I happen to catch a few episodes of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike T.V and if you have been following the show from the start of the season you had to of noticed Team Nogueira’s Boxing Coach Al Stankie he is quite the character, eccentric to say the least. If you ever had a picture of the stereotypical old school boxing veteran Al Stankie is that guy. Pop in a copy of Rocky and Mick comes to mind when I think of Stankie. In my opinion Stankie has been one of the best part’s of the UFC Ultimate Fighter Season 8 thus far. I remember Al Stankie from years back but never seen him before or heard him speak. All I knew was that he once Coached Boxing Legend Oscar De La Hoya before Oscar became the GoldenBoy and huge mega star he is today. Al Stankie was also Former UFC champ Vitor Belforts Boxing coach and he also coached Olympian Paul Gonzalez to an Olympic Boxing golden medal back in 1984. After doing a bit of research on Stankie I found an interesting article by Sports Illustrated back in 1999 and it had some interesting facts about Al Stankie; he was an LAPD police officer for 20 years and had a Major drinking problem which lead to him being fired by Oscar De La Hoya prior to the Olympic Games. Here is the quote from the article it talks about Stankie and the Goldenboy’s relationship and falling out:
With the Olympics looming, that will not be easy. In the past year there have been many changes for De La Hoya, the sorts of changes that can throw off a hot young prospect. Last spring, in an awkward and painful parting, he broke with his trainer of nearly two years, Al Stankie. Stankie, a 20-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department and a gifted if eccentric coach, had previously guided another East L.A. boxer, Paul Gonzales, to the ’84 Olympic light flyweight gold medal. Stankie and De La Hoya were close, but Stankie’s admitted abuse of alcohol began to get in the way.
”When he’s got his act together, he’s the greatest trainer in the world,” Gonzales has said. ”But he’s got that other side to him, and you don’t even want to be around him then.”
Last year Stankie showed up drunk at the national championships in Colorado Springs and was slapped with a three-year suspension by USA Boxing. In April he was picked up after repeated drunken-driving charges and sent to the L.A. County Central Jail for 83 days. De La Hoya talked things over with his father, Joel, a 51-year-old former boxer and now a shipping and receiving clerk for an air-conditioner company, who is the most important influence on Oscar’s career.
”It was very hard, but I had to let him go,” says De La Hoya of Stankie. ”I don’t think I let him down. He let me down.”
For now, when he is in L.A., De La Hoya trains under Robert Alcazar. A 33- year-old mechanic for Weber Aircraft by trade — and a friend of Joel’s — Alcazar has trained only a few young boxers. While De La Hoya says he is happy and learning a lot, it is unclear how long the arrangement will last.
Even before the break with Stankie, the De La Hoyas had been consulting with Shelly Finkel, Evander Holyfield’s manager, about Oscar’s turning pro. Finkel had seen De La Hoya box on television and liked what he saw. ”I told Stankie, ‘Look, this kid is very good. I’d like to help make sure he goes to the Olympics and that when he’s done and ready to turn pro I have a chance,’ ” says Finkel.
A little recap of the episode Roli vs. Junie…first I have to say “Fatigue is your own worst enemy” the fight was very hard to watch especially from a Boxing stand point the striking was horrible and sloppy. Another thing that stuck out is these guys were fighting on fumes and Roli had a pretty good chin or maybe Junie just did not hit as hard as people thought. I expected Junie to walk through Roli especially with all that big talk and tough guy crazy act he was putting on in the house but he fought pretty dumb busting a Ricardo Mayorga and allowing Roli to hit his chin freely and he was tired pretty much from the get go, maybe the weight cutting did have a bit to do with his stamina issues but for a guy who talks a big game it was a bit of a let down. I have to say I wanted Roli to finish Junie especially after that spitting on the black belt incident. I was impressed with Roli’s heart and chin and above all things he had fight in him now imagine if he had better boxing and more stamina he could use that reach even better to his advantage. It will be interesting to see who fights him next, maybe Phillipe Nover?
But all in all please give us more Stankie!
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