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Friday, September 17, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
JUGGLING TRAINERS
Others have come and gone, but Robert Alcazar has been a constant for Oscar De La Hoya.
By Royce Feour
Review-Journal
Changing trainers isn't necessarily bad, says Top Rank Inc. matchmaker Bruce Trampler.
Trampler noted that such champions as Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield, Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson changed trainers more than once.
There has been some criticism of Oscar De La Hoya, the World Boxing Council welterweight champion, for changing trainers, even in his highly successful career.
But Trampler says, in De La Hoya's case, the changes haven't been typical.
When De La Hoya meets undefeated Felix Trinidad, the undefeated International Boxing Federation 147-pound title holder, Saturday night in a unification championship bout at Mandalay Bay, he will be fighting under the team of chief trainer Robert Alcazar and veteran Gil Clancy for the fifth time.
Alcazar has been with De La Hoya since the 1992 Olympic Games gold medalist was an amateur.
And Alcazar was De La Hoya's lead trainer for his first 17 professional fights.
But after De La Hoya had trouble with veteran John John Molina in a 1995 defense at the MGM Grand Garden when De La Hoya was the World Boxing Organization lightweight champion, trainer Jesus Rivero was coaxed out of retirement.
Rivero, of Mexico, lasted seven fights, but he was fired after De La Hoya escaped with a close and controversial decision over Pernell Whitaker on April 24, 1997, at the Thomas & Mack Center.
Emanuel Steward was then brought in, but he lasted only two fights. He, too, was fired after De La Hoya decisioned Hector Camacho on Sept. 13, 1997, at the Thomas & Mack.
Alcazar, however, stayed on even though he had a reduced role while first Rivero and then Steward were with De La Hoya.
The knowledgeable Trampler said: "In this case, (De La Hoya) has never changed trainers. This is an augmentation process. Alcazar has been there all along as a kind of constant, that single thread all through his career, actually through his amateur career."
Rivero, who had trained former flyweight champion Miguel Canto of Mexico, was considered by Top Rank as a defensive-minded trainer who could help De La Hoya.
"(Rivero) came at a time when Oscar felt he was defensively deficient. He was getting hit, and he was dropped a couple of times," Trampler said. "What Rivero helped impart to Oscar was a kind of blend of offense and defense with emphasis on hitting and not getting hit."
Rivero complained after he was fired that De La Hoya never gave him a reason.
Steward, on the other hand, was hired to rekindle De La Hoya's offense.
And in the first fight under Steward, De La Hoya knocked out David Kamau in the second round in a WBC welterweight title defense in San Antonio on June 14, 1997.
At the time, De La Hoya said Steward's firing was the wish of his father, Joel De La Hoya Sr. and his then-adviser, Mike Hernandez. Hernandez also has since been fired by De La Hoya, who has trimmed his staff.
"My father thought (Steward) really wasn't showing me much," De La Hoya said.
Top Rank vice president Todd duBoef said Steward -- who also trained WBC heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, among others, at the time -- was spreading himself too thin and not giving enough attention to De La Hoya.
Steward was bitter over his firing. But it meant Alcazar was back as chief trainer.
"Mike Hernandez has come and gone," Trampler said. "The one constant, the one person who has been there, has been Robert Alcazar."
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum also brought in his longtime associate, Gil Clancy, to help with training, starting with De La Hoya's defense against Wilfredo Rivera on Dec. 6, 1997, in Atlantic City.
For the past four fights, Clancy typically comes into De La Hoya's training camp at Big Bear Lake, Calif., the last week or so before a fight, much as legendary trainer Angelo Dundee did with Leonard.
Clancy, however, spent more time in the De La Hoya camp for the all-important fight against Trinidad than usual.
"For sure, Clancy was brought in for offense, defense and little bits of conditioning and training," Trampler said.
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Oscar De La Hoya, shown at his California training camp last month, has used several trainers in addition to Robert Alcazar.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
De La Hoya - Trinidad Fight
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