By Thomas Gerbasi
Before I got on the phone with him this week, the last thing Ray Oliveira told me, moments after his 2000 win over Vince Phillips in the same Foxwoods ring he will return to on October 2nd, five years after his last bout, was "I'm just a stubborn fool."
He laughed when he said it, the kind of laugh that says, hey, ‘I fought the other guy’s fight, made the night harder than it should have been, but I still came out on top because that’s the kind of skill, heart, and chin I’ve got.’
I reminded him of the line, shortly before he got back into the gym to prepare for his comeback fight against Joey Spina, and asked him if that was why he was returning to the ring four days before his 42nd birthday.
“I’m not stubborn, I just always wanted 50 wins,” he said. “That was my goal when I first started boxing. I’ve got three fights to go and I figured I’d do it now before I get any older. And I miss the crowd, I ain’t gonna lie. I don’t miss training (Laughs), but I miss the crowd.”
It’s not anything different from what any fighter would say after he’s been under the bright lights and on the world stage. And Oliveira tasted the sweetness the game offered, winning 47 of 60 fights over a 15 year career that saw him win an NABF and IBU title and defeat the likes of Phillips, Vivian Harris, Charles Murray and Tracy Spann while becoming a New England fight scene staple.
But there’s also the downside, and it wasn’t just the losses to guys like Jake Rodriguez and Zack Padilla in his lone world title shots, or defeats at the hands of Vernon Forrest and Ricky Hatton. It was the way he lost in what many believed to be his final fight, a scary 2005 loss to Emanuel Augustus. In that eight round TKO defeat, ESPN viewers watched as Oliveira took shot after shot, chin almost pasted to his chest as he held the back of his head and winced in pain, refusing to quit under obvious duress. When the fight was finally waved off, the words of color commentator Teddy Atlas were ominous as the cameras focused in on Oliveira sitting in his corner.
“I hope the doctors get him to a hospital, because now is the time he needs to get to a hospital because you do not know what’s going inside Oliveira,” said Atlas. “Not to panic anyone, but they need to get him to a hospital and make sure that he’s looked after.”
That was it for Ray Oliveira, and an honest, workmanlike boxing career was marred by the memory of one disturbing night in Hampton Beach, New Hampshire. That’s usually how it goes. For all the good things anyone might have done, the last impression is the one that sticks with you. And while Oliveira may be a self-proclaimed “stubborn fool,” he’s no fool, and he walked away from the game.
There was no fanfare, no flowery tributes, but what he did find out during his time off that his injury in the Augustus fight had nothing to do with his head, but with his neck, as three vertebra in his neck were fusing together due to a lack of fluid between them. Obviously taking punches to the head didn’t help matters, and the injury worsened in the fight.
“It happened a couple times in training where it didn’t hurt me, and I just had like a sore, tight neck,” he said. “But in the fight was the first time I could not move nothing. But honestly, I think it was more mental than physical. I had a lot of problems at the time, and everything all came together.”
But in retirement, official or not, Oliveira couldn’t carry around his medical report when he ran into fans or other well-wishers, and while the comments he received were meant to be positive, they cut him each time he heard one.
“How’s your neck?”
“You retired the right time.”
“You’re one of the smart boxers.”
“At least you can still talk.”
He almost chuckles at the memory of the last comment.
“I’m happy I look right and talk right (Laughs), but I didn’t want to leave that last impression with everybody,” he said. “I don’t want to leave the memory everybody has of the last fight.”
That’s now. But in the years following the Augustus fight, Oliveira carried on with life outside the ring. Still, he stayed (and stays) close to the game by working with fighters at his friend Dave Santos’ TNT Kickboxing Gym in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and that was good enough for him.
“I’m training kids and I love it,” said Oliveira, whose program at the gym is named On Point Boxing. “I’m training pros, amateurs, and giving back what boxing gave to me. I’m giving back what my old trainer, Bucky Vincent, did for me, and all the other trainers that I had, Papa Ray (Drayton), Libby (Medeiros), Peter Manfredo (Sr.). I’m just giving back and teaching young kids not just inside the ring but outside the ring that we all make mistakes and you’re gonna make mistakes throughout your whole life, but what a dummy is is a person who continues to makes mistakes without learning from it.”
When Oliveira talks about working with the kids in the gym, his voice lifts, and you can tell that it will remain his calling for as long as he can do it. But one particular kid sticks out in the conversation, his 19-year old son, who recently made Oliveira a grandfather.
“He boxed a little while, works, he’s well-rounded, and he’s a smart kid,” said Oliveira proudly. “He’s better than what I am, a lot better; not in the ring, but outside the ring. And that’s made me proud. He’s a real man and he’s a man because he works and takes care of his family.”
Family has always been a key part of Oliveira’s life, but as the years went on, he started to get the bug that afflicts every fighter – that he’s got one fight left. Or in Oliveira’s case, that he had three. “It’s just always been in my head that I want my three, and I said I might as well do it now before I get any older,” he said. But it wasn’t going to be exactly cause for celebration when he told his family of his intentions.
“They were scared,” he admits. “They were like, ‘no, you’re not. Because of that neck, you’re not. You’re too old, you’re done.’ And I looked at them and said ‘look, I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. If I get the okay, I’m coming back for three fights.’ And I told everybody, you’re either with me or against me. If you’re against me, don’t talk to me. Don’t go to the fights. The only person I was scared to tell was my mom, but she surprised me the most out of anyone. She said ‘God’s been by your side all this time, so I’m by your side,’ and that made me real happy.”
Oliveira got even happier when he visited the doctor and got the green light to fight again.
“I guess the rest must have loosened it or something they said ‘Any pain?’ No pain. They took the MRI and said ‘It looks good. As long as there’s no pain, you’re good to go.’”
Just like that, Oliveira was a professional fighter again. All he needed was a fight, and he got one as he joined up with his old promoter Jimmy Burchfield and inked a deal to take on Joey Spina on October 2nd. It’s not an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination, especially at 41 and after a five year layoff, but in a nutshell, that’s Ray Oliveira.
“I respect Joey a lot, he’s a tough hard fighter and he knows the only reason he’s gonna come in shape for this fight is because he knows he’s fighting an A class fighter,” said Oliveira. “Like I told him before, I don’t care who was on this card against Joey, nobody was coming. Because it’s me, they’re coming. They’re coming for me Joey, not you. And I picked him because he’s a robot. He throws one punch at a time, one big punch, and he’s not knocking me out and he’s not gonna land a punch. I’m not gonna throw a million punches; I’ll throw a thousand, not a million, and I’m just gonna outwork him. I’m gonna use my jab and it’s not gonna be the old Ray like before. It’s gonna be the Ray who never left that was there before, the amateur Ray. I’m gonna just outbox him, and the boxer will always beat the puncher. A puncher has to land that one big punch. Yes, he has ten rounds to do it, but I’m just gonna outwork him every single round. I knew if I was to come back, I had to come back with something. I just can’t come back with three easy fights; I’ve got to come back hard.”
Sounds good, but remember “stubborn fool” Ray? All it usually took for Oliveira to get into CompuBox busting brawls was a shot or two that “Sucra” believed shouldn’t have landed.
Then it was on.
“You can’t teach an old dog new tricks, I’m not gonna lie,” he laughs. “But that’s why I’ve got (new trainer) Peter (Manfredo Sr.) there, and a couple of the kids I train in the audience. I may do it a couple rounds, but I ain’t gonna do it all the time.”
Well, he does have 41 year old legs with some mileage on them, and the former junior welterweight and welterweight will be fighting at a career high 168 pounds, but as he noted, “When I fought 140, I got up as high as 189. So 168 is no problem.”
In fact, the day before this conversation, on September 21st, Oliveira was already on weight with the bout more than a week away, and he claims that even though he’s heavier, he’ll still be the same fighter when the bell rings in Connecticut.
“I don’t think I adjusted at all,” he said. “I’m gonna move, but I’m not gonna bounce. I’m not gonna be a runner. No matter what, I’m 41 years old, and these legs have been shot, stabbed, broken, boxed for 30 years. So I’m gonna be a smarter fighter. I’m gonna pick my shots and throw the right kind of shots. I’m gonna hit him in the shoulders, in the arms, in the heart, and he’s gonna get a complete boxing lesson.”
But there are still the doubters, the ones who call this bout and this comeback a travesty, who believe Oliveira is going to get hurt against Spina. He’s heard it all, and he accepts it, but just don’t be around him to say it.
“They’re definitely out there,” said Oliveira of the skeptics. “My family, my friends, and I tell everybody the same thing – I just want positive thoughts. I don’t want nothing negative. I don’t want to hear, ‘are you sure you’re okay?’ To me, that’s a negative remark. I don’t want hesitation, I just want a positive remark. If I don’t get a positive remark, I’ve been blunt my whole life, and I’m gonna continue being blunt. I’ll tell you right off, get the hell out of my face. I don’t tell you what to do and I’m not asking for anybody’s check of approval. This is what I want to do. For 60 pro fights I did it for everybody else; these last three fights I want to do for me.”
And how can you blame him for that? Look around and read the stories populating the boxing universe these days. There are more fights taking place over Twitter and in boardrooms than in the ring. Fighters have become businessmen, and when they finally get into the ring, you wish they would have passed on signing the contract. But when guys like Ray Oliveira stepped into the ring, you got what you paid for; you got a fight. And as a grown man who has passed all the physical requirements to be licensed as a professional prizefighter, why should he be denied his opportunity to make a run at 50 wins? And I’ll correct him on his statement to me after the Phillips fight. He may be stubborn, but he’s no fool. He knows what he’s stepping into, he knows the risks, and the consequences. But he’ll always be a fighter, and as such, he’s one of a dying breed.
“I would love to leave with a win,” he muses. “I’m not gonna lie, every fighter, every football player wants to leave with a W. But what I really want to leave with is that I gave my all, that I gave everything I had in that ring, that everybody was pleased with what I did, and that I was pleased. That last fight, I wasn’t pleased. I didn’t do what I was capable of doing. And these last three fights, I honestly believe that I train harder at 41 years old than I ever did at 22 years old. And I will win this fight, but win or lose, I will be pleased.”
