"He was more than a talent my man. Look here, he could have gone down as possibly one of the greatest fighters of all time. He had power, endurance, stamina, and the guy was pretty smart. He could have made a lot of money. Hey, Valero would have knocked Pacquiao out! I don't care what anybody says and they can say whatever they want to say. I worked with him and I knew exactly what he was about and what he can do. He would have knocked Pacquiao out and I think he may have even beaten Mayweather because of his constant pressure and his punching ability," stated world-class trainer Kenny Adams as he shared his thoughts on undefeated lightweight champion Edwin Valero, who tragically died ealier this year. Adams, who has worked with 18 world champions and coached the 1988 U.S. Olympic boxing team to 3 gold medals, talked about a number of subjects and you don't want to miss what else he had to say. Check it out!
PC: How is everything going?
KA: Everything is going well. Everything is one time.
PC: What is the talent pool like for you out there in Vegas?
KA: Right now, I've got a real good talent pool. I got a young man named Sharif Bogere. He's 18-0 and he's like #20 in the world. He's a 135-pounder. I got another 135-pounder who is 11-0 with 8 knockouts named Terrance Crawford. I also got a guy who is probably going to fluctuate between 40-47, Michael Finney, who is 4-0 with 4 knockouts. He came down from Alabama and is a real good prospect. He's tall for his weight. He's in between 5'10" and 5'11". He's a real tall young man; a lot of prospect there. I got another 47-pounder from New Zealand named Lenny and he's 4-0; another outstanding prospect. I'm working with another young man. He's a 160-pounder. He's a two-time amateur world champion named Matt and he is 11-0 with 8 knockouts. All of these guys are good punchers and now they are just learning all of the techniques in boxing. I'm just getting them geared up properly, conditioned properly and strength-wise and everything, so it's going real well. I got a couple of more coming in, but I can't disclose their names right now.
PC: You worked with the amateur program for years and all of these guys you just named are very young in their careers. How important is that to you? Because we see a lot of guys now get guys that are already champions.
KA: That's very very important, and I say that because that was my major goal when I got into the pro ranks. I brought guys from the amateurs that I had in the army to the nationals to the Olympic tournaments and all through the professional ranks. It's very important because you're able to mold these guys, in most cases, the way that they should be. I find that so many of these kids are lacking fundamentals, and that is very important in this game. The basic fundamentals of boxing allow you not to go wrong in any way, shape, form or fashion. You gotta start with the jab, make sure the right hand is proper, the left hook is right, the upper cut is proper; you have to know how to block or catch shots on the defensive end of it and you can teach that easily if you got pretty good talent, but when a guy is not that promising and he takes too many punches and he gets hit too much and his basic fundamentals are not great, then he just doesn't make for a good fighter. That seems to be one of the big problems that we have today. Our guy's fundamentals are just not very good. To show you that point, if you look at the Olympics over the period I left, in 1988, we had 3 Golds, 3 Silvers and 2 Bronze. It should have been 5 Golds, really, but the point of it all is up till this time, all of the Olympics they have had since then, they only got 3 Gold Medals, only a total of 3 Gold Medals since '88.
PC: You served over 30 years in the military. How did that translate over to boxing for you and how do you incorporate it into your everyday boxing regimen?
KA: I think the mindset of never give up, don't leave anybody behind and take no prisoners. I think that type of mindset makes me a candidate for a guy that pushes hard and drives hard. But once again, the problem that I have is that so many people on the outside looking in are talking about how hardcore Kenny Adams is or whatever it might be. The problem is some people might feel like my love is too rough and tough for them. I'm always looking out for the well-being of the fighter. My basic goal is to become a champion and be the best you can be. Getting involved in boxing isn't something that you can just stay amateur and be a kid in it. It's something where you have to get bold and get the confidence and step up to the plate. If you're going to make it your job and your business, then you have to be a professional at boxing and in order to do that, you have to be very disciplined and the key factor has to be that your goal is to win a world championship. I think a lot of people have the wrong concept of that. An athlete has to be disciplined. That's the only way you can make it. You can't be carefree and become a good world champion unless you're one of the greatest to ever do it, like Sugar Ray Robinson or Muhammad Ali; that type. Willie Pep had what it takes, so those types of guys. You are talking about some of the greatest fighters that ever lived. Like Salvador Sanchez, who I consider to be one of the greatest lightweights of all time; a lot of people will say Duran, and Duran was a great one, but Salvador Sanchez, I think, is one of the greatest.
PC: Your title is trainer, not babysitter, and unfortunately with the amount of money that these guys make, some of them may be looking for just that?
KA: (Laughing) It's funny you say that because they did an article in the paper down here one time and the headline was "Manager changed babysitter for trainer!"
PC: You have worked with a number of world champions and former world champions. For the people who are not familiar with you, can you name some of the guys that you have worked with?
KA: Eddie Cook, Al Cole, Vince Phillips, Kennedy McKinney, Frankie Liles, Freddie Norwood, Diego Corrales, Ray Mercer, Cory Spinks, Edwin Valero, Jorge Linares, Holyfield, Bowe, Carbajal, Roy Jones, I mean, you name them. I have been all up and down the line with them. I worked with guys like Samuel Peter, Ruslan Chagaev, Muhammad Abdullaev, the former Gold Medalist. I worked with a lot of guys that went on to become world champions and to be honest with you, a lot of the people, like Peter and Kid Diamond, I started them up. I had a lot of those guys at 10-0 and 11-0 and there is always some...that's one thing about boxing again. You try to live and let live, but you have to protect yourself in this game too. You have to be contractual-minded. If you're not contractual-minded, you can teach some of the best in the world and then you lose them; somebody comes and steals them. I have been through quite a bit of that. I say live and let live and the reason I say that is because I say the hell with them. If he feels like he gotta be sneaky, hell, I let him go. I don't want to be around him either. That's mainly what it's been about, but I love boxing. I want to do this up until the day I take my last steps. I want to be stepped up to the middle of the ring, you know what I'm saying? That's really what I want to do. I was just telling somebody...I recently got into the Missouri Hall of Fame and in my ceremony I said one thing that I would like to do, I said, "When I die and they cut my head open, I feel like Marvin Hagler, they will find one big boxing glove!" That's how I live and that's what I live for.
PC: Out of all of the fighters you named, who sticks out in your mind the most, for whatever reason?
KA: Frankie Liles sticks out in my mind because he was such a loyal guy. He lived up to everything that I wanted him to be. He had 1,000% manners; he looks out for me and calls to check up on me. But you know, I have a lot of fighters that call me. Eddie Cook calls me still, Al Cole, Phillips calls me, McKinney, Norwood even calls me, and Mercer every now and then. A lot of these guys stand out in my mind. And to tell you the truth, I have a number of guys that call me that's never become world champion. It makes me feel good when I get a call and they say, "Hey Coach, you made a man of me and you're like a father figure to me." That means a whole lot to me. It's not so much that they didn't become world champions, but they have become world champion men. They didn't necessarily get a belt around their waist, but they became men in life. I have always tried to teach guys when they're coming up to just be honest and straight forward in all the things that they try to do in life. You just gotta be the best that you can be in whatever you do. That's very important and I just strive to be that, you know? I was a Drill Sergeant in the military and that's what I always tell the guys too. Everything that you shoot for, you should drive and shoot for everything that you want to do. You gotta aim to be the best.
PC: You worked with Edwin and you guys separated because you felt he didn't listen well and he wanted to run the show. Edwin was definitely a talent...
KA: (Cutting in) He was more than a talent my man. Look here, he could have gone down as possibly one of the greatest fighters of all time. He had power, endurance, stamina, and the guy was pretty smart. He could have made a lot of money. Hey, Valero would have knocked Pacquiao out! I don't care what anybody says and they can say whatever they want to say. I worked with him and I knew exactly what he was about and what he can do. He would have knocked Pacquiao out and I think he may have even beaten Mayweather because of his constant pressure and his punching ability. If he would have just kept himself straight on all levels...I really hated at the end there, we kind of got to the point where...his problem was, part of it was finding sparring partners for him. He was paying people to spar and he was knocking cats out left and right in sparring. He was beating them up so bad, I had to get guys much bigger. And then everybody wanted a lot more money to spar with this guy. Actually, the day that we split up, he came to the gym and neither sparring partner showed up. I even called and made calls to their people trying to get everything right and find out exactly where they were at and I could not get them. That was a big problem there. So we kind of...we didn't really get into it, but it was like a problem. See, Edwin tried to run his own show. It's not that I have a problem with a fighter running his own show, but when it comes to working out and training, I have to train you; you can't train me. I'm the trainer and you're the fighter. That's what you pay me for. So therefore, I told him what we needed to try to work on that day and he was a little angry because he didn't get to spar, saying, "I wanted to spar and blah blah blah." I said, "Hey, Edwin, this ain't gonna work. It ain't gonna work like this man. You gotta listen." So when they got ready to leave, I kind of figured that was going to be it. He said, "Okay Kenny, I will see you." I said, "Okay man, go on about your business," you know? I didn't say nothing else because I don't try to get up in these cats grill or anything. It's about being a man. If the cat don't want to be with you or he wants to do his own thing, you let him go. That's what happened with that and that was a week and a half before he was getting ready to fight Pitalua to get to the top and solidify himself. I had been with him through 30 and 35, so that was going to be his last fight there. I called his manager and said, "Hey look, that right hook he threw was the one I taught him. I want some money for that."
BE SURE TO CHECK BACK FOR PART 2 OF THIS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH KENNY ADAMS
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