A COMBATIVE, COMPASSIONATE, COMPETITOR

By Michael Swann

The title suggests three words that capture the essence of Gary Shaw. He can alternately charm the birds out of the trees, or virtually melt the skin off your face if he perceives wrongdoing to his family, his staff, his fighters, or his integrity. Extremely sensitive, he often presents a veneer of surliness as window dressing to survive in an often callous business.

The Shaw traveling road show will often include his wife Judy, whom he describes as “the wind beneath my wings.” Shaw credits Judy for keeping him grounded. He also has four sons, Judd, A.J., Jason, and Jared, with diverse careers such as attorney, marketing researcher, and actor.

Jared, the actor, is the youngest at 26, and the closest to the boxing operations, with the responsibility of Fighter Relations for Gary Shaw Productions.

“He’s done a few bit parts [most notably “Charmed”] and he has his SAG card,” Shaw said. It’s one of his first loves and it’s just a very tough, tough, business.”

During the week of the Diego Corrales- Jose Luis Castillo debacle, Jared seemed to be very involved in the operation.

“Jared has been around fights since I took him [as a toddler] when I was on the New Jersey Commission,” Shaw related with enthusiasm. “I believe now he wants to go into the managing end of boxing. He listens and he learns. He has a really good eye for talent.”

Shaw includes his team as part of his family. “They’re always there and they are family.”

One of the familiar faces from his team that are found at a Shaw event are his vice-president of operations, Jim McConnon, who meets the fighters when they arrive on site and makes sure that their needs are taken care of until they return home. Another is Chris Middendorf, the brilliant matchmaker who creates so many compelling cards all over the country. Publicist Fred Sternburg -the man of 1000 quotes - is another fixture. Seymour Zivic serves as controller and Michelle Caccavale is Shaw’s administrative assistant. Last but not least, the comely Monica Petty handles marketing.

FAMILY TIES
Shaw’s finest hour as a promoter came on June 2 when he refused to put his fighter Corrales in danger by fighting Castillo, who couldn’t come any closer than 4 ½ pounds of the lightweight limit. Shaw says that he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars, the same amount as Bob Arum of Top Rank, his co-promoter.

Corrales and Shaw have since taken legal action against Castillo and his promoter Top Rank. Corrales is seeking $1.2 million for his purse and $10 million in punitive damages. Shaw is seeking $750,000 in damages and $10 million in punitive damages.

So there was some intense negotiations going on at the round table when Shaw, Corrales, his manager James Prince, his trainer Joe Goossen, Arum, Showtime VP Ken Hershman and Antonio Leonard (who works for Prince), sat down to attempt to hammer out a deal.

Arum asked Corrales, “What will it take to get you in the ring?”

Shaw says that the amount was never discussed because Diego said, “Bob, it’s not about money, it’s about getting to 135 pounds.”

The second weigh in for Castillo began around 5 p.m. PST. Shaw had a flight planned for Santa Ynez at 6:30 to see his fighter Chad Dawson face Eric Harding. The meeting ran about 45 minutes and Judy Shaw was concerned about the time. Several times, Jared’s girlfriend was sent to the barrier that separated the media from the negotiators, asking him how much longer. Jared shrugged, glanced at the round table and knowing that he dare not interrupt, particularly with that question, simply sighed helplessly. Mom was ready to go, and Dad was doing business.

Shaw was well aware of the far reaching impact of his decision.

“I’ve gotten a lot of emails and comments from around the world,” he said. “Even though I did it at my own peril, I do hope that that moment will be my legacy to boxing.

“It’s not just about me -it’s about the general public, it’s caring about boxing, the hotels, Showtime, Diego Corrales, and Joe Goossen. Joe Goossen put in eight weeks of his life and walked away with nothing.”

THE PSA TEST, REALITY SHOW, AND AUTOMOBILES

Shaw is a survivor of prostate cancer. He had successful surgery in May 2002, and vocally recommends PSA tests for men at every press conference, and every other chance he gets.

“I feel very lucky to be alive,” Shaw said somberly. “It changed my life in many ways. It softened me. I felt that I was unstoppable, that if there was a little kid in the street and a car was running wild, I could jump in front of the kid and stop the car. It was the first thing that ever brought me to my knees.

“Now it’s my life’s journey to fight the cause and help others. It just makes me feel good that at least I can educate people about something I didn’t know about. If I can prevent one person from getting cancer or catching it real early that’s my legacy on the “do good” side of Gary Shaw.”

Few people know that the Shaw clan did a pilot for a reality show. I’ve seen it and it was side-splitting. I wondered what happened to the concept and asked Shaw:

“I still have it. I haven’t put my heart into it. Every time they ask me I have mixed emotions about whether I want to let people into my personal life, because to be successful you really have to open up your whole life. It’s really not just my decision. You know Judy’s a big part of my life and it opens her up and my children, so I just… I know it’s a terrific show, but I just haven’t committed 100%.”

Except for possibly food, Shaw’s biggest passion is cars. He now has seven, including a Ferrari 430, a Bentley GT, a Mercedes, and a Hummer, his favorite. Gary’s interest is more visual than practical.

“The Ferrari I just look at,” he explained. “I had one before this one for little more than a year and I traded it with 485 miles. The Bentley I drive on occasion when I go out somewhere with Judy, which is rarely because I’m a stay at home guy. I just drive the Hummer everyday, that’s my vehicle of choice.”

COMBATIVE PRAGMATIST

I had to ask Shaw if he felt that he received a raw deal in being dismissed by Manny Pacquiao.

“Oh, of course. And I didn’t do anything wrong and I thought Manny liked me. The time in the locker room after the fight at [Staples Center in Los Angeles, the scene of Pacquiao’s fight with Hector Velazquez on the co-bill with Eric Morales-Zahir Raheem, Shaw’s first of a two fight contract with the superstar] he was watching the fight and he was viewing it sitting on my lap.

“Everything seemed to be okay, and the next thing I know, it wasn’t okay. I’ve never heard one word from Manny Pacquiao, not even thank you, have a good day, not a word.”

This is the type of matter that uncloaks Shaw’s sensitivity, no matter how he tries to conceal his feelings:

“It’s times like this that you find out who people are and what they’re really made of. When I had that brief spell with the potential problem with Winky Wright, Nick Khan [one of Pacquiao’s three managers], who was speaking to me pretty regularly never called me one time. Nor did Keith Davidson [another Pac manager]. Not to say I’m sorry or I heard what’s going on or can I help. So to Nick Khan and Keith Davidson, I crossed them off my list.

“I’m a realist and I know not everyone’s your friend but I don’t like people who pretend to be your friend and Nick Khan is a pretender. Shelly [Finkel, the third of Pacquiao’s management triumvirate] is a little different. Shelly and I still communicate and [we] still have a fighter that I represent.”

Pacquiao’s close friend and adviser Rex Salud was quoted in the Manila Times as saying that Pacquiao didn’t really need Shaw and that Manny’s trainer Freddie Roach didn’t want to work with the promoter. [Ironically, Salud and Jing Gacal, the legal counsel of Manny Pacquiao Promotions Inc. are now respondents in a lawsuit from the Pacquiao management team of Khan, Davidson , and Finkel for “contractual interference”, among other things. This is another story for another day, but the distraction comes at a bad time for Manny, who is preparing for a fight with Oscar Larios on July 2.]

Shaw responded to the criticism from Freddie Roach:

“Shelly told me that Freddie Roach told Manny that I tried to take Manny to [trainer] Dan Birmingham and that’s an outrageous lie. I have a world of respect for Freddie, he’s a great trainer, but I believe Freddie undermined me by going to Pacquiao and saying he wouldn’t work with me because someone put it in Freddie’s head that I wanted to bring Pacquiao to Dan Birmingham. I don’t take fighters from trainers, that’s not my style.

“Shelly never had a conversation with me about this until Manchester, England for Lacy-Calzaghe. The first time he told me about the comments about Freddie and everything else, I was steaming mad. I called Freddie and confronted him, right in front of Shelly.

“How could Freddie Roach, who I know is a real man, not call me and say, ‘Did you say this?’ I went to Freddie’s gym and looked Freddie in the eye man to man and said, ‘I never, ever said that.’

“People in boxing know me and how much I am for a fighter. Is it believable that on the week of a fight…I would speak to Manny about switching trainers? It’s beyond preposterous -I needed Manny to win.

“That’s why I told Shelly ‘How could you not have said that’s preposterous, how could you not have stood up for me? Or let’s get Gary on the phone?’”

Shaw won’t say it, saying only that some “hurtful things went on,” but the opinion here is that he expected his friends to defend him, and in his eyes they let him down. Typically combative, he closes the thought:

“It’s obvious by the comments of Team Pacquiao that they wouldn’t know a good promoter from a bad promoter. They’re in a state of confusion. They should look in Webster’s dictionary for the word promoter and find out what that means. It doesn’t mean take a back seat and be quiet. I don’t know what went wrong but Manny sure paid me a helluva lot less than Murad Muhammad.”

ROUND ROBIN QUESTIONS

Vivian Harris- Mike Arnaoutis: Shaw was quoted that he offered Harris a bonus for knocking out Arnaoutis. This appeared to be more than a motivational technique, so I asked if it was true.

“Absolutely. Mike Michaels represents him. You can put him on the left side of the bad guys in boxing. [Michaels] came to my home, broke bread with me -this is after I had Arnaoutis and had him on Shobox, building him to where he was a name. And then suddenly he said you got to deal with Brad Jacobs and the next thing I know he [Arnaoutis] signed to [Star Boxing’s] Joe DeGuardia, and the next thing is that Brad Jacobs went to work for Star Boxing. If that doesn’t stink, there are no smells in boxing. Mike Michael s is one of the bad guys of boxing and Shelly Finkel tried to warn me. In that respect, I should have listened to Shelly Finkel.”

Future promotions of Winky Wright: “It’s fight by fight. I trust Winky and I enjoyed working with Winky, and he’ll always be a friend.”

The proposed Jeff Lacy-Peter Manfredo fight: “I thought it was a great fight. Apparently Manfredo doesn’t want a real fight.”

How painful was the Lacy loss to Joe Calzaghe? “I had two thoughts. One was that I was watching Trinidad-Wright in reverse, and the other one is that I kept saying to myself how can fathers be in the corner of their own sons? It was that hurtful, because there was nothing I could do to help Jeff. I’m still not 100% recovered because Jeff is very special to me, like a son. He was my first home grown world champion. When I was standing in the corner and he was bleeding, it was a very helpless feeling.”

Chad Dawson: “Chad will probably be #1 in the WBC and we’ll wait our shot at the title. I wouldn’t be afraid to put him in with anyone.”

How about Calzaghe? “Only if he came up to 175. Chad is 175.”

Vic Darchinyan: “He is platinum, He is terrific, and I’ll get someone in the ring with him to unify some belts. I know he wants Jorge Arce bad… but eventually the press will say that Arce has to fight someone real, and the only name they’ll come up with is Vic Darchinyan.”

Jersey Joe Walcott: “Without Jersey Joe I wouldn’t be in boxing today. I was in the hotel business and he would come in to have lunch and tell me stories. The most memorable story he told me was when he won his belt he brought it back to the neighborhood and gave it to the kids to pass around the neighborhood and when everyone got to touch it, they brought it back to him.

“He was a down to earth person and that’s what I’m all about. I never moved from the original house I bought in 1974. [Shaw just recently moved his office out of his home.]

“He was a hero, a world champion; he was the head of New Jersey boxing at that time. I was just honored that he ate in my restaurant. We became friends; he made me an inspector, and brought me into boxing. He made me what I am and where I am today.

“He was a great guy, very warm, always a big hug. He got diabetes and his eyesight began to fail, and I used to give him his medicine.

“I’ll forever be grateful to him.”

On how he is perceived by the public: “I try to do the right thing. People who really get to know me know who I am. Others just look on the outside. I’m not a movie star and my life is not dependant on a picture where I don’t look happy or what someone might think of me.”