Google doesn’t know who the Italian was. It doesn’t say how old the proverb is. But I could only think that its wisdom is as current as ever in a battered business that these days could use a grandmother’s counsel, cooking and tough love. Call Kathy Garcia.
She’s 57, half Filipino, half Japanese, 100 percent American and thoroughly devoted to the boxers she manages. Boxing is still a mom-and-pop store at the Garcia home in Salinas, Calif., where Kathy manages income property from an office across the street from author John Steinbeck’s old house when she’s not managing fighters and playing with two grandkids, aged one and two.
These days, two of the fighters, middleweight Paul Mendez and junior-welterweight Darwin Price, share a room in her house, which includes a gym where husband Max and son Sam train them. Don’t be late for meals, turn off the cell phones at the dinner table and make sure you live within your weekly allowance. It’s hard to say no to Granma.
“If you can’t abide by the rules, you’re not for us and we’re not for you,’’ Kathy Garcia said of a family business that goes to work Monday night at the Sports House in Redwood City, Calif., on a Fox 1 televised card (10 p.m. ET/7p.m. PT) with Mendez (14-2-1, 6 KOs) scheduled to fight Louis Rose (8-1, 2 KOs) of Lynwood, Calif., and Price (2-0, 2 KOs) against Omar Avelar (2-9, 1 KO) of Washington State.
Garcia’s rules-and-regs are part-and-parcel of any well-run household. But many fighters, often from broken homes, miss that part of the growing up process. Some seek it. Some don’t. Some rebel.
“Fighters come from tough backgrounds,’’ she said. “I’m not afraid of that. Truth is, what they really need is some love.’’
They get it, although sometimes their response can be a real heart-breaker. Garcia got involved boxing because of her husband’s interest in training.
“I only got involved in 1997,’’ said Garcia, whose father spent the World War II years in an American re-location camp because of his Japanese ancestry.
She watched the kids train and saw that many needed help in managing their affairs. Over the last 15 years, her role evolved into the manager of record for 10 fighters, including Jose Celaya, a junior-middleweight contender who nearly made the U.S. Olympic team for the 2000 Sydney Games. She also managed Eloy Perez, who was knocked last year by Adrien Broner
Celaya spent too much money, Garcia said. Perez tested positive for cocaine. Both broke her heart. But the toughest was Preston Freeman. Freeman had as much raw talent as any young fighter the Garcias had seen.
“He was a young Floyd Mayweather Jr., that kind of talent,’’ Kathy said.
But after going 3-0 as a junior welterweight under the Garcia guidance, the 20-year-old Freeman got homesick for St. Louis, which he left in an attempt to escape the mean streets of his old neighborhood. A younger brother had been filled there. So, too, had a friend.
“His mom told me, ‘Don’t let him come back. He’ll get killed,’ ‘’ Kathy said. “But I couldn’t change his mind. I tried, but he was going home no matter what. I couldn’t keep him here. I got him a ticket. Thirty-six hours after he left, he was gone.’’
Shot and killed in front of a night club at midnight on March 7, 2012.
“Devastating,’’ she said. “Three boxers have broken my heart, but Preston is the one I’ll never really get over.’’
Yet, Freeman’s memory lives on for a grandmother who sees boxing as an opportunity for other kids from tough places.
Mendez fights on. He and Freeman lived and trained at the Garcia house, ate at Kathy’s table. Price, Freeman’s cousin and a former track star at Grambling, arrived after the tragedy and moved into the room that Mendez had shared with Freeman. Families get rocked, but never knocked out.
“For me and Max, this is not about money,’’ she said. “We have other jobs. I mean, if our kids get $1,000 a fight, it’s a good night. We’re doing this to put these kids in a position for bigger fights and a chance to improve their lives.’’
Throughout her decade in boxing, she has witnessed an increasingly divisive business. It’s one that could learn a lot from her. Boxing’s promotional feud is no secret. It’s nowhere near an end either. The Golden Boy-Top Rank stand-off is this century’s version of the Cold War and at – at this rate – it’ll last just about as long.
“It’s in very difficult place right now,’’ she said. “The public doesn’t get the fights it wants to see because of this feud. Fans quit watching and that’s not good for anybody. The public knows Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao. But who else? I knew who Sugar Ray Leonard and Thomas Hearns and Muhammad Ali were in a time when I wasn’t involved in boxing at all. I just think if that if this feud could get settled, everybody would better off. It would create a better future for these young kids.’’
Maybe, it’s time for a Grandma Summit at Kathy Garcia’s dinner table. She might have a hard time telling Richard Schaefer and Bob Arum to turn off their cell phones. But they’d have a harder time saying no to her.