As the COVID-19 pandemic spread throughout the world, putting boxing on hold until last night’s Top Rank show in Las Vegas began the sport’s recovery, fans and media filled the time discussing several recurring topics.
How would the sweet science change in the coming months? What were the greatest fights of the past? What fantasy matchups would you want to see?
And then there was the clip of a 53-year-old Mike Tyson hitting pads with renowned MMA trainer Rafael Cordeiro, sparking talk of a comeback. Then 57-year-old Evander Holyfield joined the conversation, and who could forget another 57-year-old, Michael Nunn, reportedly getting ready for a July 18 kickboxing bout against UFC Hall of Famer Pat Miletich.
40-year-old Gary Stark Jr. heard all the talk, and he understands it better than most.
“Boxing is a drug,” said Stark, a former junior featherweight contender who once had the whole New York boxing scene in the palm of his hand back in the early part of the new millennium, when he and his brothers in harm, rising stars like Paulie Malignaggi, Curtis Stevens, Luis Collazo and Jaidon Codrington, made the Big Apple the center of the U.S. boxing scene again for a few memorable years. They were young, they could fight, they had charisma, they had opportunities to fight often on Lou DiBella’s cards in the city, and with the likes of Damon Dash and Chris Gotti in the mix, many of them got the street cred all up and comers crave.
Like everything, it wouldn’t last forever. But it was fun while it did. Yet most fighters can’t let go of those memories, so they want to re-live them, which we’ve all seen to be a near impossibility.
“Boxing is all you know,” Stark explains. “I don't know why I love to get hit. (Laughs) I don't know why people want to box and get hit. I really don't know.”
What he does know is how Tyson, Holyfield and Nunn feel.
“It's tough every friggin' day,” he said. “Every day I wake up and I want to fight. (Laughs) I miss this sport so much and you're only as good as your last win.”
For Stark, it was three wins that ended his career in 2015. That already makes him a unicorn in this business, but it wasn’t the way he wanted to go out. Already a husband and father, Stark returned from a five-year layoff to pound out a pair of wins in 2015 against journeyman opposition, and a third fight was scheduled for the Daniel Jacobs-Peter Quillin undercard in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on December 5th of that year.
With his close friend Abner Mares paving the way, a deal with Al Haymon could have been the real prize if Stark pulled off a victory. But it never got to that point, as Stark was pulled from the bout by Barry Jordan, then the Chief Medical Officer for the New York State Athletic Commission, days before fight night, despite passing all his pre-fight medicals.
Jordan told Stark that the fighter’s memory was “faulty,” and his reflexes were shot. Stark admits that he didn’t look spectacular in his win over Anthony Napunyi less than three months earlier, but he chalks that up to a rough weight cut. As for everything else, the Brooklyn native was shocked.
“It was two days before the fight and he was so condescending,” said Stark. “He said, ‘Yeah, I'm not letting you fight.’ This is my life. This is my second chapter of boxing and I want to make the money for my wife and for my kid. How can you say that if I passed my MRIs? He goes, ‘Your memory is faulty,’ and that was it. I was depressed and I was crying.”
But he wasn’t done fighting. His wife, Kristie, works in the medical field and was able to secure an appointment with a top neurologist from Columbia University to get a second opinion.
“I had an exam and there was nothing wrong,” said Stark. The only thing he told me is that I speak hard. I said, ‘What does that mean?’ (Laughs). He goes, ‘You speak fast, you speak like a New Yorker.’”
Guilty as charged. By the time everything played out, Stark and his wife had plenty of long talks and decided that it was time for him to move on. He had a young family (a son would join the Stark clan a couple years later), a good job at Chelsea Piers as a trainer, and it was a good life.
Why risk it by boxing? He wasn’t going to. But he did miss it, and a month and a half after what would have been his 29th pro fight, he asked his father, renowned coach Gary Stark Sr., if he wanted to do some padwork with him.
“Why, you're not boxing no more,” said the no nonsense Stark Sr, who later relented, telling his son to meet him at the gym in Staten Island at 3pm. “Kid” did as instructed.
“And I looked good,” Stark laughs.
Dad agreed, telling his son that he still looked sharp.
“Want to start boxing again?” he asked. “We'll get you a fight.”
It was tempting, but Stark declined. Father and son kept talking as “Kid” changed his clothes, taking off his workout shirt.
“Yo Kid, really?” Stark Sr. said. “You look like a fat bastard right now. You're a trainer, you gotta be in shape all the time.”
“That messed me up the whole night,” said Stark Jr., who decided to get to his job at the gym even earlier than usual to hit the treadmill and start shedding the pounds. When he gets there, he sees one of his fellow trainers, Scott Berlinger, who most remember as Viper on American Gladiators. Currently, Berlinger leads the Full Throttle team in New York that has dominated the triathlon circuit for years.
“I like Scott because he's just like my dad,” said Stark, who got the same kind of ribbing from Berlinger that he got from his father the night before.
“Where are you going?” asked Berlinger when he saw Stark that morning.
“Treadmill,” Stark responded.
“Get in the bike room, fat ass,” retorted Viper.
“This is the second person, two days in a row,” laughed Stark. “I had never been on a bike before and I thought this is tough, but I'm breaking a sweat and I got addicted to it.”
Just like that, Stark found the same rush boxing once gave him in the form of a sport just as demanding as his previous one. And if it was starting over, he was fine with it.
“I wasn't good at it,” said Stark. “If I'm not good at something, especially a sport, I'm gonna bust my ass so I won't be the worst person. And these guys are incredible athletes.”
So was Stark, and he still is. The 2011 New York City Marathon finisher found a home with the Full Throttle team and has competed in several triathlons. In his most recent race last September, he finished first in the 35-39 age group and he’s hungry for more.
Of course, COVID-19 put a halt to all races locally for the time being, as well as forced him to the sidelines from his Chelsea Piers gig where he not only teaches boxing but is a certified USAT Triathlon coach. But Stark isn’t letting the world get him down. He’s got his wife and kids around him, he’s still finding time to keep in shape and get in some pad work with dad, and he may even be starting his own podcast soon, which you can guarantee will have enough stories for days.
In other words, Gary Stark Jr. found his second chapter. He never expected it would be without boxing, but it is. And he’s fine with that.
