"And another difference between a good fighter and a great fighter is a good fighter can make adjustments from fight to fight. A great fighter can make adjustments from round to round and sometimes in the middle of a round. If you think about that, it goes back to being fundamentally sound in the first place," stated world-class trainer Billy Briscoe, who shared his thoughts on the difference between a good fighter and a great fighter. Check it out!
PC: Obviously the Martin Murray fight with Gabe Rosado didn't work out in your guy's favor. One judge only gave Gabe one round. You guys felt you won the fight, but to have one judge basically say your fighter showed up and did nothing has to be that much more heartbreaking.
BB: Yeah, that was a terrible score. I thought we did enough to win, but in the eye of the one judge, we only won one round. What more could we have done?
PC: Were you kind of weary of that going over there for that fight?
BB: In the back of my head, there was a thought that we wouldn't get a fair shake as far as the scorecards. But I felt like Gabby went over there and did what he had to do. I thought it was a clear victory and a lot of people that I know, and I respect their opinion also, thought we won clearly. All you can do is fight the fight; you can't judge the judges. We can't fight the fight and judge it.
PC: You also have your son fighting now and you're training him. What has that been like having him around and working with him on his craft?
BB: He's been in the gym with me since day one. I used to work in this factory and after work, I would stop at the house and grab my son in his little carrier and I'd walk like a half hour with him to the gym and train a fighter. So he's been in the gym since before he could walk.
PC: Will you bring someone in to help out with him or will you be his trainer, because I know a lot of times, some fathers will look to bring in someone just because it is their son?
BB: Nah, I don't need no help from anybody. I build guys from the ground up. I don't need any help, you know what I'm saying? I'm not gonna trust him with anybody else. But I'll work with him of course. Build him slow; slow and steady wins the race. There is an old cliché I live by in boxing: fools rush in where wise men dare not go.
PC: Is it different with your son as opposed to any of your other fighters because he is your son?
BB: Of course! As a kid, when I was coming up in the gym, I've been in the gym since I was 7 years old. I seen it obviously, but I didn't understand it too well, but yeah, it's definitely different. With fathers in boxing, they are either too brave with their son's blood or too scary with their son's blood. They are either too brave with the blood and the want their son to fight King Kong and if he don't, they are highly upset or they are a little nervous and they don't want to put them out there and they overthink. It's a fine line where you have to turn off the father switch and turn on the trainer switch and vice versa. There have been a lot of successful father-son duos, but for every successful duo that you can show me with father and son, I can show you 25 that wasn't successful. So there is a real fine line.
PC: I was talking to Gary Russell Sr. the other day and he was just talking about the amount of stress that comes with having 3 of your blood kids competing the same night. I don't think people realize that when a father is cornering his son, having to do it 3 times in one night is very stressful.
BB: Yeah, that is insane. He's done a hell of a job, man. He's one of the best father and son duos or trios or quadruples or however many he has (laughing). He's one of the best out there. He's done a hell of a job and I take my hat off to him.
PC: Do you try to pattern yourself off of a particular working relationship from a father-son duo you see now or that you have seen in the past, or are you taking your own approach and doing your own thing?
BB: Nah! To each his own, man. Everybody has their own methods of how they deal with people in general. I respect Barry Hunter and how he is with the Peterson Brothers. He is a good friend. I worked cuts with Dusty Harrison with him and he is a tremendous teacher and corner man and him and Boogie are great people. But I train each fighter as an individual. Unfortunately, you can't just make a cookie cutter approach. There are a lot of guys that try and train each fighter the same. It doesn't work that way. What works for one fighter may not work for another. What might make you a killer and be in great shape may kill the next guy. You gotta find what works because certain things work for some fighters and certain things don't. You gotta find techniques and skills that are comfortable for that fighter. There are a lot more than one way to skin a cat. Now why would you want to skin a cat, I don't know, but that's just the saying. Right now, as we are sitting here, we could probably figure out 20 counters to a left jab and 15 counters to a right hand off the top of our heads without even going in depth. If you got one way that's not working, go with another one. Because if a fighter's not comfortable and you force him to do it, he's gonna do it, but he's not going to be as effective as he should be. You gotta let a fighter be himself. My mentor, who taught me everything I know about the sport of boxing, used to tell me, "When you work with a fighter, you never try to change them. You add on to things that he's already doing." So you teach a fighter things and you let them use it how he sees fit. It's like framing a house; you might frame your side of the house one way and I might frame my side of the house another way, but as long as it's 15 and a quarter on up and it's 15 in the center and it's level and squared, we're good. How you do it may be different than how I do it, but at the end of the day, it's all done. As long as we are inside the fundamental framework, everything is going to be alright.
PC: You have used the term "from ground up' on a few occasions during this interview and I know that's something you're big on. A lot of people feel that that is something lacking in boxing today.
BB: I asked my mentor once when I was a kid, I may have been 11 years old or so, I asked him, I said, "So what's the difference between a good fighter and a great fighter?" He broke it down to me and one of the major things that sticks out in my mind is he said, "One of the major differences between a good fighter and a great fighter is a great fighter takes the time to learn the fundamentals." And another difference between a good fighter and a great fighter is a good fighter can make adjustments from fight to fight. A great fighter can make adjustments from round to round and sometimes in the middle of a round. If you think about that, it goes back to being fundamentally sound in the first place. The only thing I know how to do in life is boxing and building houses. I explain it like this; you build a fighter like you build a house, from the ground up. The stronger the foundation, the stronger the building you can put up. You put a strong enough foundation, you can put a skyscraper up there that high. But if you put up a weak enough foundation, you can't even hold up a doghouse. The squarer the foundation, the squarer everything goes in behind it. You never want to come in square; that's why you build a fighter the same way you build a house, from the ground up.
PC: We had a legend like Bernard Hopkins walk away from the sport as far as being an active fighter. What do you think of the landscape of the new Philadelphia fighters that are out there now?
BB: Philadelphia has a lot of good talent on the rise. Jesse Hart is definitely going to be a world champ. It's only a matter of time. He's a special talent. He's walking his way up the ranks and he's going to get there. I think he could compete for a world title right now. They know what they are doing though. Top Rank is one of the best companies in boxing. Tevin FarmerÂ…this guy is something special too. Mark Cipparone got him when he was 7-4. This guy is a hell of a manager. He changed up his training habits and got him out of Philly and moved him to Jersey into a house and made sure he was eating correctly and put a good training team around him. He took him from 7-4 and got him one of the top rated junior lightweights in the world. It's only a matter of time. I was just at his last fight last week. It was a stay warm fight before the big dance, but he'll be ready. He can fight his ass off. Damon Allen is a beautiful fighter. He is a beautiful boxer. He was a tremendous amateur and his grandfather is one of the best fundamental teachers in boxing that I've ever seen personally. He teaches guys fundamentally to where you don't get much better. He is old school. He goes back to my mentor as a matter of fact. They used to spar each other back in the day. He not only trained a lot of good fighters, but he made a lot of good teachers underneath him. He comes from great stock. My man Danny Garcia, of course he's in the mix. One little slip up is not going to stop him. Who elseÂ…"Scooter" Fulton is a good little fighter. He's a smaller guy and they don't get as much attention as the bigger guys, but he can fight. You got the kid Christian Carto. That kids a monster. That kid is going to be bantamweight champion of the world in a matter of 2 years. He's 9-0 with 9 knockouts. He can punch a hole through a brick wall. He's unbelievable. He's an Italian kid from South Philly. He was the National Golden Gloves champion a couple of years ago. They say the cream rises to the top and it truly does. Julian Williams is a good fighter. He came up short against Charlo, but he'll be back in the mix. That's a small thing to a giant. Kyrone Davis, he's from Delaware technically, but he trains out of PhiladelphiaÂ…that kid there. "Super O" Omar Douglas is real good, even though he's coming off of a few losses; a lot of great fighters. The thing about Philadelphia, we have already had a lot of great fighters, but unfortunately for a while, we didn't have a lot of real good managers and promoters. For awhile, we only had one real good promotional company and that was Russell Peltz. That guy is a Hall of Famer. He's forgotten more about boxing than most people know. A lot of guys didn't put a lot of money into the fighters like they did in New York. Those guys put a lot of money into fighters.
PC: Before I let you go, I know you train some MMA guys in standup. There has been a lot of talk of a boxer fighting an MMA guy in boxing. Are you a fan of that or are you opposed to it?
BB: It's two different worlds, man. It's like comparing basketball and soccer because the ball is round. It's not the same thing. Boxing is a different world. I got nothing but respect for MMA. Like you said, I train MMA fighters in standup and I've studied Jiu Jitsu as a child. I've done all kind of things; Muay Thai. I got respect for them, but it's a different world.
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