David Hopper of 8CN caught up with Justin Fortune, an Australian heavyweight contender in the ?90s. The 47-year-old runs Fortune Gym in Los Angeles, where he trains amateurs and pros, including junior welterweight contender Cleotis ?Mookie? Pendarvis and world-ranked super bantamweight Drian Francisco. Fortune used to work with Hall of Fame trainer Freddie Roach, and he was Manny Pacquiao?s strength and conditioning coach. In this exclusive 8CN interview, Fortune talks about the fighters in his stable and breaks down the upcoming Pacquiao-Brandon Rios, Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Saul Alvarez and Daniel Geale-Darren Barker fights.
DH: Please start by giving some history of your boxing gym in Los Angeles. When did it open? Why did you decide to open your own gym?
JF: I started it in 2008. I was with Freddie [Roach] before. We parted ways, and I opened my own gym.
DH: The gym is advertised as ?1950?s style.? What exactly does a 1950?s style gym entail?
JF: It?s just an old school gym. It?s 1950?s style, all the brickwork and the timber in there, concrete floors. It?s just an old school gym. It?s a bigger gym. It?s got a MMA section, ring and stuff that I wanted to do that I wasn?t able to do at Wild Card because it was too small and too many fuckin? people.
DH: About how many members does Fortune Gym have?
JF: I have 150 at the moment.
DH: Of those members, about how many are boxers at the professional and amateur levels?
JF: I have like five amateurs. I got four pros: Mookie Pendarvis, a 140-pounder, Drian Francisco, he?s a world-ranked 122-pounder, and an amateur Kazakhstani kid, a pro-debuter, and 140-pounder Zeddie Adams, another pro debuter. Zeddie?s had another 150 amateur fights. He had a really great amateur career. He has a decent pro style. That?s enough because realistically I can?t do any more fighters than that because it?s just me.
DH: You recently started training junior welterweight contender Cleotis ?Mookie? Pendarvis, who has been interviewed by 8CN several times. How did you go about becoming his trainer and what do you seen in him as a fighter?
JF: His managers put him up to me. He?s been in the gym sparring over the years. His manager was working with his old trainer after that loss to Dierry Jean and they weren?t happy with that. They put him under me. He?s fast, strong. Once you get him to sit down on his punches he can really crack. And he?s a southpaw. He?s a smart fighter. We?ve been told to get a fight before or on Sept. 1 because his USBA belt needs to be defended. That?s what his management is doing now. When it happens we?ll fight him again. Mookie can go a long way because he?s talented, and he?s young and he?s hungry. After that loss I think it humbled him quite a bit and he realized whatever he was doing before wasn?t working. He?s a good kid. We get along together and there?s a certain amount of trust there, which is exactly what you need.
DH: I thought Pendarvis looked pretty good in his last fight against undefeated Dierry Jean on Showtime. He just got caught with a flush straight right he didn?t see. Did you watch that fight? What were your thoughts on it?
JF: I watched that fight. I don?t know what his training was leading up to the fight. I heard he wasn?t doing any mitt work. I don?t know about his sparring and stuff like that. His last fight is totally fuckin? irrelevant to me. The habits of whatever he did in that fight won?t be repeated so I don?t want to rehash that. I know what mistake he made and I won?t let him repeat it in sparring or in training or in mitt work. You don?t need to keep replaying a loss in a fighter?s head.
DH: Is the goal to build a stable of fighters at Fortune Gym? You said you might be kind of overextended as it is.
JF: Yeah mate, are you kidding me? Boxing is such a cunning business. There are a couple of fighters I like. I?m working with them because they?re ranked and they?re good fighters. The guys I have I like, but I?m not taking any more fighters. As soon as these kids are finished, I?m fucking finished. This is a bad business. You know it. I know it. If I have an opportunity to get out of it, I?m getting out of it.
DH: You used to be Manny Pacquiao?s strength and conditioning coach.
JF: Yeah, for like eight years, seven years. I trained [Israel] Vazquez. I had Vazquez for two world titles and four defenses. Freddie [Roach] gave me him when I first came over. Israel and I clicked straight away. Great fighter, tough kid, good guy, honest as the day is long. He worked his fuckin? ass off. And that was the result, he was a world champion and he fought in some legendary fights. Then I went with Manny. During the time me and Freddie were together I think we never had a loss for like three or four years, which was fuckin? huge. We were just going out there. We had a good camp and it was a good gym. We were going out there and fuckin? knocking guys out left, right, front and center. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Whatever Golden Boy or Top Rank put up against us they were getting iced. Pacquiao was destroying people. He was peaking at that time. They were good days. We were killing everything. The camp split up and everybody did their own thing for different reasons. People came in that shouldn?t be there. It got corrupted is what happened.
DH: Yahoo! Sports reported the other day that Alex Ariza has been dismissed as Pacquiao?s strength and conditioning coach.
JF: Good fuckin? job, too. The guy?s a fuckin? tool. Give me a break. What the fuck does Alex Ariza know about fucking boxing? We know a lot of shit, a lot of dirt on Alex Ariza, no shit. The worst part about Alex Ariza is that he didn?t know when to keep his fucking mouth shut. You know what I mean? So I?m watching fights there with Freddie in the corner and Roach is the trainer. When the trainer talks everyone else shuts the fuck up. This son of a bitch couldn?t keep his mouth shut. He?s talking to one of Freddie?s fighters in a fucking world title fight. He?s butting in and interrupting him. It?s like, ?Dude, you?re not the trainer. You?re just the fucking ? I don?t know what you are. Well, I know what you are. I know why you?re there. You?re a strength and conditioning guy, and you?re with Manny and you?re using my shit that I was using fucking five years ago. Things have progressed and exercises have changed and reasons and a whole bunch of stuff. You need to quit using the same crap that I was using and claiming that you?re the fucking legendary conditioning trainer. Basically getting in there and fucking opening your trap and disrespecting Roach on TV when he?s the fucking trainer.? It?s Freddie?s fault. Freddie should have told him to shut the fuck up. That?s when you take control of the corner.
DH: I was wondering what your reaction was to the firing of Ariza.
JF: I don?t think he brought anything. I think he just brought tension to the camp. Trust me. Manny?s training in the Philippines for this fight, he doesn?t need any more fucking tension. He needs to just concentrate on his fight because the pressure is all on him. None of it?s on Brandon Rios. No one knows who the fuck Brandon Rios is. He?s up there in Oxnard training his heart out, doing what he?s doing with no pressure. Manny?s got to live up to a reputation. It?s a big pressure fight. There?s a lot of shit going on in Pacquiao?s head. That?s definitely to Brandon Rios?s advantage.
DH: Some fighters in the past, such as Roberto Duran and Lennox Lewis, have been able to come back from KO losses.
JF: Different fucking fighters, dude. You?re talking about a different era: different fighters, different men, different everything. That?s the ?90s, that?s when heavyweights would fuckin? fight. You took a loss and got your ass back in the fuckin? ring and you avenged the loss or you died trying. Then, Duran, don?t even compare Duran to fighters these days. Great fighters have become great after knockouts and just avenged themselves and said ?Fuck you.? They dug down and dug deep and got the win back. A lot of fighters, knockouts like that finished their careers, great fighters too. Look at fuckin? Roy Jones. Some people just don?t recover from vicious knockouts. Once your chin goes, it fuckin? goes and there?s absolutely nothing you can fuckin? do about it. That?s the sad part about it. It?s fuckin? brutal. It?s horrible, but whatever. That?s the most interesting part about the Rios-Pacquiao fight. To me, it?s to see how Manny holds up after that knockout. Rios is a tough kid. He?s got a great chin. He?s proved that in his last two fights. He?s aggressive as fuck and he won?t give Manny room to fuckin? punch. He?ll be on him like a fuckin? fly on shit and Manny needs space to fuckin? punch. Rios is an on you, rough fuckin? fighter. It?s a very interesting fight. I?m giving Rios a better chance that everyone else is that?s for sure.
DH: That was my next question. What?s your prediction for the Rios-Pacquiao fight?
JF: It all depends on how his chin holds up. He might be gun shy. He might not. He might be solid as a fuckin? rock. Nobody knows until he gets in there and he gets tested. Manny hates dirty fighters. He hates being mauled and roughed up and shit. That?s what Rios does, that?s his style. It?s a pick ?em fight. I don?t really know what is going to happen. It all depends on how he handles that knockout. They?re saying some pretty shitty things about Pacquiao in the press. Fuck, he got knocked out, so what? There?s been a lot of fighters bigger, better, and badder than Pacquiao and they?ve never been vilified in the press like this poor bastard has.
DH: Do you see Saul ?Canelo? Alvarez giving Floyd Mayweather Jr. any problems on Sept. 14?
JF: No. I don?t see anyone giving Mayweather any problems. I think he?s going to stick to that level of fighter that he?s been fighting, collect that fucking contract off CBS/Showtime, make a shit load of fucking money and go back in to doing promoting or whatever he wants to do. This guy?s a smart guy. He?s not some idiot. He?s a smart, calculated fucking fighter. He?s not stupid. People who think that are fucking idiots. Good luck to him too. If you can get out of this business with a bunch of money, good luck to you, because this business will rape you. It?s done it to many, many, many people.
DH: You said earlier that it?s hard to compare times with the different boxing eras.
JF: Floyd?s good. Floyd?s a freak. He?s like one of those athletic freaks. So is Manny. He has freaky speed. But once the freaky speed goes, it goes. Whereas Floyd has got fuckin? skill as well. Well, Manny?s fast but Floyd?s just a little bit quicker in my opinion. On top of that, he?s got outstanding defense. I?m not a big Floyd Mayweather fan, but let?s give credit where credit is fuckin? due, the guy can fight his fuckin? ass off. Fighters these days are not the fucking same. How many guys these days do you see now fighting with bitch bars on? Come on. I want to be a fighter but I just don?t want to look like a fighter. OK, well, that?s fuckin? stupid.
DH: If Mayweather retires undefeated, where will you rank him in the list of all-time greats with the Sugar Ray Robinsons and Sugar Ray Leonards?
JF: I don?t know, he?s up there, for sure. Leonard, Hagler, Hearns, all those guys, when they were fighting and they sensed you were hurt just a little bit, you were gone. They would fucking finish you completely. You know what I mean? It just doesn?t seem to be there these days in fighters. When I was fighting, if I sensed you were hurt I was going to fucking finish you. You?re done. I would be relentless until you were on the canvas, and that to me just doesn?t seem to be there these days. Floyd is going to retire undefeated. What can you say? He?s one of very, very few. Look at Gennady Golovkin. This guy?s a fucking throwback. That?s why he?s extremely successful and he has a pedigree background in fighting. He can fight. You?ll get a handful of blokes that come out like that and they?re throwbacks. That?s what they are. They?re good athletes. Good luck to them. This is what?s keeping the sport alive, people like that.
DH: You are, of course, from Australia. Assuming you have followed the career of IBF middleweight champ Daniel Geale of Australia, what do you think of his abilities and his matchup with Darren Barker on HBO this Saturday?
JF: I think he beats Barker. Geale has boxing skills and he?s a tough kid. If you?re willing to lay down what Geale lays down in the ring, then you?ll beat him. If not, then he beats you because he has the absolute will to win. He?s strong and he can box a bit and he can fuckin? punch. He?s got it all, tough kid. I haven?t followed his career too much. He?s got a good trainer, and they?re close, a tight knit group. I think he beats Barker.
DH: Obviously boxing is not what it used to be in terms of popularity. You mentioned that it is a tough business to work in. What are some things you think need to happen or changes that need to be in order for the sport to maybe reclaim some of its former glory?
JF: Here?s one thing. An HBO guy comes out the other week and fuckin? says [Guillermo] Rigondeaux will never get on HBO because he?s boring. What are you fuckin? kidding me? He systematically took apart [Nonito] Donaire, a world champion. Now they?re saying we?re not going to put a world champion on TV because he?s boring. In your eyes, if that?s boring, because I actually really enjoyed that fight, Ali is boring, Sugar Ray Leonard is boring, fuckin? Bernard Hopkins is boring, Floyd Mayweather is boring. What are you fuckin? talking about? Well, there you go, there?s one of your problems with boxing. Give me a break, will you? Donaire couldn?t hit him. I enjoyed that fight. I thought Rigondeaux did a great job. I can?t believe someone would come out and say that, it?s fucking stupid.
DH: Even in the round where Rigondeaux was knocked down, by the end of the round Rigondeaux was dictating the fight again.
JF: Of course, he?s a good fighter. What are you gonna do? A guy gets knocked down, comes back up and wins the fuckin? round. He?s like a [Juan Manuel] Marquez. That?s what Marquez does. He gets his shit together. He can change and adjust in the middle of the fight and change a fight. This is a talented fucking fighter I think. That?s my opinion. Take it or fucking leave it. What do I care?
DH: Thank you, I enjoyed talking to you. Is there anything you?d like to add or say about your gym?
JF: Just doing my work, trying to stay alive. That?s all. Same shit, working away like every other stiff in this country, just fuckin? working.
