When Johnny Molina steps into the ring to challenge WBC lightweight beltholder Antonio DeMarco at the Oracle this Saturday night in Oakland, Joe Goossen will be in his corner. For a period of time after his upset win over Hank Lundy in July of 2010, they were estranged. What looked to be a good pairing was no more and Molina – who went into litigation versus his promoter (which happened to be Joe?s brother, Dan) – saw his career stall. Goossen went on a bit of a hiatus from working with professional fighters, instead training the likes of Rob Schneider on the set of his eponymous (and now canceled) CBS sitcom.
But as Molina settled his differences with Goossen Tutor, he made amends with Joe and was back in the familiar haunts of the Ten Goose Gym in Van Nuys.
According to the veteran trainer, there was no lingering tension or ill will between the two.
?There wasn?t because I know under the circumstances what all unfolded and it?s not like something I haven?t seen before and what I was very thankful for is that they came back at the right time. So I was happy about that and, look, I?m not one to hold a grudge and what happened happened. It was water under the bridge and we spent too much time together and had too many good times, too many good wins to let something as a split – which was not the type of split that there was a lot of bad blood or bad things said – and Johnny and I do get along well,? said Goossen last week at the gym. And it?s true; as you see these two men joke around and banter, you get the sense their humorous personalities just fit seamlessly with each other.
?I like him as a person; he?s a wonderful kid. He?s got a good heart and in combination with all that, yeah, there was nothing I was resentful for,? said Goossen, who thought he was making great progress with the raw Molina (who was a high school wrestler). Things seemed to be going well between the two on the surface. So why did Molina make the decision to leave the trainer when he did?
?It had more to do with what was going on behind the scenes,? explained Molina, who has fought just three times since his stoppage of Lundy and got back together with Goossen before his bout this past June 23rd against Miguel Munguia. ?So you live and learn; we did what we did. We got away; luckily we maintained our status, if you will, and now we?re back together on the biggest stage of our career.? Molina is no stranger to switching cornermen. He?s had more than a few during his career but admits that with Goossen, he has the best chemistry. ?Yeah, of course, you always think that but we went the scenic route,? joked Molina, who began his career with Ben Molina. During his time away from Goossen, he worked with ?Yucca? Morales and Clemente Medina.
He admits, leaving Goossen may have hindered his development. It certainly didn?t help that a relatively inexperienced fighter was forced to be on the sidelines for as long as he was during his conflicts with both his promoter and trainer. Molina says, ?You don?t want to admit that you were wrong in certain areas but hey, I?m a grown man; he?s a grown man. We both put the past in the past and went forward.?
The transition back was seamless.
?Absolutely, it was kinda like we never skipped a beat. We got back together and he knows what I needed to work on; my weight is beautiful. The work ethic that he puts on me is that of no other and if all fails, I?m going to be there for every minute of the fight,? said Molina, who?s the underdog versus Molina. You just wonder, is he seasoned and polished enough to handle DeMarco? Can they make up for the time they lost during this split?
Goossen says, ?Look, if I had my way, we would?ve just continued as it was up until the point of Lundy and we did have a lot of momentum going and, unfortunately, that period of time, we lost a little ground. But the good thing is that Johnny jumped right back into my gym and our work ethic and our style, right away, it was like riding a bike for me. He got right back on and jumped right into it. So you gotta deal with the hand you?re dealt. In a perfect world, we would?ve never split and we would?ve been rolling but guess what? We did split; we?re back and we?re fighting for the title.?
The trainer understands what he has in Molina: a heavy-handed guy with natural strength and power (Goossen says that Molina?s right hand is the heaviest he has ever worked with) and one who needs to put on steady pressure and close the gap. He is what he is and Goossen isn?t trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Molina isn?t going to win his bouts by outboxing anyone. But not only do Goossen and Molina see eye-to-eye philosophically, they have a certain chemistry together. The bottom line is that sometimes a great fighter and a standout trainer simply don?t work out for a myriad of reasons. And then there are other unions that are perfectly aligned. It?s one of the intangibles of the sport. ?Personality-wise, you couldn?t get two better guys together,? said Molina, a bright and personable sort who loves to joke around. ?He understands me; I understand him and it makes for a great trainer and boxer.?
When you ask Goossen what his reaction was to Molina leaving him, he recalled, ?It wasn?t one of throwing a tantrum or cursing him or anything like that. A little bit of shock, a little bit of disappointment because of the work we had gotten. But I?ve been through this before.? Yes, he has, from Michael Nunn to Lance Whitaker and Joel Casamayor among others. And he admits, having been through this process before makes it easier to handle now. ?I?m a veteran to this; I understand it and one thing I always say about Johnny is, ?Thank God he got back in time to rejoin and tackle this championship fight together.? So I am thankful for that. But again, it?s something that can always happen; we know it and there?s very little you can do about it and knowing that, you have to resign yourself to the fact.?
Yeah, it?s one of the occupational hazards of being a trainer.
Molina?s father, John Sr., is glad they have reconciled.
?All the things that went on, it happens in boxing but he?s with Joe and that?s where we need to be for this fight. Joe?s style is perfect for this fight, what they need to do and they?re good together,? he said, as he dropped in on his son?s training session. Asked if they had any regrets, the elder Molina states, ?It really needed to happen; just like any relationship there?s going to be ups and downs and they get stronger when you clear out all the air.?
Molina describes the dynamic existing between a trainer and fighter as a ?marriage? and says, ?You gotta work on it. Sometimes he gets mad at me; sometimes I get mad at him and we work on it. That?s just what it is. Just like with anything else in life, that?s why they always say boxing trainers and fighters are like a relationship – which is very much so without the intimacy side of it but you gotta understand, it?s a working relationship.?
He?s says he?s ready to become a world champion on Saturday night.
?I?m very confident; the work we had, we had great names in here, great sparring,? said Molina, who has a mark of 24-1 with 19 stoppages to his credit. ?If I wasn?t confident, I wouldn?t be in this business. It is what it is. It?s my time to shine. I?m a big believer in that everything happens for a reason. So this was supposed to happen; I wouldn?t have planned it out this way. This was supposed to happen this way and this is the route I was going to have to take to get to a world title. Let?s take it.?
GOING FISHING
It was announced on Friday by Miguel Cotto on his Twitter feed that he would challenge WBA junior middleweight titlist Austin Trout at Madison Square Garden on December 1st. I have two thoughts on this fight: first, I like it because it?s a fresh, new match-up. I?ve spoken about this before but I think boxing had fallen into the trap of being a bit too repetitive in its fights (www.maxboxing.com/news/max-boxing-news/is-this-police-academy). It?s been a long time coming for young fighters like Trout to get their crack at the marquee names. I don?t need to see a constant round-robin between the likes of Cotto, Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But my second thought is that I hope Trout understands the opportunity he has and where he is fighting. Simply put, I hope he isn?t just content to box Cotto and play it safe. Because if he does, his chances of winning are slim and we might have a snoozer on our hands.
Now the question is just who will televise this fight? The word is that it will not be pay-per-view( thankfully) and in talking to some folks, both HBO and Showtime are very confident that they have a legitimate shot at landing this event. My understanding is that this card will be a tri-promotion between Greg Cohen, Golden Boy and Cotto?s promotional firm.
DECEMBER
Speaking of December, it looks like it this upcoming one will be as busy as we?ve seen recently. Not only do you have Trout-Cotto on the 1st, it looks more and more like Manny Pacquiao will return on December the 8th (although nothing official has been announced). Even Golden Boy is making noise about ?Canelo? Alvarez fighting on this date and it looks like Amir Khan is returning on December 15th. Then there is Main Events? return to boxing on the NBC airwaves on the 22nd.
Hopefully, it makes up for what was a dreadful August.
Golovkin lands punch on Proksa (Photo ? Sumio Yamada)
GGG THING
OK, as Dennis Green might say, I?m not quite ready to crown Gennady Golovkin yet but he certainly left an impression in his stateside/HBO debut in dominating Grzegorz Proksa in five rounds at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York. All told, he performed in a manner where you want to see him again – and soon. Perhaps he could face Daniel Geale, who had a well-earned, hard-fought victory over Felix Sturm in Germany, unifying the IBF and WBA middleweight titles.
The WBA announced that the winner of that fight, now the WBA?s ?super? champion, had to face Golovkin by the end of the year. But with Geale also having the IBF strap, he now has other options.
On the other side of the spectrum was the drudgery that was the 12-round draw between Sergiy Dzinziruk and Jonathan Gonzalez. Dzinziruk was only on this telecast because he was promised a return to the network by Ross Greenburg regardless of how he performed against Sergio Martinez in March of 2011 (it?s decisions like this that got Greenburg bounced from his position at HBO Sports in the first place). Gonzalez was another guy who simply had no business being on ?The Network of Champions? and he came in a full nine pounds overweight.
So while bouts like Brian Viloria-Hernan Marquez can?t get on ?B.A.D.?, we get Dzinziruk-Gonzalez because of past ineptness and politics from those in charge.
