It seems like not very long ago that fathers were discouraged from being the primary voice in their son's corner. I became an avid fight fan in the mid 1980s, and it seemed like every father-son team had to explain itself. It may be ok for the beginning of a career, but was a set-up that had to be abandoned if a fighter was serious about his career. Ultimately the boxing landscape was said to be littered with the figurative corpses of boxing careers that were governed by parental emotion rather than sound business sense, or trainer expertise.
It seems as if this attitude has slowly dissipated over years, to the point where we now have men like Danny Garcia, and former heavyweight Olympian Calvin Brock. These are men who were not only trained by their fathers for their entire career, but their father actually had to learn the sport first! It's one thing to be the child of a boxing man, who follows into the family business. However, in these cases, and many others, the fathers learned the sport just so they could be the trainers of their sons.
The trend has reversed so strongly that the breaking of that bond is now the move that is often frowned upon. Robert Guerrero and Shane Mosley are just two of the fighters who claim to have been better when fighting under their fathers, as opposed to seasoned trainers. However, no matter who trains a fighter, the father's presence is almost always there. I have never been a fan of a man giving his son his name. Let the poor kid have his own identity. It's just another way of defining your son in a co-dependent fashion.
The late, great George Carlin said it with even more force.. "I have no respect for any man that allows people to call him 'junior' I immediately think he's a chump and a loser. Junior means second to, underneath, lesser-than..." There are so many fighters who are 'juniors' and not only that, but they announce themselves as such in the ring. If your father is not famous, and we have never heard of him, why are you publicly known as a 'junior"? It doesn't make sense, and it stops many young fighters from having their own identity. The message to the fans is that you are in this game for your father's approval, and it is clear.
Floyd Mayweather famously said "I ain't no Junior" in reference to his father, as he is the famous one, not Senior. Roy Jones, who was announced for much of his career as Roy Jones Jr. said he knew from the age of 13 that his father would never allow for his son's own personal growth, due to his rampant alpha-male behavior. He had to break with his father, if he would ever find his own way. This knowledge and subsequent break was very mature of Jones, but did not stop him from naming his son after him, as well. In those two cases the son had inherited the ego from his father, and was able to recognize it. I just wish the Omar Figueroa's and Joseph Diaz's of the world would do the same.
Chris Strait
www.convictedartist.com
