Sunday, November 10, 2002
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Ayala: No enemies, only opponents

Respected fighter, family man set to stake featherweight claim vs. Morales

By KEVIN IOLE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

After spending a few days talking to people about Paulie Ayala, a pattern emerges.

Long periods of silence.

"Tell me something bad about Paulie," you might say.

And then the silence begins.

"Just about impossible," said Scott Sherman, Ayala's manager, a straight-shooting Texan who knows a thing or two about problem-child boxers, having managed Ike Ibeabuchi and Freddie Norwood.

"Oh, boy," says Leti Ayala, his wife of 10 years. "I'm sure I can think of something. Give me some time."

"Forget about it," his promoter Bob Arum says. "Forget about it. You're wasting your time. You won't find anything."

Ayala, who will fight Erik Morales for the WBC featherweight title Saturday at Mandalay Bay, laughs at the thought. He's not perfect, Ayala is quick to concede, though those who know him best struggle to find something about him that is anything less than A-plus.

In the gym, no one works harder.

"Paulie works so hard, sometimes we have to throw him out of the gym," his longtime trainer, Henry Mendez, said.

In the ring, the 32-year-old Ayala prepares so well that he anticipates just about everything that might happen.

"Paulie is so laid-back and so undistracted that he has this uncanny ability to focus," Arum said. "He's as zoned-in on what he has to do in a fight as anyone I've ever seen. He doesn't miss a thing. And he's so determined, which is sometimes better than great hand speed or punching power or anything else."

With his family, he's the consummate father, showing up at Little League practice, helping with homework and generally finding a way to be best friends with 10-year-old son Paul Anthony and 3-year-old daughter Aleah.

Ayala's son is a shortstop of some note in his suburban Dallas league, and dad is always there with a critical eye.

"My father nicknamed him `The General,' and when he shows up at practice, they'll all say, `Oh, The General is here,' " Leti Ayala said. "He's got such a good mind for sports and he believes it's all mental. He's always talking to Paul Anthony about the mental edge."

The mental edge might be Ayala's greatest strength. Anyone who has been around him for more than a couple of days says the same thing: He's unflappable.

After Ayala defeated the more renowned Johnny Tapia in their first fight on July 26, 1999 -- it was voted the fight of the year -- Ayala agreed to a rematch.

But despite his win, Ayala had to take a backseat because Tapia was the star. Tapia dictated the purses. Tapia dictated who entered the ring first, and who was announced first. Anything that had to be decided was decided by Tapia.

Most fighters in Ayala's spot would've been enraged. Ayala and his wife even flew to Las Vegas for a news conference only to have Tapia cancel it. They flew home to Fort Worth, Texas, only to have to fly back two days later.

All the while, the smile never left Ayala's face.

"If you try to do something to upset this kid, you're out of your mind because it just won't work," Arum said. "He's totally unflappable."

That might be the truest statement Arum has ever made. Ayala has been in a string of fights that observers regarded as exceptionally close -- two against Tapia, two against Bones Adams and one each against Johnny Bredahl and Hugo Dianzo -- and a furor developed because Ayala got the decision in each.

But Ayala reacted the same way each time, with grace and equanimity. Because of the controversy, he hasn't yet received acknowledgment commensurate with his record and success, but Ayala shrugs at the mention of his public anonymity.

"I'm not looking for credit or for anyone to tell me how good I am," Ayala said. "As long as I know I did my best, I'm pleased. The people agreeing or the media agreeing and saying this or that, that won't affect me. I can't persuade anyone to like me or to like the way I fight, so I don't try. I just do my job and let what happens happen."

What has happened has been an inexorable, albeit slow, rise to the top. He'll earn his first $1 million purse Saturday for fighting Morales. He's 34-1, with the only loss a controversial technical decision to Joichiro Tatsuyoshi on Aug. 23, 1998, in Yokohama, Japan.

The Tatsuyoshi fight was a turning point in Ayala's life for another reason. Then 28, he sensed that his father Frank had begun becoming a distraction in his corner.

It was Frank Ayala who introduced Paulie to the sport at age 4 and took him to tournaments all over the Southwest. But the elder Ayala was having trouble forgetting he was a father when he worked Paulie's corner, and Paulie had to make a tough decision.

He booted his father out, but retained Mendez and Paul Reyes, experienced hands who had trained several world champions including Donald Curry and Stevie Cruz.

"Paul and Henry had the knowledge I needed and I knew I had to keep them, but I had to pay them to work for me," Ayala said. "My father was a different story. He wanted to be compensated as well. I was trying to make a living and to support my family. The other two guys were extremely important to me and I couldn't let them go. I couldn't afford to pay all three of them."

As difficult as it was to fire his father, Ayala felt he had no choice. The move resulted in a rift that lasts to this day. The two rarely speak, though Paulie said it's his father's choice.

"I knew I couldn't reach my potential with (my father) there, because he was that much of a distraction," Ayala said. "He was hurting me more than he was helping me as far as boxing was concerned. I wanted him around because I love my father, but I couldn't have him there giving instructions.

"He couldn't forget he was my father. In the ring, it had to be a different situation, but he could never make that distinction. I couldn't fight with that problem. I could get seriously hurt if I wasn't completely focused on what I was doing. I had no choice."

Ayala considers his decision courageous. Sherman said it was simply a matter of Ayala's awareness, of understanding what is best for him.

Ayala was a solid B student in high school, though he accomplished that "without really trying. I just went through the motions."

But his many trips around the country made him unusually wise for a young man and he quickly learned to cut to the heart of any matter.

"More often than not, Paulie makes the right decision, regardless of what the situation facing him is," Sherman said. "He's a genuine person, a real deep-feeling, deep-thinking individual. He never gets through searching for information, which is one reason I enjoy working with him. He'll ask a lot of questions.

"He wants what's right for him and his family. He doesn't always know what that is, but that's one of his gifts. He's smart enough to realize what he doesn't know. If he has a problem, he'll find someone who is an expert in that area and talk about it. He figures out what's right and then he does it.

"It's just how his boxing career is. He might not be the strongest this or the fastest that, but he figures out what he has to do and then he goes out and does it. He doesn't get distracted and he doesn't lose his cool or his concentration. Because of that, he's always coming out on top."