By Terence Dooley (Photo By Loura Conerney)
I had the phone number for Billy “The Preacher” Graham, trainer of Ricky Hatton, on my mobile for a number of months. I had read the interviews and internet stories about him, about how he was not the type of guy you want to meet in the pub, about how he did not listen and only saw your question as a chance to put his own views across and answer the question he thought you should have asked, which is pretty sound judgement, if someone asks you a silly question just overlook it and give a serious answer to a different question.
In the end though pragmatics took a hold. Phoning Billy was nerve racking for about twenty seconds or so, until I realised that the perception was not the same as the reality, he sounded like a normal guy and was prepared to let me come into his gym: “Its mad busy now though because I’ve got Ricky preparing for this Collazo fight. I want to give you all the time I can because it’s about time I put my story across and addressed a few things but right now it’s impossible. If you want to come and watch Ricky get ready for the Collazo fight you can have a look around.”
Billy Graham is a Manchester fight scene legend. His Phoenix gym has had four different incarnations and he has trained fighter after fighter from Ricky Hatton to Carl Thompson via guys like Anthony Farnell and Michael Gomez both of whom came to Billy after crushing defeats: “That’s when most of them come to see me, when something needs fixing or they’ve had a defeat.” As I shook hands with Billy and met his right and left hand men, Big Al’ and Kerry Kayes respectively, I was again struck by the dichotomy between perception and reality; I was later to be told that Billy does not suffer fools gladly and it began to become clearer still, there are plenty of fools in boxing so Billy must have suffered a fair bit when being interviewed by them. As I sat down in his office Billy asked me what I wanted to, I asked for a thumbnail sketch of Billy Graham.
“I was at Champs Camp first (boxing gym based in the Mosside area of Manchester), me and Phil Martin (influential figure on the Manchester boxing scene) were stable mates. After I finished boxing I didn’t really bother with the sport but ended up in Phil’s gym and started working out there, I was thirty-five; actually I was trying to get my license back so I could fight. I worked out for a while and got my weight down but the board wouldn’t give me a license so I intended to fight on unlicensed shows. A lot of people kept asking me why I didn’t become a trainer, Bob Shannon was one of them, I said I had no interest in it but Phil passed me the body belt and that was it. I just did it my own way and realised that you get just as nervous and wound up before a fight as a trainer, well I do, as you do as a boxer so I realised I was getting the same buzz and fear as a trainer as I got as a boxer and became addicted to it...I wanted to be a trainer and do it myself, it became kind of an obsession for me and I threw myself into it. First fight on my own was a European title fight (working) with Carl Thompson and I used the money and other bits to set myself up.”
When he did set himself up Billy found he had a talented pool of fighters to work with: “I was working with good fighters from day one, I wouldn’t say I was lucky, it’s not luck, but I definitely had good fortune to be around good fighters and title fights. I don’t know how many title fights I’ve been involved with but I stopped counting years ago, now it’s a year in year out thing. I was based in Salford but had to get out and we went to a gym in Hattersley because Ricky and Matthew Hatton knew the gym but that didn’t work at all, me and the guy there were totally different people. I think we actually got thrown out of that gym; they locked the doors on us when Ricky was preparing for a world-title fight against Tony Pep. The guy wanted us to become a partnership but I’m a one-man band so that was that…I liked the idea of getting my own gym and that’s what I did. Now I’m here.”
Here is the Betta Bodies Gym in Denton owned by former weight lifting champion Kerry Kayes, Kerry now handles the nutritional intake of Billy’s fighters and also sets the weight lifting programme for them. For a long time weight lifting and boxing have been seen as anathema to one another, the argument goes that if you do weights you will end up like Frank Bruno, all muscle and no stamina. Recently though Jack Turpin had told me that his brother Randolph had used weights his whole career without any ill effects. Kerry told me that the boxer’s come to him fit anyway so why would he try to get them fit through weight lifting; instead he used it to work on the strength. I asked him if it makes a big difference, he was adjusting the hand wraps of Ricky Hatton so directed me to Ricky himself who told me: ““I’ve noticed a big difference strength-wise and I think it is helping my punch power. In boxing you get into a lot of clinches and grappling so it pays to have extra strength and power, it makes sense.”
By now the fighters, Ricky and Matthew Hatton as well as Matthew Macklin, had begun to prepare for a training session. My first day fell on an easy day; Tuesdays or Thursdays are easy days with the hard days falling on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The fighters mostly did work on technique and the bags before heading for the weights. As I left Billy shouted after me that the following day was a sparring day and I wouldn’t want to miss it.
I got there early the next day, the Collazo fight was a tough one for Team Hatton to take in his first US headlining slot, what did Billy make of the choice of foe: ““Very dangerous fight, HBO wanted it so we’ve taken it. Collazo is a good test for Ricky and a dangerous fight, I’m always nervous before a fight, I’m a worrier…but Ricky will win the fight. People don’t understand that Ricky is an intelligent fighter and can adapt, they just think he is a pressure fighter. Think about it, pressure fighters are counter punchers who force leads. Ricky is smart and he’s clever, he sees things and is experienced beyond his years. He was born for this and adapts to things, when he came back to the gym (after the Maussa fight) to spar southpaws he soon figured it out. Look at the Tackie fight when Ricky hardly got hit, he didn’t copy the way Tszyu fought Tackie and put more pressure on him than Tszyu did, Ricky stayed close intelligently and did a number on Tackie. Then look at the fight with Tszyu, we knew it was going to be messy, if you give Tszyu space he homes in on you with that right hand. So we closed the space down. Now it’s a new fight at a new weight…I have no worries about fighting at 147lbs…As for Collazo I think he’ll try and fight Ricky the way he fought Rivera, people think Collazo is just a slick southpaw but he is gutsy as well. Ricky will have all the answers though, cuts are the only way for Collazo to win, barring cuts Ricky will win in a good fight, I can see why HBO wanted this fight. Ricky wins and he’s the welterweight champion of the world.”
A big, tough sparring partner had been found in Manocha Salari an Iranian who had recently destroyed Martin Conception in two rounds. Manocha is rough and tough for a southpaw. As I took my place leaning on the ring apron I felt a buzz of anticipation, I was about to see how the new welterweight Ricky Hatton would handle a southpaw.
For the first two rounds Ricky stalked the Iranian southpaw looking for openings, I kept looking out for the right hand one usually employs against the southpaw but all meaningful blows came from the left hand of Manchester’s Hitman, left hooks to body and head with jabs mixed in. Rarely, if at all, did Ricky leave his feet out of position as he kept his left foot on the outside of his foes right foot in order to give himself the best chance of getting off with left hooks and right hands. By the end of the second round Manocha had performed well but was starting to catch shots with his chin and ribs rather than his guard and hands. For the final four rounds it was a textbook example of how to box and fight a southpaw, Ricky closed the space and let his hands go when Manocha got his back to the ropes. Hatton is not just pressure, in terms of balance his movement is reminiscent of Joe Louis, few shots are wasted and every punch is picked to perfection. He moves with the precision of a Lamborghini Diablo taking a corner. When it was over both boxers embraced and Manocha held Hatton’s arm aloft: “This is the Champion!”
I asked Billy afterwards if he’d seen what he wanted to see in sparring: “I’ve seen enough now, he’s ready. The hard work is on the body belt with me now, the last session is on Friday and we’ll do the 15 rounds on the body belt but the sparring is done for me, I don’t believe in unnecessary sparring. We’ve still got hard work to do…we’ll have another tough day on Wednesday then work on the technical stuff on Thursday before the monster workout on (the final) Friday (before we fly out to the USA), that’s 12 rounds and 3 in the bank. It’s a psychological thing, no need to do the 15 but we do the 15 to get him ready. Ricky is doing the things I want him to do, why do more? I just want to get the fight on now. I’m expecting a lively fight, Ricky wins, but Collazo is a good, quick, southpaw; I watched him fight Rivera, it was a wicked fight and Collazo showed a lot of fight and determination. I’ve seen all I need to see of him now; I know what we’ve got to deal with and am confident we can deal with it.”
It must be difficult sending your guy out to fight when he has had problems with cuts in the past, was Billy worried about the slashing shots of the Collazo opening up some scar tissue: “I always worry about cuts with Ricky, the danger is there and Collazo is a southpaw but…Ricky handles the cuts well and we just have to live with it. My kid is the best fighter in the world and he can deal with anything. Cuts can happen in a split-second and you deal with it. I always look at the worst scenario, its what I’ve always done. Then you can look at the problems right from the start and live with them so that when fight time comes you are ready. Don’t hide anything from yourself or your fighter or sweep things under the carpet; I’m expecting the best Luis Collazo that’s ever turned up in his life and that’s what I’m prepared for. I’m looking forward to going to Boston and showing them the best of Hatton and taking another title. Ricky is still going to be the #1 light-welterweight in the world and he’ll have a welterweight belt to go with it.”
Yet the issue of the belt dominated the final UK press conference as the fighters, Ricky Hatton and IBF light-heavyweight Champion Clinton Woods sat silent whilst the Fight Academy lawyer talked. They were discussing speculative issues that would be superseded in a matter of days. What had happened in court? When would they get the decision? What happens if the WBA do not sanction the fight? During all this I made a note in my pad: Ricky Hatton’s USA headline debut + HBO + A future Showdown with Floyd Mayweather at 147lbs = WBA sanctioning the fight, lets be real about this, the WBA would make up a belt for this fight if they had to, they’ve done it before.
After the press conference we got back to the gym and Billy made it clear where all the roads lead to for Ricky and Floyd: “The (Mayweather) fight is going to happen, Mayweather wants it and we want. Mayweather is a great fighter, everyone says he is the best P4P fighter in the world and I know where they are coming from, but that’s why we want to fight him.”
People think that Ricky Hatton will push Floyd close and ultimately lose by virtue of the fact Castillo did yet that ignores the reality that the two (Hatton and Castillo) are not the same: “Castillo is a great fighter and I watched that first fight (Floyd-Castillo) and said to Ricky that Mayweather is Ricky’s Sugar Ray Leonard fight (Ricky is a huge Roberto Duran fan). Castillo made Floyd make mistakes that Ricky would punish but I’m taking nothing away from Mayweather, he is absolutely fantastic and that is why we want this fight.”
So who did Billy admire as a fighter: “I had loads but a big part of my life is Muhammad Ali, I watched him in the Olympics…my dad and brother laughed at his style but I was five years old and remember it now…I got up in the night to watch him beat Liston, I hated it when they took his title off him and he was a massive part of my life. British guys like Howard Winston as well. First fight I went to was Phil Matthews fighting Bunny Sterling for the British middleweight title at Belle Vue’s Kings Hall; funnily enough I was the last guy to fight in that building as well. (My) first world-title fight was Bob Foster versus Chris Finnegan at Wembley, I used to go to all the closed circuit TV fights as well…it was fantastic…I’d watch a guy and the next day be fighting like him in the gym, I tell my lads to learn from the fighters they watch and take things from them. Jose Napoles is one, Mantequilla, butter cream, smooth as butter, he really had balance and could slip punches, he was an ideal fighter for me…some fighters are fantastic but some make your hair stand on end.”
Bringing talk to the present I asked Billy who is his favourite fighter at the moment: “Ricky. I don’ think it’s because I train him, I just like to see his style…I love Barrera, Morales and Chavez. You could go on forever you know what I mean? I love Joe Louis, the way he placed his shots was punch perfect and he was the best finisher I’ve ever seen. Bob Foster as well…Thomas Hearns is another one. I love Mexican Bantamweights as well, some wicked fighters there…Ricardo Lopez at Straw weight is one of those who makes my hair stand on end.”
As luck would have the final day was a swelteringly hot Friday in Manchester. As Billy and Ricky stood in opposing corners warming up Ricky asked Billy about the time they were at the Joe Calzaghe-Jeff Lacy fight and a guy had come up to Billy saying he’d changed his life, Billy laughed: “This guy comes up telling me I turned him around and changed his life and all this stuff! I’m wondering what’s going on and finally realise that the bloke thought I was Billy Graham the preacher from America!” Ricky laughed and they went about their warming up routines and it struck me that every time I had watched them on the body belt something had seemed slightly odd and as the first round began and Billy threw some southpaw jabs at his fighter it dawned on me that if you took away the body belt it could be two fighters stepping out into centre ring for a fight, a fifteen round fight, twelve rounds and three in the bank.
As the sweat poured and the rounds grew more intense Kerry swept water off the ring apron with a mop and laughed to the people around him: “Billy told me I’d see the world and get a load of glamour working with him and Ricky!” In one of the neutral corners Big Al’ was filming the rounds; he filmed every round of sparring and training, for Billy to look over when he got home in case any little creases needed ironing out. In the ring Billy would gesture for Ricky to step to one side or the other to give himself room and leverage for his shots.
The rounds reached a crescendo as Ricky poured everything he had into a strong fifteenth round whilst people began to applaud his effort. Suddenly the monster session was over and I was standing with Billy in his office as he checked out his knee, he seemed satisfied, had seemed satisfied over the past ten days or so: “He’s ready, we’ve got some hard work left for next week and then we’ll tick him over for the fight.”
Once again I had learned that being around the gyms, the fighters and the trainers teaches you new lessons about boxing, I’d read all about Billy Graham and the reality had turned out to be quite different, in boxing only believe a third of what you hear and less than a quarter of what you read.
Next is an interview with the fighters, Ricky and Matthew Hatton, as well as Kerry Kayes breaking down his part of the training regime.
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