My day chilling with Jerson Ravelo....

**THE REAL NINJA** · 09-04-2006, 10:54 PM

He's in good shape for a 100 year old .

That's cool man you're doing stuff getting to meet people you will never forget.

**Mr. Ryan** · 09-04-2006, 11:06 PM

Originally posted by THE REAL NINJA

He's in good shape for a 100 year old .

That's cool man you're doing stuff getting to meet people you will never forget.

OMFG, its always an honor. Its always an honor to talk with any of these guys, because of my admiration and esteem for the gallant ring warriors who have meant so much to me. My articles and interviews are simply a written toast to the fighters who have thrilled me and captured my imagination since I was a young child.

**Mr. Ryan** · 09-04-2006, 11:28 PM

Interview Preview:

AS: A major problem in your career has been the situation with the trainers. That situation is rarely stable. Talk a little about what that has been like.

Ravelo: When I was in the National [Golden Gloves], I wasn't really training for awhile because the coach I had at the time wasn't really training me. I was training myself. As soon as I started doing good, all of a sudden he started coming around me more. I would go to places and find sparring myself. It was me and my 2 friends, Pedro Cordova and Anthony Williams, we used to go to get sparring at different gyms by ourselves. I went out there and won the Nationals, Pedro made it to the semi-finals, and Anthony made it to the finals.

AS: Did that independant structure where you were training yourself and were essentially your own support system strengthen you to be able to deal with the adverse circumstances you have endured?

Ravelo: Of course, even as a pro I've never had a steady coach. I have 18 fights, I swear I must have had 15 coaches. You can name them all, Mark Breland, Tommy Brooks, Tommy Parks, Charles Murray, Anthony Ham, Bouie Fischer. I had all of these guys and none of them seemed to work out. When you're training a fighter on the come up and then you have a fighter that you're training that has already made himself and is making alot of money, guess what? The fighter who is just coming up and has a fight tommorrow, and the other guy has a fight next week and you have to go out there and train with one of them, guess what, you're going to go out and train with the guy you're making the money with. You're not going to think twice about staying back. That's what it was all the time.

When I was training with all of these coaches, they all had other fighters who were fighting on HBO and making big money. Why would they stay back and make 200 with me, when they can go ahead and work with another fighter and make 50,000. After all, this is a job and I don't blame them. It kinda got me discouraged. The coach I had that I didn't think would turn out this way was Oscar Suarez. I've known him since I was a kid. Things just didn't work out. He was training Prince Hamed at the time, and I would stay and train by myself. He was training Freitas, same thing. He didn't give enough time.

**THE REAL NINJA** · 09-04-2006, 11:29 PM

Originally posted by Asian Sensation

OMFG, its always an honor. Its always an honor to talk with any of these guys, because of my admiration and esteem for the gallant ring warriors who have meant so much to me. My articles and interviews are simply a written toast to the fighters who have thrilled me and captured my imagination since I was a young child.

I felt the same way when Paulie Malignaggi and I became best friends

but really just keep at it no matter waht anyone says maybe i'll be reading you in KO or The Ring someday

**Mr. Ryan** · 09-05-2006, 12:43 AM

Jerson gives us a first hand view of how rough it is being a fighter who is mismanaged:

AS: The situation with the trainers has been tumultuous, but what about the promotional and managerial side of it? What was going on there?

Ravelo: When I first turned pro, I signed with Dibella. Dibella signed alot of guys, alot of the Olympians. Some of the Olympians that he signed were managed by the manager I had at the time. For some reason, they weren't seeing eye to eye. I broke my hand during that time. Dibella had it in the contract that if I was injured for over a year, he could terminate the contract. He used that option to get me out of the contract. Once I was injured for a year, I got a letter from Dibella saying that my contract was terminated because I've been injured for a year.

Main Events wanted to pick me up after Dibella let me go, and I don't even know what happened after that. My manager at the time told me "Yeah, they want to pick you up, they want to sign you." I didn't even believe him. I did get confirmation from Dominick Guinn, who was with Main Events at the time. Dibella let go of all of my manager's fighters go, all of them. He let Clarence Vinson go, he let Fernando Montiel go, Yuri Foreman, Davaryll Williamson. Out of all of those guys, Main Events was only interested in me, from what I heard. I found it hard to believe because if they wanted me, how come they haven't signed me yet? I don't know what happened. Then I spoke to Dominick Guinn and he told me. He cleared it up and said yeah, Main Events only wanted you. I'm a Latino fighter, they do alot of local shows around Atlantic City, I bring out a big crowd, those were some of the reasons they wanted me. From my understanding, there were rumours being spread about me and my hand, and that I wasn't the same, that I was done. They labeled me as a done deal. All of these promoters started hearing this.

My manager at the time tried to get me deals with Top Rank. He told me that they didn't want to deal with me because of my injuries. I was basically left to fend for myself. So I just felt like giving it up. I was going to give it up until they called me for the Tarver training camp. I went out there and saw "I'm getting with Tarver, I'm giving this guy hard work. And this guy's a world champion!" So I said why should I give up? I used to train in my house, I wasn't able to go to the gym. I didn't have any money to pay the gym. I set up a little gym in my house, in the garage. I just put up a bag, a speed bag, and a double end bag in the garage and I work out there. Being that I didn't have a manager or a promoter, I would try to get fights.

People would see me running and they would say "Why is this guy doing this, he's not even fighting anymore." A whole year and a half went by, and I couldn't get fights. I had promoters calling me saying "You wanna fight this guy, wanna fight this guy?", but they were trying to use me as a stepping stone for their guys. They know that I'm an Olympian, I have a good record. They were trying to feed me to the sharks. Now that I'm off for so long, now they're calling me to fight on Showtime. I had three fights [since the layoff]. The first fight I got with the help of this guy named John Baron. I did so good with a first round knockout, Dibella told me that he'd put me on the next month again. After that fight, Main Events put me on a card.

I did it all myself. I don't have no one to thank but myself for that. John Barron, I can thank him too because he got me the first fight. Everything I've done in the last 2 years, I can't give credit to no one but myself. I'm struggling, but I'm still here.

**vB Martin** · 09-05-2006, 12:50 AM

Did you ask about the nick?

**Mr. Ryan** · 09-05-2006, 01:00 AM

Originally posted by vB Martin

Did you ask about the nick?

Yeah, and he said he's going to find you and kick your ass.

**vB Martin** · 09-05-2006, 01:02 AM

I wish his little 170 ass good luck with that

**Mr. Ryan** · 09-05-2006, 01:05 AM

Originally posted by vB Martin

I wish his little 170 ass good luck with that

That's his fighting weight. His walk around weight is something higher. He's a big, solid guy. 6'2, he's built like a basketball player.

My day chilling with Jerson Ravelo....