By Chris Robinson
In the sport of boxing it’s far from uncommon to see a world class athlete become complacent and switch trainers deep into their career. Such cases as Emanuel Steward helping Miguel Cotto and Naazim Richardson working with ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley instantly come to mind. What does seem to be rare is when a coach guides his student all the way through both the amateur and professional ranks without much notice while later claiming championship glory.
Winter Haven, Florida’s Tony Morgan knows the reality of the sport all too well, as he has often been overlooked for the instrumental role he has played with undefeated WBC welterweight champion Andre Berto. Morgan and Berto have been together roughly fifteen years and it has been a wild ride that has required much patience and fortitude from both of their ends. At 27 years of age Berto has been a champion in the sport for two years running and is set to defend his crown on November 27th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada against unassuming but lethal puncher Freddy Hernandez.
In talking to Morgan you can sense instantly a man with no room for any kind of bullsh*t and a figure who has a rare sense of insight into the sport that is slightly beguiling. I recently caught up with Tony and discussed his early days with Andre, the danger of their HBO showcase against Hernandez, his thoughts on Floyd Mayweather’s impact in the sport and much more.
Meeting a young Andre Berto…
“He was a pain in the ass. I first met him when he was about ten years old. I met one of the pros that was a professional at our boxing gym. A kid called Delfino Marin. He fought everybody. He fought James McGirt, Lloyd Honeyghan and a lot of names in the 80’s. He talked me into coming into the gym and I started working and figured I would try it out and be a fighter. I fought in some smokers, tough man type stuff. I came down there and I met the owner of the gym; his name was Jackie Leonard. He must have been about 74 probably.”
Willing to help out…
“A couple years after we were there he became ill and actually ended up having a couple heart attacks at the gym. He said that he would no longer be able to take us to the bouts because he was no longer able to drive. I was one of the only kids who had my priorities straight and I said that I would take them. We all loaded up and went to the fights and I was faced with a decision. Was I going to fight or was I going to be a coach. I couldn’t’ work the corner and fight. They all fight and they all won and I didn’t get a fight. When I got back Jack asked me if I would be willing to help out a little bit more in the training, like helping the mitts and stuff like that. Pretty much I just took over there.”
A strong little kid…
“Andre was a small kid. I think he had two or three fights at the time, maybe four. He was a strong little kid. He was sparring a lot with Al ‘speedy’ Gonzales. Those were my two main kids and I was working with them. Berto was probably around the age of eleven and he might have been twelve. I stated taking him and Al all over the place. It ended up that Al got in some trouble and he ended heading off and it was just Berto. I ended up making up a little team and we had about five guys and they all ended up winning state and regional titles. Berto was the only one who made it to the national level at age 14 and 15 and we just carried on. I’ve been with him ever since and we’ve been at it ever since. This was in Winter Haven.”
Fighters switching trainers late in their career…
“To each his own I say. I do believe some people need to leave because some people need to grow. Some people don’t want to accept change. If you look at Berto and Andre Ward, they have always been together. Lamont and Anthony Peterson have been with Barry Hunter. They’ve been together. I think it works. I think it doesn’t work when you think that the other trainer is the answer. Sometimes I think it’s within the trainer. Not to take anything away from Emmanuel Steward but Jermain Taylor was with Pat Burns all through the pros and then he made the change and the first fight he made a change is the first fight he lost. I think it works both ways. People say ‘Look at Naazim Richardson with Shane Mosley’ and I was like ‘What are you talking about?’ Shane Mosley fought a brain dead Margarito. I was begging for that fight. Anybody who takes it to Margarito will beat him. If you can fight that fight. I love Naazim, we are good friends, but I look at it like this. If Naazim was so great, Tiger and Rock Allen, which were his sons that were great amateurs, where are they at now? If they had such a great trainer how come they wouldn’t be world champs? Berto and them all came up together."
Within the fighter...
"I think it’s within the fighter. They have to look within themselves. It isn’t the trainer that makes these guys. It isn’t the trainer who makes these guys great. I think its’ both. It takes a trainer who is willing to put in the work, because I don’t care what anybody says, amateurs are ten times harder ten the pros. Because you are spending money out of your pocket and traveling all over the United States. Half the time you don’t even get fights. I don’t really respect any of the professional coaches unless they took amateurs through the amateurs and they started a kid from scratch and done something with him.”
Berto withdrawing from his January bout with Shane Mosley due to the devastating earthquake that ravaged his native Haiti…
“That was our moment to shine. I think that we were going to introduce Andre Berto to the world. Pretty much make him a household name. I mean it was there. We were a week and a half, two weeks out of the fight when the tragedy in Haiti happened. There for a minute we weren’t 100% sure on what we were going to do. We were either going to use this as inspiration or pull out because of the tragedy. Once he started finding out more about his family and everything then his whole focus switched from training cap to Haiti. So there was no way we could take that chance. Boxing is probably 60% mental and 40% physical. It was definitely a hard choice because people were asking when he was going to fight somebody. I mean, you don’t think he wanted that fight? He would have been in line to make more money than he ever made. Believe me it was a hard decision for both of us. But family is first. You always have to think of your family. Boxing is a sport and it’s probably only going to be there ten or fifteen years out of your career and then you can see your family the rest of your life.”
Breaking out and making money…
“I look at it like this. If you really look at it, Berto just turned 27 years old. He has a good, five, six, maybe even seven strong years. Most of these guys aren’t really breaking out until they are 28, 29 or 30. Even the huge fights aren’t even happening until they are thirty plus. Look at Floyd. Floyd just now started making real money. He’s always done good but he’s making real money where he can go ahead and demand 20 million.”
The danger of Freddy Hernandez…
“He’s what I tell everybody, he’s a sleeper. If you think for a second that Freddy Hernandez won’t knock your dick in the dirt, you got another think coming. Freddy Hernandez will knock you dead. I don’t know if you watched the fight against DeMarcus ‘Chop Chop’ Corley. He was one of the only people to give Floyd hell and give Cotto the run of his life. And he knocked him dead. I know the kid’s dangerous and I know he’s a sleeper. There are a lot of them out there and I think most of them avoid those kind of people. Considering what Berto is, we have to still take chances, but calculated risks. I think he’s a very underrated fighter. I think that if they wouldn’t have chose this fight with Berto that this kid might have done something. But I think it was a bad fight for them to choose Berto because we are going to end his road right here.”
Floyd Mayweather’s love of the limelight…
“The thing about Floyd is that Floyd loves the limelight and Floyd loves money. I know Floyd. Like I said, Berto and him are fairly close. I’ve been around him a few times. We share the same manager. I have to take my hat off to Floyd. Do I care for Floyd and all of his antics? No. But I appreciate Floyd because he knows how to work the game. People don’t want to hear it but he’s kind of like the Muhammad Ali of the era. He’s talking shit and making money. He’s making big money.”
Gaining respect…
“People can say whatever they want but when Floyd took the Shane Mosley fight, Floyd gained my respect. Floyd was handpicking his guys, and I don’t blame him, if you can, do it. Fighters have been so wronged that they had to do whatever their managers or promoters said. He was picking his fights, he was choosing fights carefully and he was making money. He played it smart. But I know that Pacquiao choosing the Clottey fight, Floyd had to outman that. So he chose Shane and that was a very ballsy choice. Shane is dangerous and if you don’t know how to fight Shane, he will beat you. I think we saw that with Floyd when he was touched in the second or third round. That Floyd Mayweather impressed me. I’ve been impressed with Floyd’s talent and his speed, but against lesser opponents. When he showed that he could come back from being in real trouble, that’s when I started respecting Floyd. I do respect Floyd.”
The best of Andre Berto is yet to come…
“The Haiti thing, making that decision was probably one of the high points of me looking at him and saying ‘This kid has really grown up’. Because he was a goofball when he was younger. He was just silly and cut up. That’s all we did was cut up. But it’s very gratifying because we did it the right way and we did it together. I mean look at what we’ve done. We’ve been to the Olympics, now he’s a world champ. I think we have a lot left to show but I’m proud of him and I hope he’s proud of me because he’s been a pain in my ass for a long time. But I think the best is yet to come.”
Stay tuned for the second part of the interview where Tony Martin discusses Antonio Margarito’s guilt, finding a way to defeat Manny Pacquiao, whether or not Miguel Cotto is damaged goods and much more…
Chris Robinson is based out of Las Vegas, Nevada. An archive of his work can be found here, and he can be reached at Trimond@aol.com
