Hall of Fame four-time light flyweight champ Michael Carbajal wants you to know that when his great-nephew, Keenan Carbajal, steps into the ring this Saturday on the Keith Thurman-Mario Barrios PPV undercard against four-division former champ Leo Santa Cruz, he’ll be rooting strongly for Santa Cruz and hoping for an early knockout.
Just as publicity started for the February 5 show, “Little Hands of Stone” Carbajal went public, issuing a public statement through his spokesperson to make sure the boxing world knew of how NOT connected, in any way, he was to the career of his brother Danny’s grandson:
“Michael Carbajal releases this statement to clear any misconceptions that suggest or imply his support or endorsement of Keenan Carbajal. Any assumptions that he is rooting for Keenan Carbajal are completely unfounded. To the contrary, Michael Carbajal will be rooting for Leo Santa Cruz to win and expects an early knockout victory.
The animosity between Michael Carbajal and the Keenan Danny Josephine Carbajal faction absolutely cannot be understated. There is no merit to any claim that Michael has any involvement, association, or affiliation with Keenan, his fight career, or any part of his life.
Further, Michael is not involved with Keenan’s trainer, Danny Carbajal (Michael’s estranged brother), or Keenan’s mother, Josephine Carbajal (Michael’s estranged niece), in any way, shape, or form. Michael Carbajal has never had and will never have any association with Keenan or any member of his team known as ‘Familia Carbajal’, which has misrepresented and violated the actual Carbajal Family.”
The story of Michael Carbajal’s estrangement from his brother and former trainer/manager, Danny, is an ugly one. The one-time inseparable pair, who professed nothing but love and trust in one another during Michael’s rise to stardom, had been permanently torn apart after the boxer had found his entire career earning, savings, and investments gone upon retirement.
Danny served 3 ½ years in prison after pleading guilty to three felonies stemming from his theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars in retirement accounts and properties from his ex-wife, Sally, who was murdered by a still-unknown assailant in 2005, just three days before she was set to battle him in court over his alleged financial scams.
The elder Carbajal’s misdeeds in the case involving his wife also allegedly bled over to Michael, who was led to believe that his boxing earnings—somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million-- were being put away for retirement. Instead, those earnings were placed in accounts under Danny’s name and fell into a black hole of confusion where they could never be retrieved.
"I would have given him anything. Anything!" Michael told the judge, speaking at his brother's 2008 sentence hearing. Then he turned directly to his brother.
"All I said to you, Danny, was, 'Take [financial] care of my mother, first of all, and take care of my kids first of all.'"
Danny’s alleged misdeeds also involve theft of IRA retirement funds from the Carbajals’ mother, Mary, and an eviction of the mother from a home purchased with money from Michael’s earnings, but legally owned by Danny.
“They’re not family,” the now 54-year-old Michael Carbajal said in broken Spanish in a recent video interview with the TV Boxeo YouTube channel. “[Danny] Stole everything from me...he kicked my mother out of her house....It’s not that he took my money, it’s what they did to my Mom...You don’t do that.”
The legendary fighter, currently operating Michael Carbajal’s 9th Street Gym in Phoenix, then delivered a direct message to Leo Santa Cruz for his upcoming bout this Saturday against Keenan Carbajal.
“Leo, knock him out...as a favor for the real Carbajal family.”