PART 1 of a 5-part Series

By Zachary Levin

As his wife, Nancy, led me to the den where Gil Clancy was waiting for me, I half-expected to find him wearing a tuxedo, or at least a sharp tie and jacket with the CBS Sports logo on the front. Most of my memories of the steely-eyed, 82-year-old are of him looking dapper as he delivered outstanding boxing analysis on network TV in the ‘80s, and then on HBO in the ‘90s. On this day, however, he looked like he’d just gotten back from a fishing trip; he was tan, barefoot, and had on green shorts, a faded Team De La Hoya T-shirt and matching baseball cap. The gravelly voice was unchanged and, after a few minutes of boxing talk, it was clear his observations were as honest and astute as ever.

Clancy’s den was devoid of any boxing memorabilia. There were no reminders of the half-century’s worth of ring legends he’s worked with as a trainer and manager, guys like Emile Griffith, Rodrigo Valdes, Ken Buchanan, Jerry Quarry, George Foreman and Joe Frazier, among many others. In fact, there were mainly shots of horses (he owns a few), and his prodigious family (he and his wife of fifty-seven years have a brood of 6 kids, 17 grandchildren, and 10 great grandchildren). Even though Clancy has had some health problems—heart surgery, two artificial hips, and a melanoma taken out of his left leg last year that looks like he tangled with Jaws—he is still a formidable presence. If he told you to drop and give him fifty, you wouldn’t dare question him.

Before we began the interview, I attempted to break the ice by showing him a tape of a boxing film called “TRADE,” which my father (Lear Levin) shot in 1970. It featured Clancy working with a promising young heavyweight at the time (who never panned out) named Forest Ward. Clancy had never seen the film before, and though he was poked-faced, he seemed more reflective after viewing the tape than he was before.

ZL: Forest Ward was a good-looking prospect at the time, right?

Gil Clancy: Probably the best prospect as far as making money that I ever had. Teddy Brenner told me—later in Ward’s career—‘He’s on drugs.’ I said to him, ‘You’re out of your mind. He’s the nicest, cleanest kid I ever met in my life.’ And then we were supposed to fight Chuck Wepner six rounds. Teddy Brenner says, ‘Look, we want to make it an eight.’ I said, ‘I don’t want this kid to fight eight rounds yet.’ He says, ‘Why? He’s gonna knock Wepner out in two or three rounds anyway, you know.’ I said, ‘Okay.’ P.S. Wepner stopped him. By that time he was on drugs, which I didn’t know.

ZL: What kind of drugs? Do you know?

GC: I don’t know…he was a druggie, though.

ZL: I had heard that Ward had a fragile psyche, and when he kept hitting Wepner and Wepner wouldn’t go, he kind of cracked…

GC: (cutting in) Wepner won the fight, took everything Forest had to offer.

ZL: I was reading an article in which you list the ten greatest fighters in history, and also the ten greatest fighters you ever worked with. I’d like to throw out some of the names from the first list, and you can tell me what comes to mind.

GC: Sure. Of course.

ZL: Willie Pep.

GC: Well, I think the best fighter pound for pound all time. He always fought in the other guy’s hometown, and always when the other guy was hot. And he’d come out and beat the guy. Just a great fighter. (After Willie Pep, Clancy’s list is as follows: Sugar Ray Robinson, Joe Louis, Archie Moore, Muhammad Ali, Rocky Marciano, Harry Greb, Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, and Harold Johsnon.)

ZL: Best defensive specialist, Pep?

GC: Well, he was a terrific all around fighter. The only guy that gave him trouble was Sandy Sandler, because he was a freak, Sandy. Like 6 foot 1 and he could punch like a heavyweight. Outside of that, Pep just took everybody else apart.

ZL: Sugar Ray Robinson. You have him at number two.

GC: Number two, correct. He was a great technician, could punch, and he knew just what he had to do to win a fight. Always would pull it out at the right time.

ZL: Archie Moore.

GC: Archie More was a guy that had his own style. Very relaxed fighter—could probably fight 30 rounds if he had to. And again, he knew where to place his punches and how to hurt you.

ZL: An unbelievably prodigious career, too. And even 18 years into it, at 40 years old, he kept progressing.

GC: You couldn’t even call him the ‘old pro.’ He was ‘old old pro.’ He knew ever trick in the book. And he was so relaxed, that’s why he never got tired. Could probably fight forever if he had to.

ZL: When Moore lost to Marciano, he was still a brilliant light heavy, right?

GC: Oh, absolutely. Sure. Marciano beat a very good Archie Moore. And the fight I always remember, of course, was with Yvon Durelle, when Moore was down five times and came back and won.

ZL: What did you think of Moore’s training habits and interesting ideas on nutrition? (He claimed that he would chew on a steak, swallow the juice, and spit out the rest.)

GC: Well, I think a lot of that stuff was just for press. Chewing on the meat and spitting it out, and things like that. I don’t think he did that at all. I think he was a good guy at getting publicity.

ZL: Did you watch him train, or learn things from him?

GC: No I didn’t watch him much. He was out in California.

ZL: Okay, another name: Muhammad Ali.

GC: Ali I’ve known forever. I knew him since he was an amateur. His best asset, Ali’s was—nobody realizes—his best asset was that he could take the best punch in boxing. If he couldn’t take a great punch, he would’ve just been an ordinary heavyweight. But he could take those good punches that other guy nailed him with, and just come right back and score points and eventually get these guys out of there—most of them.

ZL: With few exceptions, you need to have a great chin to be successful in the heavyweight division, don’t you?

GC: You do need a great chin, yeah. But he had the best one. The best.

ZL: Lennox Lewis had a great career but he obviously didn’t have--

GC: (cutting in) Didn’t have the best chin in the world, no.

ZL: But he was able to overcome it because…?

GC: Well, because the talent that was around. He was a big guy, talented guy, and there wasn’t that much around in the heavyweight division.

ZL: Do you like Ali matching up against any heavyweight—I mean, I know Norton gave him problems…but do you like him against any heavyweight that’s ever lived?

GC: Well, I think Marciano would have given him trouble, strange as it may seem. Even though Rocky was a small guy, he just had such a high energy level…work level…that he’d take it out of these bigger and stronger guys all the time. The reason I say that, I don’t know if you remember when Ali fought George Chuvalo. Chuvalo couldn’t punch, and he gave Ali trouble. Chuvalo’s style was a little bit similar to Marciano’s. So with Mariciano the way he could really punch, and the style he had, I think he would’ve always given Ali trouble.

ZL: I always figured when they had those Ali vs. Marciano debates, like the computerized bout they did in 1970 in which Rocky stopped Ali in the 13th, that it was just white folks wanting to hold on to something from the past.

GC: That and showbiz.

ZL: But I never gave Marciano a chance against Ali. Now I have to reconsider some things. …On different note, I recently watched a great fight in which you were involved: Duran-Buchanan. I know Duran is among your top-10 greatest fighters. What’s it like facing a prime Hands of Stone?

GC: Actually, I think it was my fault that Buchanan lost that fight. Because Duran was knocking everybody out in a round or two, and we were training for 15 rounds. I said to Kenny (Buchanan), ‘This guy gets to five, six rounds, we’re gonna own him.’ No, but, Duran, he just kept coming, nothing ever got in his way. Buchanan was, for the first time in the fight, starting to nail Duran with some pretty good punches in the round he got hit with the low blow. (Duran hit Buchanan with a low blow in the 13th round, and won by TKO when Buchanan could not continue.)

ZL: Was that a low blow, for sure? I couldn’t tell from the camera angle?

GC: Oh, definitely. Definitely was a low blow.

ZL: So in that case, do you accept the victory?

GC: Sure. I went over to the referee and tried to speak to him but…

ZL: Was there no chance Buchanan could have continued?

GC: No, he was really hurt.

ZL: Was that probably the best Duran we’ve seen?

GC: I think so. People don’t realize what a good fighter Ken Buchanan was. Kenny was a hell of a fighter. It took a real good guy to beat him.

ZL: Was he a little too upright?

GC: Well, yeah, that was the way his style was. But he was okay. He was strong, had good defense. He was a good all around fighter.

ZL: I saw how Duran would put his head right under Buchanan’s chin a lot.

GC: That’s the way he did it, Roberto.

ZL: Duran didn’t have much of a jab at that time.

GC: No, but he knew where he was all the time. You just didn’t nail him with a lot of punches, you know.

ZL: And he was in great condition at that time.

GC: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying. That’s what I didn’t think he had.

ZL: Give me your thoughts on Sugar Ray Leonard, another guy high on your list.

GC: Ray was one of the better welterweights of all time. Great heart. Knew what he had to do to win fights. I thought his fight when he fought Hagler was just a great performance by Leonard. He really did a good job. He knew exactly what he had to do to win the round, and he’d go out and do it.

ZL: You called that fight. Can you remind me how you scored it?

GC: I had Leonard winning close, very close.

ZL: Had you been in Hagler’s corner that night—no disrespect to the Petronellis—what would you have been telling him?

GC: I thought it was probably the worst corner job in history! The first three rounds they had Hagler go out and fight orthodox instead of southpaw, which is completely the wrong thing to do for two reasons: number one, Leonard was able to win the rounds; number two, it gave him confidence. If Hagler had fought his regular fight as a southpaw, he would’ve won the fight.

ZL: The fighter you have at number ten on your list is the light heavyweight Harold Johnson. He fought and lost to Archie Moore five times, so that speaks well of The Mongoose, huh?

GC: Johnson was a great fighter.
 

ZL: You look at the guys he fought over his 26-year career, it’s almost inconceivable by today’s standards. I noticed 20 years into his career, he faced your guy Johnny Persol. Persol won. I know Persol was a fine light heavy, but was that a matter of catching Johnson at the right time?

GC: Johnny could really fight. He really could.

ZL: You worked Muhammad Ali’s (then Cassius Clay) corner in his first pro fight in New York. How did that come to be?

GC: Well, I was very friendly with Angelo (Dundee). We were partners when we first started out, and he moved down to Florida. And he came up here for the fight and asked me to work the corner with him. And I always joke with everybody, ‘When Ali got knocked down in the second round, I didn’t have to revive Ali, I had to revive Angelo.’ (Clancy had no part of Ali’s career, except for this one fight in NY against opponent Sonny Banks.)

ZL: When you and Dundee were partners, what was the situation?

GC: We co-managed and I was a trainer and he was a trainer. We would put a few of our guys together.

ZL: What was your opinion of the young Cassius Clay as a fighter?

GC: Same as Roy Jones. I knew he had all the talent in the world, Ali. But I knew he made basic errors. He had so much talent that he would make a mistake and make the other guy pay for it.

ZL: So you liken Jones to Ali in this regard? A great talent who makes basic errors?

GC: Another guy with all the potential and talent in the world. But he had the same habit of pulling his head back, standing straight up, just like Ali.

ZL: Is that why Antonio Tarver caught Roy Jones?

GC: Who knows? He got hit with one punch.

ZL: Do you think Jones should take a rubber match with Tarver?

GC: I’ll tell ya, I never thought too much of Tarver. I thought Jones would knock him out in about 5 or 6 rounds. (laughs)

ZL: Do you feel differently about Tarver now?

GC: Well, no. He just landed one solid good punch. If they fought again, I think Roy would beat him.

ZL: Tarver keeps winning, though. I don’t think he’s pretty to look at—

GC: (cutting in) I know. I remember when he was in the amateurs, all of the coaches used to tell me, ‘You gotta watch this guy Tarver.’ He never really impressed me that much. He’s a big tall guy, and he’d outbox the guy and win a decision. But it didn’t mean anything.

ZL: Is it fair to say that fighters like Roy Jones who rely on athleticism over fundamentals, when they do slow down, and if they don’t adapt their style, their careers are curtailed?

GC: I would have to say so, yeah.

ZL: This is a non sequitur, but I wanted to hear some of your thoughts on Mike Tyson. He’s going to be fighting again soon. Had he stayed the course, do you think he could’ve become one of the very best heavyweights of all time?

GC: Oh, absolutely, he had the potential. But even in the amateurs, when Teddy Atlas was taking care of him, if a guy would stand up to him and hit him with a couple of punches, he didn’t want to come out for the next round. Teddy would have to beg him, and push him, and everything else.

ZL: I didn’t know that. I knew that he’d get real scared before fights, but once he was in the ring, he was fine.

GC: No, no. If things didn’t go well, he wasn’t too good. He’s a bully. If he doesn’t bully you…that’s the way Holyfield beat him. Holyfield was one of the first guys to punch right back when he got hit. Tyson wasn’t used to that, and that’s what happened to him in both fights with Holyfield.

ZL: Of course Holyfield was just following Buster Douglas’ example, as he was the first guy to knock Tyson off his pedestal—and on his ass.

GC: I don’t know if you remember, but in that fight when Buster Douglas was coming down from his dressing room to the ring…I was watching it on TV with my wife and I said, ‘Nancy, this guy’s coming down to the ring dancing, like he’s got a lot of confidence in himself.’ Now, most of the guys who fought Tyson—like Alex Stewart was a disgrace, you know, guys like that…But this guy (Douglas) seemed like he was going to go and fight. Sure enough, he did.

ZL: Would a mentally and physically prime Tyson have struggled with a Lennox Lewis or Riddick Bowe?

GC: Yeah, absolutely. Guys who would hit him back.

ZL: Would Tyson’s height disadvantage and short arms also pose problems for him against those giants?

GC: I’d say yes.

ZL: Last April, a big underdog named Lamon Brewster beat Wladimir Klitschko. Brewster seemed motivated by the death of his trainer Bill Slayton, the same way Buster Douglas was motivated by the death of his mother prior to the Tyson fight.

GC: Lamon Brewster, he really didn’t win that fight. The other guy lost the fight. I mean, he was losing the fight by a mile, Brewster. Klitschko just couldn’t walk. He was dead tired.

ZL: What do you attribute that to, Klitschko’s collapse?

GC: The only thing it could have been was nerves. That’s the only thing I can say, unless he was doped, and I don’t want to say that.

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>>CONTINUE TO Part II

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