If you're a boxing fan then Al Mitchell is a name you should recognize for what he does for the sport with his fighters inside of the ring and for the people he helps outside of it.

Al has worked with the likes of formerly WBA lightweight champ David Reid, WBA Super Middleweight champ Byron Mitchell and presently the IBF and WBC welterweight champion of the world, Vernon Forrest.

At the moment he's riding sky high after training -with the help of Ronnie Shields- Vernon Forrest for the biggest win of his career over Shane Mosley this past January 26. Today Al and I caught up and here's what he had to say.

BRC: What's up Al, how are you doing?

AM: I'm doing well, everything has been working out and I'm very happy with what I've been able to accomplish for the sport of boxing.

BRC: How did you get started in the sweet science?

AM: A funny story... I was really into going to church, my mom and aunt instilled that in me. I always had a couple of pennies to throw on the plate and I guess people heard it through the grapevine and some guys would start chasing me all the time so my aunt decided it would be a good idea for me to start going to a gym to learn how to defend myself. I learned from my cousin, his name was “Potato Chips,” and I started fighting and winning and finished 43-1 and just stuck with it. I fought at bantam weight in North Philly.

BRC: North Philly has some of the toughest fighters in the world. Tell me about some of them including Joe Frazier?

AM: I fought at the same gym as him, Al Massey, and Joe Harris. Now everyone's heard of Joe Frazier but one of the best fighters I've ever seen was “Gypsy” Joe Harris. He was 24-1 and the only loss came at the hands of Emile Griffith.

BRC: Well it sounds like you came from good fighting roots. Talk to me about the program you run for the Olympians in your hometown?

AM: The thing is what we try and teach is balance. So many people have negative ideas about boxing: “It's a poor man sport,” and when it's a poor man sport people think that only fools or dumb kids do it just to find a way to live. What people don’t know is I'd say about 90% of the people that are in boxing are in it because they love it. Now, it is a poor sport, it's one of the easiest sports to get in. You have young men that weren't good enough to make the basketball team or can't afford to pay for the football equipment but they can go in the gym and start boxing because all that is required is to have a heart.

BRC: Touching on that really quickly, because it's a great point, do you think because of the money, glory or whatever other reason that some of the best athletes that could be having success in boxing are playing in the NFL and NBA?

AM: No doubt about it. The money in the NFL and the NBA is crazy. What you have to remember is that probably only 5% of boxers make money. In Basketball, Football, and Baseball there’s a set standard and it seems like everyone is making close to a million dollars. So now if you're a big athlete and you have some sort of ability why not try and get the money that those sports are dishing out.

BRC: Going back to the Olympians, how has the new scoring helped or hurt the way we train or young fighters?

AM: Well with this new computer scoring, it's not geared to a lot of hooks and round shots and so now it's a about the straight shots. I like it because it's teaching defense, using the ring, and throwing straight punches. I think it's making for better boxers; don’t get me wrong professional and amateur boxing is a big difference. A lot of times a guy that is short (Bojado, Lacey) will have problems with the Olympic style of boxing because it favors the tall, rangy disciplined guys but in the long run you'll see a lot of smart fighters coming out of the Olympics.

BRC: After what you just said this is a real set up question (laughing). Who's the guy in the last couple of Olympics that you been a part of are you the proudest of?

AM: Probably Vernon Forrest, now I'm not just saying that because of the bout he just won vs. Shane Mosley. Vernon was my first guy that I trained in the program. The thing I always admired about him was that he always outworked the other guys. I would tell him that's “enough for today”, he'd tell me, “I did what I needed to do for you, now I gotta go do some work for me.” Vernon never got anything easy, and yet he never gave up inside or other side of the ring where it's the most important and to me that's the sign of a true champion.

BRC: Let's take a minute to talk about the David Reid vs. Felix Trinidad fight. It seemed like you had the right guy and the fight was even going your guy's way for a couple of rounds. Was Reid rushed and why does it seem that fight hurt him so much?

AM: Ill say this and I'll tell you the truth, I didn't want David to take that fight. I honestly felt back then that he needed three or four more fights before he got in there with Trinidad. I even felt that Vargas wasn't ready for Tito when he got in there with him. Anyway I felt both guys (Reid and Vargas) were warriors on the 1996 Olympic team but that they didn't have enough seasoning to get in there with a skilled veteran when they did.

What I mean by the “seasoning” is guys like Trinidad and Hopkins have been in hard fights, they been hurt in fights and had to fight their way back through it. Guys like Dave and Fernando haven't and when they got in one, neither man really knew how to deal with it. David went over my head because he wanted the fight anyhow, so I told him all right then but you must listen to instructions. When the fight happened what I thought might happen did, Dave got caught and because he wasn't seasoned enough he didn't know how to deal with it. A smart fighter would have stuck to the game plan by working his way in behind the jab then using the right hand; but Dave who had some success didn't stay with it, after landing the right hand that's all he looked for and Trinidad took complete advantage of it. I felt I had the right guy. He was doing the right things but when it got into deep water he didn't know what to do.

BRC: How are you and David Reid doing now, because I know you all took some time off?

AM: David and I are the best of friends. We spent some time together during the holidays, I know he fired everyone that was around him and we talked for a while about him coming back to boxing. What I told him to do is make sure you get a good medical check up and really decide if boxing is what you want to do. He doesn't have to box, believe it or not, but he put enough money away to live comfortably, I always made sure he put money away. If you want to come back I'm going to make you train for a couple of months before you think about taking a fight. When we do go to a fight and if he looks bad I'm going to tell him to retire, if he looks good well see how far we can go. The most important thing is for David Reid to find out if boxing is what he wants to do.

BRC: Tommie Brooks another real “good guy,” always says that boxing needs more people like you, not only for what you do inside the ring but for what you do for the young men outside of it as well. Talk about your program.

AM: I'm in a program here in Northern Michigan. It's an outstanding boxing program but we have athletes that go to high school, colleges and vocational schools as well. I tell everyone that will listen, not everyone is college material. If I see one of my young men having trouble I'll put them in vocational school. My big thing is after they leave here make sure they have a life after boxing and are productive members to society. I've been real fortunate with the young men that I've been working with; right now I have two men that I used to work with that are now policemen, Jermaine Taylor and three current or former world champions (Mitchell, Forrest and Reid), plus I have a couple that now own their own business, everyone that has been in this program is doing well and that's what I'm most proud of. Everyone calls me now and then and we laugh and joke, it's all love.

BRC: It sounds like you're really giving back. How long have you been running this program?

AM: I've been running this program since 1989 and it's the only program like it in the United States. I'm really happy with the support that I get here in northern Michigan.

BRC: Since you're about improving people as well as fighters, what's something that you'd like to see done to help boxing?

AM: First thing I'd like to see get done is a pension for the boxers. I bet we're the only sport that after a guy retires that no one can get a dime unless you stay in the sport. I'd like to see a plan where after a guy fights professionally for two or three years where he can get some money put away for him.

Too many good guys are in this game for 10 to 12 years and end up without a dime to show for it. I'd like to see boxers get a bigger share of the money that's out there. It's the hardest trade out of all the other sports, you can get any boxer to try other sports like football, basketball or baseball but ask the other athletes to try and box and all of them will shy away and look at you like your crazy.

BRC: What are your thoughts on all the different sanctioning bodies?

AM: I'm from the old school when there was only one champ, however if it was that way a lot of these kids wouldn't make any money, so if it helps get these young men some money I'm all for it. That's the thing about the bodies, they do give these kids a chance to make more money. The super fighters will make the super money by unifying the division but the bodies do give the lesser caliber fighters a chance to get paid as well. The thing I don’t like about it is you don’t know who's the champ unless you have guys like Jones Jr., Hopkins, Tszyu, Lewis, and Forrest.

BRC: Let's talk about Mosley vs. Forrest. It was called one of the bigger upsets of the last 10 years but if you did the math and actually watched Forrest fight it was easy to see that he was going to give Mosley some problems. I'm as big a Mosley fan as anyone but I laughed at the odds when I saw them, especially when they were that high to a guy that has never lost. If people watched the second Raul Frank fight and knew that he gained 20 pounds by fight time yet Forrest dominated him all night with that big right hand. What were your thoughts on Forrest being such a heavy underdog, I think 7 to 1 or something like that?

AM: Well to start I don’t think many people looked at Vernon's resumé. Second, he has another excellent coach in Ronnie Shields. Ronnie and I get along real well. We sat down and came up with a great fight plan. We both laughed at the odds and couldn't believe that they were so lopsided. I was with Vernon when he beat Shane to make the Olympic team and Vernon handled him easily. I looked at the odds and couldn't believe it. Vernon resumé is very close to Shane's with the exception of the big championship fights that Shane got the chance to fight in. Vernon also is a very smart fighter. Usually in a fight I'll say that a fighter sticks to a solid fight plan about 65 to 70% of the time, I'd say vs. Shane, he stuck about 90% to the fight plan. I know there were a lot of people who know boxing that follow it that didn't get sucked up in that.

BRC: That's what I'm saying, a friend of mine in California who used to be a former fighter and talked about the odds and the fight and knew that this was going to be a tough fight on all sides.

AM: I saw on the tape that Frank had gained 20 pounds and what that told me was that he wasn't prepared for the fight because that should never happen. We didn't want to take a chance of Vernon bumping heads again like they did in the first fight so we came up with a long range fight plan where Vernon stayed on the outside and let Frank come to him. Charles Watson, his strength coach, has been doing an excellent job with him, so Franks weight didn't bother us at all. The three of us (Ronnie, Al and Charles) had a great fight plan for Mosley and everything that Shane tried we had an answer for.

BRC: Did you know when Forrest landed that big right hand on Mosley that he was in the midst of switching from south-paw to conventional, so he was about a step closer to Vernon than he should have been, and was that something that you all were looking for?

AM: Yes I did, we knew he was going to do that and we practiced looking for that because like you said when Shane does that he is closer to the opponent than he should be. As soon as he did that you noticed Vernon jumped right on him with that right hand. The jab was the weapon that made everything work but we knew sooner or later he was going to try that and we knew he would switch back to conventional style and end up getting caught. I think in the first round Vernon was trying a little too hard but after that he settled down and the rest is history.

BRC: Why did the uppercuts work so well?

AM: Shane was trying to get away from the jab and the right hand by going underneath because had he pulled back he would have kept getting hit, so when he went underneath the uppercut was right there.

BRC: How far along are you all in terms of a rematch?

AM: I don’t know that's on Vernon Forrest and his manager Charles Watson, all Ronnie and I do is train Vernon.

BRC: If there’s a rematch would you change anything?

AM: Right now we wouldn't change anything. We go back to camp discuss a game plan and take one step at a time. Boxing is a funny sport, you're only as good as your last bout, we might have to change a few things because the first Forrest is the guy Shane would be getting ready for. We'll stick to mostly the same game plan though. Vernon is a hell of a fighter, he always has been, he's just never got the credit for it, when he got his chance to shine he did it.

BRC: If Vernon beats Mosley again in the rematch will he move up to 154 or stay at welter- weight?

AM: I don’t know. Vernon was talking about it. He was saying he'd like to go up to 154 get some big money fights. I think he has the frame and range to be really successful at 154 and he'd have no problem making the weight. Vernon makes 147 so he doesn't really have to go up but he's at a stage in his career that he needs to make some money and it seems like 154 is the place to go.

BRC: Al Mitchell, it's been my pleasure to interview you, I'm sure we'll talk again in the near future about the young Olympians as well as Vernon Forrest.

AM: Anytime Aladdin, anytime you want to talk give me a call.

Questions? Comments? Email Aladdin Freeman

7-29-2002