final press conference the day before the fight, Valero told the media that he planned to go at least five rounds with Lozada in order to put into practice some of the defensive technique he had been working on with new co-trainer Sendai Tanaka.
However, the night of the press conference, just before having coffee with Hernandez, Mr. Honda, and Yours Truly, he told me in his best broken English: “I don’t know, Doug, they want me to go rounds, but I feel good. We might have another first round knockout tomorrow.”
Then he flashed the most devilish of grins.
Before the fight, Hernandez lobbied Mr. Honda to send Valero back to Southern California to live and train. There, in his gym and other Southern California boxing clubs such as the Wild Card, Azteca and Maywood gym, sparring with the tough and the talented, and working mitts with Hernandez’s top ring generals, the boxing veteran believed Valero could regain the technique and savvy he had begun to show in well-documented sparring sessions in late 2003 and ’04. After the fight, however, Hernandez was forced to accept reality.
“The finesse fighter we tried to mold in L.A., and came close to achieving, is gone forever,” Hernandez said a few hours after the Lozada fight.
Why?
“Because he’s used to doing things his way now,” Hernandez explained. “He’s no longer a kid with 12 fights; he’s got a belt; he’s a champion now. He’s used to being the boss and calling the shots in training. To improve your technique and your knowledge of boxing you have to be a student. Valero has been winning – by knockout – in spite of himself. After the way he demolished that young man, there’s no way I or anyone else can tell him what to do in the gym.
“Before tonight’s fight I was telling Honda that Valero would be ready for a monster like Manny Pacquiao sometime next year. Now, I’m not sure that time will make much of a difference. I told him if the opportunity to fight Pacquiao in April comes up he should take it. Why not!? If he loses, at least he makes great money and he’s young enough to come back, but Valero’s got the kind of heart and the kind of punch where he can win.
“Just on heart, conditioning and natural talent, Valero has the ability to beat the Pacquiaos, the Joan Guzmans and the Juan Diazes of the world. I told Honda to let the young man loose on the world. It’s worth the gamble.”
Mr. Honda listens to Hernandez, but he is not a gambler. As one who literally grew up in a boxing gym and used to train fighters, Japan’s most influential promoter sees Valero’s vast potential but he doesn’t think the southpaw crusher is ready for Pacquiao or Guzman or Diaz – yet.
Honda’s immediate plan for Valero is for him to make another title defense in Tokyo sometime in May against a considerably more durable and experienced opponent than Lozada. Japanese contenders Nobuhito Honmo, the long-reigning national 130-pound champ who doesn’t have many KOs to his credit (only five in 29 wins) but has never been stopped in 35 pro bouts, and Takehiro Shimada, the 35-year-old national lightweight champ who has also never been stopped, have been mentioned.
At breakfast, the day after the Lozada fight, Honda, thinking out loud, brought up the name of former IBF lightweight titlist Javier Jauregui.
“He’s very tough and he’ll come to fight,” Honda said of the Mexican vet.
Of course, the long-range plan for Valero is to get his medical suspension lifted and have him fight in the U.S. Honda believes his lawyers have a strong case against the New York State Athletic Commission’s Medical Advisory Board, which in January of ‘04 recommended that Valero’s license be indefinitely suspended after a routine MRI exam before a scheduled fight in New York City showed evidence of trauma and the young boxer revealed that he had been in a motorcycle accident years prior that required surgery.
Valero passed two subsequent extensive neurological/psychological examinations in L.A. immediately after the failed exam in New York. After leaving the U.S. Valero was cleared to fight in five countries – Argentina, Venezuela, Panama, France and Japan.
The fact that Argentina, which was the first country to allow Valero to fight after he left the U.S., medically cleared the wayward prospect does not surprise this boxing scribe. This is the same country that is allowing Jorge Castro, a 39-year-old veteran of 143 pro bouts who nearly died in a car accident in 2005 (and spent 19 days in a coma), to fight a rematch this Saturday with a fighter (Jose Herrera) who brutally knocked him out last year.
However, after meeting Mr. Honda and observing how he does business and seeing first-hand how the Japan Boxing Commission operates, the self-proclaimed “dad” of Valero has been reassured that his “son” is not putting himself in any more danger than any pro fighter. If there was any doubts at all that Valero was medically unfit to box professionally, I don’t believe Honda would touch him with a 30-foot pole.
Simply put, the potential reward in promoting Valero would not be worth the risk to Mr. Honda if there were any chance that the KO Artist was at a greater risk of brain injury. Honda does just fine without the Venezuelan in his promotional stable and it should be pointed out that while there is some media curiosity surrounding Valero, he is definitely NOT a star in Japan, nor will he ever be.
Masamori Tokuyama, the former long-reigning WBC 115-pound champ who has lived his entire life in Japan but is of Korean descent, has never been completely embraced by Japanese boxing fans. Valero’s countryman Jorge Linares, who has lived in Tokyo for four years and actually speaks passable Japanese, does not sell tickets or elicit any sort of passionate response from fans when he fights. The Japanese people are attentive and appreciative of the young phenom’s considerable skill when he fights on Mr. Honda’s domestic cards at the famous Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, but they save their cheers for their own.
The fighter who sold the tickets at the Jan. 3rd card at the Ariake Coliseum was gutsy veteran Katsushige Kawashima, who valiantly lost his rematch with talented Mexican lefty Cristian Mijares, not the Venezuelan power puncher. And if Valero winds up fighting either Honmo or Shimada in May, the crowd will be firmly behind the native sons.
Also, if there were serious abnormalities in Valero’s brain, I doubt he would have passed the JBC’s stringent neurological exams before his first fight in Japan back in September of ’05.
At any rate, the legal paper work has already been filed and time will tell if Valero will regain his license in the States. If the medical suspension is lifted, Honda envisions a well-regarded, well-known opponent like 2000 Olympic silver medalist Rocky Juarez as Valero’s first title challenger on U.S. soil and American TV.
A victory over a respected young contender like Juarez would probably be enough proof for Mr. Honda that Valero is ready for the likes of Pacquiao or the winner of the March 17 showdown between Marco Antonio Barrera and Juan Manuel Marquez.
Of course if that happens, Mr. Honda won’t be alone in that opinion.
In Japanese folklore the boar has impulsive but gallant characteristics; it is an animal believed to run straight and unwaveringly no matter what obstacles stand in its way. We will see how far one Edwin Valero can advance in the Year of the Boar.
THREE DAYS IN TOKYO
When I was first contacted by Mr. Honda’s Las Vegas-based representative Akemi Irie and informed that the respected promoter invited me to Tokyo to cover Valero’s first title defense about a week before New Year’s I got clearance from my wife on the condition that I actually get out of my hotel room and experience more than just the boxing events of the week.
I promised her that I would indeed get out and see the city, knowing damn well that I would have been perfectly fine holing up in my hotel room after gathering up as much Japanese porn that I could carry from a nearby convenience store and watching as much TV that my eyes could take in while drinking all the beer from the mini-fridge until it was time to cover the weigh-in and the fight card.
Luckily Mr. Honda assigned Akemi’s brother Nobu Ikushima, who is also based in Las Vegas but often travels to help coordinate Teiken promotional events, to act as my guide of sorts in the city. So I didn’t burn out on porn or TV (but I did drink half the beers in the mini-fridge), and I saw more than just a prize fight in Tokyo.
I flew out of LAX the morning of Dec. 31st and arrived at the Narita International Airport (about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo) in the early evening of Jan. 1st. On the long plane ride I caught up on some movies I missed in 2006 (The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, and All the King’s Men), as well as some oldie but goodies (the classic 1949 musical On The Town) and some Japanese films. I practiced using chop sticks with every meal on the plane and wondered to myself why the star boxers of the ‘90s like Evander Holyfield, Roy Jones Jr. and Oscar De La Hoya never fought in Japan the way Mike Tyson did in ’88 and 1990.
When I arrived to the Grand Palace, a 23-story high-rise hotel in downtown Tokyo, I got together with Mr. Honda, Joe and Nobu for dinner and I asked the man who promoted those two Tyson bouts (vs. Tony Tubbs and Buster Douglas) why no big names in the game have fought in Japan in the recent decades.
“It’s simple,” Honda said. “The economy is not as strong as it was in the ‘80s.”
Honda said he did very well at the box-office with Tyson vs. Tubbs; terrible with Tyson-Douglas, “Although the TV ratings for the Douglas fight were very high.”
The next day (Tuesday, Jan. 2nd), after breakfast, Nobu took me to a temple nearby the hotel. New Years (or Shogatsu) is probably the most important holiday in Japan. Businesses shut down, families get together, people send each other cards, and the many temples are literally flooded with folks observing Hatsumode, the first shrine visit of the year when people make their wishes for the New Year and trade in good luck charms (or o-mamori) purchased in the previous year for new ones.
There were also rows and rows of various food stands that led to the front doors of the temple. I tried everything from roasted sweet potatoes on a stick to sweetened rice wine. I shied away from the stuff with tentacles (although everything smelled mouth-wateringly good).
The Japanese are very into food, and they take a lot of pride in the way they prepare and present it. I must say that I ate some of the best steak, fruit, eggs and bread in my life during those three days in Tokyo. Everything was so tender, juicy, and delicate that I almost felt like I was on drugs at every meal.
I probably looked like I was on drugs when Nobu took me to the Akihabara electronics area of the city and the famous Ginza shopping district. I couldn’t help but stop and stare and bump into people as I made my way thought wall-to-wall Japanese and more consumer products than my smalltown Mid-western mind could handle. It was kind of like sensory overload, but an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
I found Tokyo to be a clean and orderly city, one that was modern in its technology but ancient in many of its customs. I found myself very aware of the overall “society” and not so cognizant of individuals while I was out and about. Its streets are packed with fast moving citizens and cars that never seem to collide with one another. The people were polite and respectful – even the boxing folks!
At the press conference/weigh-in everyone involved – from the co-promoters to the fighters to the officials to the media and the commission – showed each other the utmost respect and cooperation (imagine that!). Because of the New Year, all of the boxing people who normally work together bowed a little longer than usual when meeting and basically expressed their gratitude and renewed their commitment to each other and to the health of the sport, their industry and livelihood.
Mr. Honda introduced me to the co-promoter of the Jan. 3rd show, Hideyuki Ohashi.
“He was the WBC and WBA minimum weight champ,” Honda said.
“You’re looking more like a super middleweight now,” I jokingly told Ohashi.
Once the press conference began, the fighters were the focus and the promoters stayed out of sight.
In fact, the only time I saw Mr. Honda during the press conference was when there was an issue with the brand of gloves that were to be used in the Mijares-Kawashima title fight. Honda swooped in like a hawk as soon as Mijares’ promoter/manager Nacho Huizar spoke up and quickly, quietly took care of the problem. Then he was gone, just like that. I thought to myself “if this same scenario took place in the U.S. there would have been all kinds of commotion and controversy”. There would have been threats of the fight being off while hordes of media would have gathered around a bellowing promoter or manger to feed on or add to the drama.
I liked the quiet humble manners of the boxing community in Tokyo and thought that quite a few “players” in the States could learn and grow by observing and emulating these folks. There’s no doubt about it, they run a tight ship over there and the main ingredient is cooperation.
After the press conference, Honda drove Joe, Nobu and I to his Teiken Boxing Gym on the fifth floor of an office building in the Kaguruzaka area of downtown Tokyo. It was the first gym I ever visited where I had to take my shoes off before entering. The non-boxers had to wear green leather slippers before stepping onto the hard wood floor, and if we didn’t I’m sure the “gym momma”, 80-something Ms. Haru Nagano would have said something. This tiny woman was secretary to Mr. Honda’s father, the founder of the Teiken gym, and now holds an almost revered place among most of the boxing establishment.
We watched 21-year-old featherweight/junior lightweight prospect Jorge Linares and his 17-year-old brother Carlos, a six-foot welterweight, workout. Jorge, who fights at Korakuen Hall on Feb. 3rd, is a true ring artist who I think has the look of a future champion. Carlos is still an amateur (with a 55-5 record) and Honda has no intention of rushing him to turn pro.
While at the gym, I met Tsuyoshi Hamada, a former WBC 140-pound title holder, while at the gym. Hamada, who defended his title against Ronnie Shields via split-decision in 1986, is a nice guy who has stayed in good shape since retiring from the ring in the late ‘80s and joining Honda’s staff of assistant managers.
“He was so popular,” Honda said of Hamada, who also serves as a color commentator for the televised Teiken Promotion shows. “He once strung together 15 consecutive knockouts; it’s still a Japanese record.”
Honda says wildly popular Japanese fighters like Hamada are all but a thing of the past with the exception of teenage flyweight prodigy Koki Kameda. However, there is some hope for the future in his gym as Akifumi Shimoda and Takehiro Ao, both 22-year-old featherweights, appear to have the talent and personality that could eventually attract the masses to the box office.
BOXING AIN’T DEAD IN JAPAN
Before I end this rather lengthy column, I want to share an email I got from a Canadian fight fan shortly after my return to L.A.
Dear Doug, I very much enjoyed your article on Edwin Valero’s training and fight in Japan. I also appreciated your comments on the gym itself and the other fighters and trainers working there. My question is, why do you think there isn’t more high profile fights in Japan? It seems to have a great market for contact sports with the success in K1 and the MMA scene. Any specific reason why aren’t more promoters staging their fights there or networks like HBO and SHOWTIME? – Juan from Canada
I think I answered part of you question earlier in this column. Although Japan’s economy is currently in its longest period of expansion since the end of World War II, the yen is nowhere near as strong as it was during the 1980s and the early ‘90s when it was increasingly used in international financial transactions and continued a steady climb against the dollar. The yen reached its peak rate in ’94 and had a steady decline for the rest of the ‘90s, which is why the top Japanese promoters like Mr. Honda were not inviting stars like Oscar De La Hoya and Roy Jones to fight there as he did Mike Tyson in ’88 and ’90.
The significant time difference (Japan is a day a head of the U.S.) is another reason HBO and Showtime probably aren’t that eager to televise shows from the island.
However, boxing is a healthy sport in Japan. It’s got a great infrastructure thanks to strong amateur programs that are worked into the high school and college intramural sports and thanks to stringent regulations for promoters/managers, who must own a boxing gym and prove that they are able to take care of their fighters for the duration of their professional careers in order to gain a license from the Japan Boxing Commission.
There are more than 3,000 professional boxers in Japan, and more than 300 shows take place a year on average.
Unlike America, boxing is regularly shown on free TV and it attracts sponsors beyond beer and sport drink companies. The Valero-Lozada/Mijares-Kawashima-headlined card was shown in its entirety on TV Tokyo, a terrestrial network, during prime time hours (between 7:30 and 10 p.m.) (When was the last time real championship boxing was on prime time TV in the U.S.? Was it Larry Holmes vs. Carl Williams in 1985?)
The major sponsor of this show was Kure, a chemical company that puts out a machine lubricant product called Kure 5-56, which is basically the Japanese equivalent to WD-40. Other sponsors during the two-and-half hour show included frozen pizza and dinners, instant soup/noodles, and home security systems.
The show was well-produced with lengthy pre-fight features on all of the boxers on the card, including the eight-round preliminary guys and their opponents. In other words, television in Japan treats the sport of boxing the way the U.S. television did in the 1980s.
Mr. Honda promotes three domestic cards a month called “Dynamite Gloves” and “Dynamite Gloves 2” that are televised on Nippon Television, another free network.
Honda also produces a long-running weekly program that covers major boxing internationally called “ExciteMatch”. The studio show is on a subscription cable network called WOWWOW, which is in roughly 3 million homes. ExciteMatch, which recently celebrated its 500th episode, has been on the air since WOWWOW’s inception 15 years ago. It replays of some the biggest boxing events from around the world (more than 160 world title fights have aired on the show so far) and provides studio analysis of the fights and fighters.
I was told that boxing pulls better TV ratings than the UFC in Japan. I’m not sure if it beats out Pride or K-1, but that’s more than I can say for our sport in the U.S. (or Canada).
