During her grief, Mrs. Consuelo Alfaro de Perez, the widow of popular trainer Rudy Perez, could not hide her joy yesterday when she saw how her husband was a man who was highly respected as people gathered at a funeral home south of Mexico City. Friends, family and general boxing people gathered to say farewell to Rudy, who died on Friday from cancer, which first surfaced in late 2011. His most outstanding student, former triple world champion Marco Antonio Barrera, and his brother George, arrived - as did trainer Sendai Tanaka of Japan, who said Rudy was a teacher and a second father.

Marco Antonio Barrera said - "We worked together since I was seven years old and we were together for 28 years. He was always like a second father to me. Rudy was always a positive coach. We did amazing things inside and outside the country. He was always very clear with his instructions. There were times when he got angry because his instructions were ignored, but when we finished everyone dined like family."