THIS APPLE DIDN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE

By Michael Swann

Today’s quiz: Name the fight manager who matches this description. Here’s a baker’s dozen of clues:

1. 26 year old actor
2. Lyricist and rapper
3. Dating actress Tracey McCall
4. Had open heart surgery in 1999
5. Assistant matchmaker at age 21
6. Friends with celebrities such as Omar Epps, Kevin Connolly, Hillary and Haylie Duff, Sean Ferris, the NBA’s Richard Jefferson, and Soccer stars Clint Mathis and Kobe Jones
7. Nominated for Best Dressed at the ESPY Awards along with Serena Williams and Jennie Finch
8. Has a sushi roll named after him at Hamasaku, a trendy Santa Monica restaurant
9. Can be found at such various locations as:
*Exclusive LA. Night spots
*The NBA All-Star Game
*Us Weekly party
*Victoria Secret party
*Playboy Mansion
*A Karaoke bar
10. Casino poker tournament winner
11. Witness to:
*Fan Man
*Tyson biting Holyfield’s ear
*The riot at Madison Square Garden after Bowe-Golota
12. Almost copped the role of Jackie Aprile Jr. on “The Sopranos”
13. Evander Holyfield flew him in and paid for him to attend Holyfield - Tyson II, and taught him how to Electric Slide

Answer: Jared Shaw, the son of promoter Gary Shaw.

Jared, who has been serving as Director of Fighter Relations for Gary Shaw Productions, is going into partnership with Mike Criscio, the highly respected manager of light heavyweight champion to be Chad Dawson, in a venture called “Hype Sports Management.” Criscio, a former football player who to this point has never accepted a dime from Dawson, is excited about their prospects and says that they will represent athletes from all sports.

“I called him [Jared] up,” Criscio said, explaining the genesis of their partnership, “and he said he wanted to start managing. I said, ‘Why don’t we team up?’ The two of us are real energetic - we’re going to make a good team together. We’re going to be throwback type managers like in the old days when managers actually cared about their boxers and treat them like a family and business all in one. Look for us to make a big splash.”

Jared Shaw was born into boxing, and is exceptionally knowledgeable on the sport. We spoke for nearly 20 minutes on fights, fighters, and the state of the game before officially beginning our interview, and you could hear the passion in his voice on every point. The same passion extends to his acting career, his music, and his family.

Speaking from his home in the Los Angeles valley, Jared said that he was struck by the acting bug at the age of six. While dining with his father and mother (Judy) he met a famous young television actor and told his parents that he wanted to be an actor. Judy took him to a talent agency in New York City and he was signed on the spot, and went for an audition right away.

“They called me “The Callback Kid” because in every audition I would go down to the final two or three,” Jared said, in typical good humor.

Before every audition Judy Shaw read him his lines and he would recite them because he couldn’t read yet. After about two years of being pulled out of school regularly around 11 o’clock to go from New Jersey to New York for yet another audition, it became too much for a young child and he decided to put his acting career on hold until he turned 18.

He was an athlete in high school, four years of varsity golf and two years on the JV football team, and he says, “It just wasn’t cool at the time to do plays in my school.”

Jared spent a semester at the University of Arizona, and had decided to transfer to USC when he discovered that he needed open heart surgery.

After running a relay race in March 1998, he developed breathing difficulties and dizziness. (Then he developed a strand of E-Coli while on spring break, dropping 30 pounds.) After he suffered heart palpitations and inability to breathe after running a sprint that July, Jared called his mother and said he wanted to see a heart doctor.

Initially informed that he had a slight heart murmur not uncommon among young men, Jared learned that follow up tests revealed a defective hole in his heart the size of a quarter, causing his left ventricle to pump three times faster than his right. Amazingly, the day after surgery he was walking, and he left the hospital in three days.

A couple of months prior to his surgery Jared had modeled for Paul Mitchell, and the head shots began making the rounds into the talent agencies. Jared began getting calls and his mother had to drive him to the city again “because I still had this big pad on my chest.”

He was signed by a management company, and just missed a plum part on “The Sopranos.” Encouraged despite finishing second for the part, he decided to move to L.A. to increase his opportunities. His father offered him a choice of a year paying for college or a year paying for him to work on his acting career. Jared chose acting.

Since then show business has been a struggle for Jared as it is for virtually every unknown in the industry. He’s had some parts and has his Screen Actors Guild (SAG) card, but work is always difficult to find. He recently did a pilot for a show with Paul Reiser, but it wasn’t picked up by the networks. It’s a thin line between success and failure.

“I don’t know of another occupation where everyone in the entire state has the same occupation,” Jared says, only partially in jest. “Your postal workers are actors, your police officers, even out of work people are actors. It’s not that they don’t have talent; it’s a numbers game that’s all about getting lucky.

“I’m nowhere near where I need to be to make it a viable economic thing for me. It’s very tough to be seen anymore because reality shows have taken over.”

Jared works as a boxing consultant for MGM Studios, currently working on the Rocky Balboa movie. He was also boxing consultant for the first year of “The Contender,” working hand in hand with Sylvester Stallone, and helped hand pick the fighters.

“Anything that’s good for boxing, I’m an advocate for,” Jared says with increased enthusiasm. “This is the sport that I was brought up in, that I love, and I want my children to be part of it.”

Jared began an impassioned discourse about the state of amateur boxing, saying, “Someone has to come in and bring back amateur boxing to get the fighters out there because that’s where it starts. Olympic boxing was on at five in the morning on MSNBC. They should showcase them on Saturdays.”

Aside from acting and boxing, Jared has a passion for music. He writes his own music and has 40 tracks finished.

“I’ve been known to take a microphone from a DJ at a nightclub and rap and put my vocals over loud to the club,” he says with pride.

Jared has always maintained a close relationship with his parents. When he was a child he suffered “separation anxiety” from his father when he went to school.

“My dad had to literally drag me into the school, drop me off, and run to meet me at the principal’s office,” he recalled with a laugh. “I share everything with my parents. They’re my best friends. I talk to both of them every day, and I always let them know what’s going on. I still go up to my dad and kiss him.”

Jared vehemently defends his father from his critics:

“At times the sport can be absolutely brutal. My father is honest and has integrity. He won’t promise you the stars and take you to a planetarium. If he promised you the stars, he’ll be taking you to space. He has no time to himself, and it’s hard for a son to watch.

“Boxing is our drug. We love it. But in the past six months, he’s had incredible bad luck -the fight with Corrales (Castillo), Winky Wright, Manny Pacquiao… It’s not just hard on him but the family. But these are bumps in the road for my father. We’re survivors. He’s a cancer survivor. I’m a heart survivor.

“Winky wants to do his own thing and that’s okay. I think he’s making a mistake going with Golden Boy, but I don’t hold it against him at all. Rafael Marquez is as good as having Manny Pacquiao - that was the one that my dad really got screwed on. Diego Corrales is a blood and guts warrior. I’m happy he can carry the logo on his pants and represent us well. Vic Darchinyan - he’s just scratching the surface.

“In promoting there’s a new one on top every day. Right now it’s Goossen. He’s got the Toney fight, he’s got Floyd Mayweather. Instead of looking at it, sour grapes, all we can do is get the best fighters in the world.

“But now because of all these situations, my dad is no longer a handshake kind of guy.”

Many of Jared’s best memories come from his relationships with fighters. He calls Evander Holyfield his favorite fighter of all time. Holyfield invited Jared to his mansion in Atlanta; they’ve played basketball together, and had meals in Holyfield’s room prior to his fights.

“I wish him the best,” Jared says of Evander prior to his comeback victory over Jeremy Bates. “Do I wish he was fighting? No, because I worry about him. But if he knows what he’s doing I hope he wins the championship. Evander told me that, ‘As long as you believe you can do it, you can do it.’ He believes he can win a championship again and hopefully he’ll do it. That’s what he taught me, about dreams.

“I want to be an actor that one day would be considered for an Oscar while I have three or more champions. That’s what my dreams are.”

Jared didn’t want to leave out Jeff Lacy:

“I used to live with Jeff Lacy in L.A. He’s my best friend and I still believe Jeff Lacy is the best 168 pounder out there. My father is the best promoter out there and those two things should click.”

The youngest Shaw admits to being sensitive like his father saying, “Everyone close to us we give you a big hug, we kiss you, you’re part of the family. You have to prove you’re not family instead of proving you are family. We’re good at judging and reading people and if we believe you’re good people right away, then you’re good enough from the start.

“I wear my emotions on my sleeves. I couldn’t be an actor if I didn’t understand my emotions. I’m very similar to my dad.”

Jared says that he won’t be working for his father anymore except in the case when the elder Shaw makes him a good deal for one of his fighters. Somehow, though, he seemed to leave the door open a crack.

“Mike (Criscio) and I have gotten together and developed a business plan. I’m only looking for (potential) world champions and people who want an honest manager and want to be treated like family. I believe I have strong relationships in the sport and I’m willing to talk to them and help these fighters make what they deserve.

“I love my lifestyle and my values and everything they (parents) taught me and I want to give my children more. I plan to fulfill that promise to myself and if it’s not through music or acting, it’ll be boxing.

“My father preaches when he’s gone it’s (GSP) gone. But it’s got his brand and it’s a legacy. So it’s a thin line that I walk.”

Jared has two hunting dogs, Zsa-Zsa and Hova, named for Zsa-Zsa Gabor and Jay-Z’s nickname. He says that they are completely black with a white strip from their chins to their stomach.

“I was going to call them Bobby and Whitney,” he said, bringing tears to the eyes of his interviewer.

Jared requested to make one statement in closing:

“Please close with the fact that my father is a prostate cancer survivor and if you’re over 40, please get a PSA test.”