English “Bouie” Fisher was a legendary trainer out of Philadelphia , who is best known as the longtime trainer of Bernard Hopkins.  Having passed away in 2011, Fisher left behind a legacy as one of the top trainers in the sport.  But those who knew Fisher will tell you that while he was a master trainer, he was an even better human being.  In this interview, one of Fisher’s sons, James Akhir Fisher, talks about his father’s background in boxing, the early years with Hopkins, and more.

 

DL: How did your father get involved in boxing and what led him to become a trainer?

 

JF: In the 30’s and 40’s, a lot of people immigrated to North Philadelphia – Italians, the Irish, African Americans...  It was a struggle in those days.  Back then and still today, a lot of tough fighters came from adverse areas.  Most major cities had ghettos and they bred fighters.  My dad was born in South Carolina , but came to Philadelphia at a young age.  Around that time, there was a big migration from the southern states to the northern states, because the factories gave people a chance to work.  My dad went to the gym when he was a kid and fell in love with the sport.  He competed in the amateurs and had a couple of pro fights.  But what happened is he became a father at the age of twenty.  Fighters back then might have made $100 a fight and he had to take care of his family.  He started working, but he never lost his passion for boxing.  Once he left the sport as a participant, he would go to the gyms after work.  In those days, the gyms in Philly were filled with great trainers.  Quinzell McCall was one of his mentors.  He would tell us stories about how when the fighters left the gym, the trainers would sit around and share notes and learn from each other.  You would have one trainer that would be good at teaching a left hook, another trainer would be good at teaching a body shot…  They would help each other with their fighters and teach them different things.  Trainers had a lot of respect for each other.  It’s different now.  Today, trainers try to steal each other’s fighters.  When fighters saw how good of a trainer my father was, they would come to him behind their trainer’s back and ask him to train him.  My dad would say, “Listen, go back to your trainer and have him come to me.  If he wants me to train you, I’ll do it.  But I’m not gonna go behind his back and start training you.”  That’s the kind of guy he was.  He had respect for people.

 

DL: When did your father first get involved with Bernard Hopkins?

 

JF: My father trained Jesse Ferguson, who he took from an amateur to a heavyweight contender.  But Jesse Ferguson left my dad and it broke my dad’s heart.  So, my dad stepped away from boxing for about three years.  But there was one guy who my dad mentored, a guy named Rob Murray, who came to my dad and kept telling him about this fighter who had just gotten out of prison.  Rob Murray would come see my dad everyday and kept telling him about this guy.  My dad always turned him down, but Rob Murray was real persistent.  So, my dad finally went to the gym and he saw Bernard Hopkins and he liked what he saw.  Bernard was a real good listener.  Whatever my dad taught him, he picked up on it very well.  My dad never had to tell Bernard to go running.  Bernard already did it.  Bernard was very impressive.  My dad was a great teacher and he had the perfect student.  Their marriage began in about 1989.  Me and Bernard were about a year apart in age and we were very close.  In my 20’s, I was partying a lot.  Bernard would tell me, “Why are you partying so much?”  Bernard didn’t go out and go after girls.  He had his one girlfriend and he would be in bed at eight o’clock.  I could see that this guy was definitely going to be a champ.  Even after he became successful, his attitude never changed.  He never possessed that lack of work ethic.  His main thing was always staying in the gym.

 

DL: On September 29, 2001, Hopkins defeated Felix Trinidad via twelfth round TKO in a middleweight unification bout at Madison Square Garden , just over two weeks after the devastation of 9/11.  What stands out in your mind about this time?

 

JF: That fight was one of the most memorable fights of his career and one of the most memorable things I’ve ever been apart of, because there are so many stories that surround that time.  Going back to the initial press conference in Manhattan , Trinidad had so many fans there.  Tito was a great fighter and he was one of my favorite fighters.  We were in the park and Bernard snatched the Puerto Rican flag from him and threw it on the ground.  In that moment, you could see in Tito’s eyes that he knew he had a problem.  Tito was used to being a bully.  But once a bully gets pushed around, he becomes kind of weak.  We went to Philadelphia , Miami and then San Juan for the press tour.  Everybody was told to not talk about the flag incident because it was a touchy situation.  When we got to Philadelphia and Miami , Tito and his dad were very quiet.  They didn’t say anything about it.  But when we got to San Juan , Tito spoke first and he brought up the flag incident.  He said how Bernard disrespected the flag and he made a funny statement.  People had made drawings of Bernard and were making jokes about his teeth.  And Tito pointed to one of the signs and said how if Bernard touched the flag again, this is how he’ll look.  At the same time, Don King was waving a flag.  So, Bernard took the flag from Don King and threw it.  All hell broke loose!  It was like a movie.  They chased us to the back of the stadium.  We were locked up in this room and the door was surrounded by Puerto Rican fans.  They had to call the National Guard to get us out.

 

We went to Vegas after that for training and camp went great.  My father was a heck of a strategist.  There were two things my father watched on TV – cowboy movies and boxing.  He loved westerns!  But he watched Trinidad and he dissected him.  He told Bernard not to let this guy set his feet.  Keep him moving and don’t let him get set.  When he tries to set, just jab and move.  Bernard never let Tito get set to throw his bombs and eventually he picked him apart.  But let’s get back to phase two of the pre-fight.  On September the 9th, we left Las Vegas and headed for New York .  On the morning of September 11th, we were supposed to go to a gym in Manhattan for a photo shoot.  But that morning, that’s when the planes hit the towers.  It was like the end of the world.  Our cell phones weren’t working and people were running around in the streets covered in smoke and dust.  Eventually, we were able to sneak out of New York and go back to Philadelphia .  Tito was stuck in New York .  He was running around with Don King, going around to all the fire stations and visiting Ground Zero, while we were in Philadelphia training.  I’ll never forget that time.  It was unbelievable.  It’s hard to even explain it.  We come from North Philadelphia where times are tough all the time.  When the planes hit, we just had to deal with it.  Even with everything going on, the focus was still on Tito Trinidad.

 

DL: Your father brought Naazim Richardson into Team Hopkins , which put Richardson on the map as a top professional trainer.  How did this come about?

 

JF: Naazim was already known as an amateur trainer.  He learned from all the great trainers in Philadelphia .  He was in his 30’s and he was a kid compared to all the trainers around.  For some reason, he just gravitated toward my dad.  My dad was getting up in age.  He watched Naazim doing pad work with these kids, so he brought Naazim in as an understudy and also to do the pads with Bernard.  Naazim was great on the pads.  That’s what began their relationship.  He loved my dad and my dad loved him too.

 

DL: Your father trained Ivan Robinson when Robinson twice defeated Arturo Gatti in 1998, the first fight via split decision, and the second fight via unanimous decision.

 

JF: In 1998, things were going well with Bernard and Ivan was training in the same gym with us.  Ivan’s trainer, Butch Cathay, had a lot of respect for my dad and he asked my dad to help him.  There were no egos or envy.  It was just mutual respect.  With the first Gatti fight, everybody thought Ivan didn’t have a chance.  Ivan was just supposed to be an opponent.  But they put in a lot of work in the gym and everybody saw what happened.  Ivan was ready.  Ivan loved my dad like he was his dad.  Ivan is a good man.  He was an outstanding amateur coming out of Philadelphia and my father followed him.  He used to watch Ivan train.  Ivan had a lot of heart and a lot of hand speed, and my dad admired him.

 

DL: We know that your father was great as a trainer.  How would you describe him as a person?

 

JF: My father came to Philadelphia with three other brothers.  Shortly after they came here, his mother passed away.  Their father was part of their life, but times were hard in the 30’s and 40’s.  My father dropped out of school in the sixth grade, so he could work and help his family survive.  He and my mother had eight children.  With a sixth grade education, he sent all of us to Catholic school from kindergarten to twelfth grade.  And all of us had some kind of secondary education after high school.  I learned something that I didn’t find out until years later.  While all of us were getting an education that he was paying for, he would take books and learn how to read.  He got his education on his own just by reading.  You would never know that he just had a sixth grade education.  Of everybody you meet that has ever known my father, nobody has ever said anything bad about him.  Ever.  He was a true gentleman.  For me to grow up in Philadelphia, when I tell people I’m Bouie Fisher’s son, it’s like I’m telling them that I’m Martin Luther King’s son, or Barrack Obama’s son, or John F. Kennedy’s son.  His name carries that type of respect.  It’s made life easier for me.  He was an outstanding man, a family man.  He was married to my mother for sixty-two years.  There was no extra marital activity.  None of that.  There’s nothing bad that people can say about this guy.  If I was twenty-five percent the man he was, I would be better than most men that I encounter.  He had a big heart.   

 

DOVEED LINDER IS THE AUTHOR OF “RINGSIDE: INTERVIEWS WITH 24 FIGHTERS AND BOXING INSIDERS”, WHICH WILL SOON BE RELEASED THROUGH MCFARLAND PUBLISHERS.  THIS BOOK FEATURES A FOREWORD BY BOXINGTALK PUBLISHER GREG LEON.

 

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