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By Thomas Gerbasi - When the boxing world forgot Gabriel Bracero, Tommy Gallagher remembered.
Even in a sport described as bizarre on the best of days, the pairing of the Puerto Rican street tough from Brooklyn and the no nonsense Irish trainer who had seen it all – twice – was an odd one, but for some reason, they clicked.
“There was just something about him,” said Gallagher, a fixture of the New York fight scene who gained national notoriety as a trainer on the reality series ‘The Contender.’ “And that’s what attracted me to him. It was I’m gonna break him, or he’s gonna break me.”
As it turned out, Bracero did a pretty good job of breaking himself. A talented amateur with two New York Golden Gloves titles and a junior Olympic crown, he turned pro with Gallagher in 2001 and ran off five wins without a loss.
But the lure of the street was always more attractive than the possibility of glory in the ring, and it cost Bracero in 2003, when he was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon and sent to prison. Added in with a 2001 charge he had plea bargained down from attempted murder to aggravated assault, he was going to spend time behind bars which would effectively kill off his boxing career.
He was 22 years old.
“This kid believed that being a thug was what made him special,” said Gallagher. “That’s how f**ked up this kid was.” [Click Here To Read More]
Even in a sport described as bizarre on the best of days, the pairing of the Puerto Rican street tough from Brooklyn and the no nonsense Irish trainer who had seen it all – twice – was an odd one, but for some reason, they clicked.
“There was just something about him,” said Gallagher, a fixture of the New York fight scene who gained national notoriety as a trainer on the reality series ‘The Contender.’ “And that’s what attracted me to him. It was I’m gonna break him, or he’s gonna break me.”
As it turned out, Bracero did a pretty good job of breaking himself. A talented amateur with two New York Golden Gloves titles and a junior Olympic crown, he turned pro with Gallagher in 2001 and ran off five wins without a loss.
But the lure of the street was always more attractive than the possibility of glory in the ring, and it cost Bracero in 2003, when he was arrested for criminal possession of a weapon and sent to prison. Added in with a 2001 charge he had plea bargained down from attempted murder to aggravated assault, he was going to spend time behind bars which would effectively kill off his boxing career.
He was 22 years old.
“This kid believed that being a thug was what made him special,” said Gallagher. “That’s how f**ked up this kid was.” [Click Here To Read More]
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