CALVIN BROCK: TALE OF THE TAPES

by Nat Gottlieb

Imagine, if you will, a modest living room in Charlotte, N.C. The year is 1987. A 12-year-old boy wearing regulation boxing gloves that seem to dwarf his scrawny body is standing in the middle of the room with his father. The father is trying to teach his son how to box. The father has never trained before, nor has he ever boxed. But watching an instructional tape on the VCR, which he bought from a mail order catalogue, he is giving it a try.

"You walk into the gym with your chin down," the instructor is saying, "and you walk out with your chin down, and during the time between your chin is down. This is how you avoid being knocked out "

Imagine now, the boy's name is Calvin Brock. He has been boasting around the house that one day he is going to be heavyweight champ of the world, so his father, Calvance, buys the tapes figuring to pick up a few training pointers and help his son on the path to glory.

At first, things don't go very well. Calvin and his dad struggle to make headway with the tapes. After Calvin finishes working with his dad, he goes to a makeshift gym owned by an 80-year-old, who is the only "trainer" on premises. During "workouts," he slouches on a chair with his nose buried in a newspaper while the kid punches heavy and speed bags like someone who can't swim flailing wildly at the water. Occasionally, his trainer looks up and says, "Good, now do pushups and sit-ups."

Not a very promising beginning, but the story has a nice "hook:" Father and son, together pursuing a seemingly impossible dream. Now flash forward 19 years. The year is 2006, and on June 24, at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, ranked heavyweight Calvin Brock, with an unbeaten record of 28-0, will face Timur Ibragimov (21-0) on the HBO series, "Boxing After Dark," which also features a high-octane bout between young welterweight sensation Joel Julio (27-0) and Carlos Quintana (22-0). The four fighters have a combined record of 98-0.

Should Brock beat Ibragimov, his next bout could be for the heavyweight championship of the world. If he wins that title, perhaps his post-fight interview should start like this:

"First I want to thank God and my father for inspiring me. I am also indebted to my instructional tapes, without which I would not be here today."

Sound crazy? Let Brock tell his improbable "tale of the tapes."

"I was 12 when I started out boxing with this 80-year-old guy," Brock said. "I lost my first six fights before my dad came to the gym one day and saw this man could not take me to my dreams. That's when he ordered the video tapes."

At the time, Calvance was a self-employed contractor with dreams of his own. "I wanted to build my business to the highest level, and I knew I would have needed to focus all my creative abilities and my desire to make that plan work," Calvance said. "So you can see, I had other plans for my life. But Calvin had such a tremendous desire and a will to put his dreams to work, and since he was so young, I didn't want him to lose his opportunity."

So Calvance put his own personal vision on hold, and decided to take a stab at training his son. The only thing Calvance had going for him was his "corner man" on the tapes, Kenny Weldon, a world class trainer who today conditions heavyweight champion Sergei Lyakhovich.

"At first, Dad would just help me out at the house and I would continue to train at the gym," Calvin said. "But when I turned 13, my dad took over my training."

By then, Calvance had improved his training skills, graduating from video tapes to boxing books he either bought or checked out from the public library. Like his son, Calvance is a man of deep Christian faith. But even with God on their side, in the months and years ahead the Brocks' faith would be severely tested. Looking back, Calvance admits today if he had a clue then as to what it takes to train a top boxer, he might not have tried.

"Had I known how difficult it is, I would have thought I was crazy," Calvance said.

Ignorance is bliss, and in the case of the Brocks, it also turned out to be a blessing. Calvance discovered he had a natural gift for training, and an eagerness that matched his son's.

"After I learned all I could from the tapes, when ever I was around more experienced coaches and boxers (read: everyone), I would ask them all kinds of questions, observe what I saw and take mental notes," Calvance said. "I also watched films of other fighters and live fights on TV. I had to constantly look for little things I could take away that would help Calvin."

It would be nice to say that this perfect little fantasy played out without a hitch, but it did not. "Many times I felt like I had hit a wall with nowhere to go," Calvance said. "I had to talk to the Lord for inspiration."

God must have been listening. How else can you explain that trained only by his novice father, Calvin Brock would earn a coveted spot on the 2000 U.S. Olympic team, making history in the process.

"I was the only Olympic boxer ever to have a coach who had never boxed or trained before," Calvin says proudly.

It was a terrific USA team, which included future pro champions Jermain Taylor, Jeff Lacy and Brian Viloria, plus Rocky Juarez, who recently lost a close and disputed decision to Mexican great, Marco Antonio Barrera.

Going into the Olympics, Brock had already won a U.S. National Championship and a National Golden Glove title, and was therefore one of the favorites to win gold. The team was coached by Tom Mustin, who according to Brock, believed in working his fighters to the point of exhaustion at a four-week camp he held in high altitude Colorado Springs. Saying he was worn out by Mustin's methods, Brock lost his first eliminator, and later blamed the coach for over-training him. What ever the cause, Brock came away from the Olympics empty handed, while his teammates garnered two silver medals and two bronzes. Disappointed, but still believing in himself, Brock's biggest test of faith was yet to come.

Before he had even had his first professional fight, Brock took a heavy body "blow." USA Today ran an article in which boxing experts labeled Brock as the least likely of the 12 U.S. Olympians to succeed.

The combination of his first-round loss and that newspaper article, Brock says, kept major promoters away. The Olympian wound up getting paid a paltry $1,500 for his professional debut in February of 2001 at a lonely boxing outpost, the Grand Victoria Casino, in Elgin, IL. His opponent was Zibielee Kimbrough.

"It was very frustrating, coming out of the Olympics and knowing what I could do," Brock said. "But I was ranked as the one least likely to succeed. That really hurt me. I knew I was as good as my teammates."

So did his father. "The way the atmosphere was for us at the time it was devastating emotionally," Calvance said. "Everyone was turning away and downgrading him, writing him off. It's a very hard thing to recover from when you come out of the Olympics and get paid $1,500."

Unlike other Olympians, Brock had another career to fall back on if he had wanted to. Prior to going to the Olympics, Brock got his college degree in finance at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and had been working for a banking firm while training for the games in Sydney. "In five years or less, I could have been making six figures," Brock said. While his earlier experience as a banker would color many of his future boxing decisions, the kid who started only with a dream and a boxed set of video tapes was not about to turn back now.

Inside a dark, post-Olympics cloud, Calvance found a silver lining. "Because he was so downgraded by people in the business, he made a vow to himself that everybody who had turned away from him would live to regret it," Calvance said. "In retrospect, maybe what happened was the best thing because of the resolve it gave to him."

Brock had to fight both his opponents, and a powerful urge to prove fast how good he really was. Fortunately, Brock's banker training did not let eagerness color judgments.

"During the early years, I never got anxious, never took fights that I wasn't ready for," Brock said. "I took my time building myself up. It may prove to have taken me longer to become a champion, but it's not about being first, but who spends the most time on top."

Because of the negative baggage he was carrying, Brock and his father knew he was constantly under pressure not to take a false step.

"We moved very carefully with his career, because he knew that one punch, one loss could be devastating in that he had already been written off," Calvance said. "He just couldn't afford to lose. And there was pressure on him not only to win, but win impressively. His frame of mind for every bout was, 'I cannot lose this fight.'"

Brock, with his father still training him, plowed through his first 10 opponents, knocking out eight of them. In July of 2002, however, when it became readily apparent Calvin was shaping into a real contender, the Brocks decided he needed a more experienced trainer, and hooked up with a rising young star, Tom Yankello, who had already turned Paul Spadafora into a lightweight champion.

Having guided Calvin's career from video tape to tale of the tape, turning his son over to another trainer was not an easy thing to do. But in Yankello, Calvance thought he'd found a near clone of himself.

"What makes a big difference for Calvin is with Tom he's getting the closest thing to what he was used to with me," Calvance said. "Tom pays a lot of attention to him, and he has deep feelings for him, which is the way I was. Tom is always watching him, giving him the same kind of focus I did, maybe more, because he can do it full time."

In Yankello, Calvin also found a kindred spirit, someone in search of respect. Shoulder injuries had forced Yankello to end his amateur career at age 21, and he turned to training other fighters. Purses were small and hard to come by, and so Yankello lived with his parents until he was 31. After 13 years as a trainer, the most he had ever made on a fight was $20,000. But like his budding contender, Yankello believed strongly his time would come.

As Brock slowly climbed the ladder, he beat a succession of "designated opponents," which fattened his record, but did little to garner respect or turn on crowds. Brock says he would have preferred fighting better boxers, but was saddled with the knowledge that he couldn't afford to lose even one fight at that fragile state of his career. "Calvin's attitude was if he can hit a guy and not get hit and win the fight, that's enough for him," Calvance said.

Those early, overly-cautious years had an effect in shaping Brock's boxing style. Even today, he is not perceived as a particularly electrifying fighter, despite 22 knockouts in 28 fights. His dad, however, says the world is in for a surprise. "Nobody has seen what he can do yet, because he has always had to be so cautious," Calvance said. "He has a lot of abilities nobody has seen. He can be amazing when he lets it all go. I don't know if it will happen in this fight, or his first title fight. Maybe when he knows the weight is off him, it will happen."

As victories piled up, inevitably the boxing world was forced to take notice. In May of 2004, Brock was 20-0 when NBC put him on the last installment of its "Budweiser Boxing Series against another undefeated prospect, Terry Smith (20-0-1). The exposure Brock got for his victory by unanimous decision was enormous, not only because it was on network TV, but also because the show was scheduled as a lead-in to the Preakness Stakes, second leg of racing's Triple Crown, in which millions of otherwise non-boxing fans would be watching.

As part of the lead in, NBC's announcers made a point of comparing Brock to Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness favorite, Smarty Jones (7-0). Both were undefeated, and both had overcome earlier adversity. In Smarty Jones' case, before he even raced, he reared up in the starting gate while being schooled, and smashed his head against the top of the gate. The horse wound up with a fractured skull, almost lost his left eye and did not get to race as a two-year-old.

Brock, who at the time was posting on his web site a monthly stock investment tip, had the good marketing sense to make Smarty Jones his investment pick for May. (Smarty Jones won by a stakes record 11 lengths).

The NBC exposure paid off. Two fights later, Brock got his first big bout with contender Clifford Etienne (29-2-2) in April of 2005, again on TV, ESPN2. Brock didn't waste the opportunity, knocking out Etienne in the third round. That impressive showing earned him a shot at his first Top 10 opponent, Jameel McCline (31-4-3), who in his previous fight had lost a very close split decision in a championship bout with title holder Chris Byrd.

Besides giving up experience, Brock was also at a significant size disadvantage against McCline, who was a massive 6'-6 and 265 pounds. At 6'2 and 218 pounds, Brock was giving away four inches and 47 pounds. Despite being smaller, and feeling huge pressure to succeed, Brock fought his way to victory by unanimous decision. Suddenly Brock was on everybody's radar.

With the hype, Brock's banker alter ego figured he had finally gained some bargaining leverage. He entered into negotiations last year for fights with then champion Vitali Klitschko and also with dangerous contender David Tua. The deals were never closed, apparently because Brock's estimate of his market value was significantly higher than theirs.

Instead of a title shot with Klitschko, Brock spent the next 10 months fighting against non-contenders Kenny Craven (26-15), David Bostice (35-9-1) and Zuri Lawrence (20-10-4).

Many rapped Brock for what they said was foolishly failing to cash in when he had the chance, wasting nearly a full year in the process and losing momentum.

Brock didn't see it that way. He has always maintained that each fight must be looked at as a potential investment. Judging title shots based on monetary value when you are just a contender may not be the way the fight game is played, but Brock, who unique among boxers can trace his "roots" to video tapes, is not one to play by other people's rules.

"My last three fights came about because I felt it was way premature to just take any offer," Brock said. "I wanted to have more leverage. It was a combination of me being very confident in that I'm going to be a champion, and also my bank training."

Calvance was on the same page as his son. "We're not looking just to get a title," Calvance said. "We want to win one and at the same time be considered the top fighter in the world.

If you beat a guy for the title who nobody knows about (think: Lyakhovich), it doesn't get you known. You can't take that to the bank. The (monetary) value of a fight is important."

With that mindset, the fighter who was dubbed the "Boxing Banker" after Bank of America featured him in a print advertisement, might beat Ibragimov and still turn down a title offer.

"If I win and the title shot carries a price tag that is a slap in the face to me, I'd take comparable money and just fight another contender," Brock said. "It all depends on the how the economics come out after this fight. If I don't get a shot with one champion, there are others out there to take. I've got options."

Options. Investment. Market value. Perhaps Calvin Brock should put out his own instructional tape: "How To Succeed In Boxing By Investing Wisely." With the good fortune he's already had with video tapes, it might be a best seller.

******* IN THE IRONY DEPARTMENT: Brock loses first round for Team USA in the Olympics, is branded the worst U.S. boxer on the team. Today, with three Eastern Europeans holding heavyweight titles, and the possibility of a fourth if Oleg Maskaev beats Hasim Rahman Aug. 12 on HBO pay-per-view, Calvin Brock could wind up as the best U.S. hope to keep a heavyweight belt in America...Brock has been carrying a laptop where ever he goes since he turned pro. He keeps up with the financial world, maintains his own portfolio of stocks and often is asked by other fighters for investment advice. When he retires, his plans include: being a TV commentator, professional tap dancer (for which he has trained since a kid) and an investor...

"B.A.D." NOTES - Just 21, Julio has been widely touted as the next superstar in boxing.

Winner of this welterweight bout becomes the WBA official No. 1 contender. WBA champion Ricky Hatton has announced he will fight mandatory challenger Oktay Urkal (37-3, 11KOs) next. Julio started boxing at 15 in his native Colombia, and reportedly had an 85-0 record before turning pro, meaning it looks like he has not lost in 112 straight fights. A hard puncher who applies relentless pressure, Julio has become a crowd favorite…Ibragimov, cousin of unbeaten heavyweight contender Sultan Ibragimov (19-0), will be facing his best opponent to date in Brock, but has a big "win" already on his ledger. While Ibragimov was in training for this fight, ranked contender Shannon Briggs (47-4-1) came to his gym to spar with him.

Ibragimov, a former Olympian from Uzbekistan, knocked out Briggs, who is 6'4 and weighed a massive 273 pounds in his last fight, in the fourth round of their sparring match with one right hand shot. Both fighters wore headgear and used big, 18-ounce gloves...