It’s not exactly a comeback. Kevin Barry never really left. Home has always been in a corner, no matter how obscure. It’s just that the lights are beginning to brighten again for Barry at a post that has cornered a special place in his heart.
“Boxing is the love of my life,’’ Barry said.
That life, like marriage, tested Barry with familiar controversies, starting with his 1984 Olympic silver medal won in a disqualification of eventual heavyweight champ Evander Holyfield and including a split with David Tua in the courts of his native New Zealand.
Barry wasn’t sure he ever wanted to venture back toward the biggest stage, which in boxing can be as upside-down as the Down-Under in his homeland. In fact, he needed some convincing. But he’s glad he listened to a persuasive Beibut Shumenov (8-1, 6 KOs), a light-heavyweight from Kazakhstan who will have Barry in his corner Friday night in a Fox-televised rematch of his disputed loss by majority decision to World Boxing Association champion Gabriel Campillo (19-2, 6 KOs) of Spain at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas.
Initially, Barry wasn’t interested. He was content and busy in Las Vegas, training kick boxers, mixed-martial-arts fighters, kids who hope to box and old guys who think they still can. But Shumenov, also a Las Vegas resident, proved to be irresistible, perhaps because Barry saw some of himself in a 26-year-old fighter who decided to go pro three years after fighting for Kazakhstan at the 2004 Olympics.
“I actually had him work with a few young fighters of my own some time ago,’’ said Barry, who grew up in the in Christchurch on New Zealand’s south island and has been living in Las Vegas since 2004. “So I saw him early on. I saw the strength, the power, the hand speed. He had all the makings of a good fighter. He’s a real physical specimen. Very quick. Very explosive.’’
Also very smart and very sure of what he wants, Barry says.
“Over the last couple of months that I’ve spent with him, I found out so much more about the man,’’ Barry said. “He is so disciplined. He really lives the life of a professional athlete.’’
It’s a commitment that might have been forged during his years away from boxing, a sabbatical that also explains his record of only nine fights. The self-managed Shumenov worked as a businessman in Kazakhstan after the 2004 Games, Barry said.
“I’m not sure a lot of people know, but he is a lawyer in Kazakhstan,’’ Barry said. “He’s very intelligent. It’s really a privilege to work with somebody who has actually got something in the top six inches. You’re not having to beat it into him, day in and day out. He makes small adjustments. He does his homework. He corrects flaws. He’s a pleasure to work with.’’
Still, it’s early. Bright lights can blind with self-imposed, often unforeseen pressures. Then, there’s always that one, unseen punch that can scramble the top six inches of the best and the brightest.
“Of course, when the lights go on and the bell sounds on live TV, sometimes things change,’’ Barry says.
In 1984, they changed for Barry. Barry never got a chance to fight for the light-heavyweight’s gold medal. Silver was the color of consolation. Holyfield was repeatedly warned for hitting on the break. When the referee yelled break, Holyfield landed a flurry of combinations that put Barry on the canvas, knocked out and out of the gold-medal bout. That was the end of Barry’s career, at least inside the ropes. Twenty-six years later, the 50-year-old trainer has no regrets.
In some ways, he says his unique moment in Olympic history led to friendships and created opportunities that continue to this day.
He became friendly with Holyfield, although he is saddened that the ex-champion continues to fight. Holyfield’s bout with Frans Botha in Uganda, scheduled for Feb. 20, was canceled Thursday because the promised money came with no guarantees. There are reports that it will be re-scheduled, possibly for March 6 in Miami.
“It’s sad,’’ said Barry, who believes Holyfield is damaging his legacy. “He’s fighting, but as a shadow of the great fighter he was. That’s the sad part.’’
In the controversy immediately following the 1984 Olympics, there was an offer that might have made a difference in Barry’s life. A Barry-Holyfield rematch as pros was discussed. But the deal never came together, Barry said. He went home to New Zealand where, he said, “there wasn’t a lot of love for Americans’’ because of the Olympic controversy.
Meanwhile, pro boxing just wasn’t an opportunity in New Zealand in 1984. Eight years later, that changed with David Tua, a bronze medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Tua was washing dishes in an Auckland restaurant when Barry decided to approach him with an offer.
“In my day, that just wasn’t there, not in New Zealand,’’ said Barry, who added that he lacked power, yet was quick and had a terrific jab. “Then, there wasn’t anybody who could put together a professional package to make it work.’’
Tua’s power and entertaining Down-Under persona became an immediate hit in the U.S. that was punctuated by explosive stoppages of John Ruiz and Michael Moorer. But he fell short of a major title in disappointing performance against Lennox Lewis. Barry and Tua were together for 12 years before they headed to divorce court in messy proceedings that lasted six years. The case was finally resolved in October.
“In the position I was, I had pretty much given up at getting back to the highest level in boxing,’’ Barry said. “Even so, things had gotten a lot better. But then this happened with Beibut. I feel extraordinarily privileged. It’s rejuvenated my life. I just feel very lucky.’’
Lucky enough, perhaps, to also be in the corner for his first fighter with a major title, the only thing missing in the home his heart has always occupied.
NOTES, QUOTES
· Phoenix 17-year-old Jose Benavidez Jr., 1-0 after winning a stoppage a couple of weeks ago in Las Vegas, was back in his hometown a week ago after an impressive debut in his 10-fight deal with Top Rank. As a high school senior, he still needs time and bouts to prove he is a true prospect. But he already has captured the imagination of a Phoenix community that hasn’t had real boxing star since Hall of Famer Michael Carbajal. Kids stood in line at Central Boxing for nearly two hours just to get an autograph from Benavidez, who resumed training in Los Angeles at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in anticipation of a possible appearance on the Manny-Pacquiao-Joshua Clottey undercard March 13 in Dallas.
· If he could do it over, Pacquiao probably would never have posed like a body-builder in those photos that are all over the internet. One look and it’s hard not to think about Floyd Mayweather Sr.’s allegations about performance enhancers.
· And speaking of second thoughts, Wizard guards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton flashed guns in a NBA locker room for a Washington franchise which used to be called the Bullets.
