In the ring, Los Angeles area has a storied future
New England does, indeed, have a rich boxing heritage, from Marciano, Hagler and Micky Ward all the way back to John L. Sullivan. But, as is the case in so many other endeavors, L.A. and Southern California are the sport’s future. It still thrives, with scores of fighters — most but not all Latino — working their way up and the current poundfor-pound lists boasting four boxers with SoCal ties. Middleweight Gennady Golovkin is from Kazakhstan but lives in L.A. and trains in the mountains in Big Bear, an hour and a half away by car. Lightweight Vasily Lomachenko hails from Ukraine but trains in Oxnard. Featherweight Leo Santa Cruz is from Rosemead. And Mikey Garcia, who holds two of the light world championship belts that Lomachenko doesn’t and has won titles in four different weight classes, grew up in Ventura and lives in Moreno Valley, about 60 miles east of L.A. His may be the quintessential SoCal boxing story. It starts in a backyard gym. Robert Garcia, a former junior lightweight champ and two-time Trainer of the Year, is Mikey’s older brother. He had a thriving gym in Oxnard, north of L.A., and a few years ago he decided to branch out, buying a oneacre property in Riverside, to the east, and building a fullscale gym in the backyard where he trains champions such as his brother, Abner Mares and Brandon Rios. Mikey is 39-0, and, in addition to the IBF and WBC world lightweight belts, also has won titles in the super lightweight, featherweight and super featherweight divisions. Significantly, he has also demonstrated a different way to handle the business side of the sport; he sat out 2 ½ years to get out of his promotional contract with Top Rank, and now signs with promoters on a fight-byfight basis, on his terms. So when the day comes that fighters actually have true autonomy over their careers, remember where it started.