Former junior lightweight champion Robert “Grandpa” Garcia, of Oxnard, CA is one of the hottest and fastest rising trainers in the boxing game. Garcia currently trains Steven Luevano, Brian Viloria, unbeaten lightweight contender Brandon Rios as well as his younger brother, and undefeated featherweight contender Miguel Garcia. Garcia has also been called in to assist in the training of former flyweight champion Nonito Donaire and welterweight contender Alfonso Gomez and he also coaches quite a few nationally ranked amateur fighters at his recently opened gym, the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy in Oxnard, CA. We recently caught up with Garcia and here’s what he had to say.
Photos: Ricardo Conde
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How long have you been involved in boxing and what made you decide to become a trainer after you retired from boxing?
I’ve been in boxing my whole life; since I was four-years-old I’ve in the gym. My first amateur fight was when I was five-years-old and ever since I’ve been training everyday in the gym. I started my boxing career out of La Colonia Boxing Club in Oxnard and now I opened up my own gym.
You ended your boxing career as a former world champion, with 34 wins, only 3 losses and 25 by knockout but retired at the age of 26, what made you decide to retire at such a young age?
Well, like I said I have been in boxing since I was four-years-old and I just got a little tired. I was only 26 but my body felt like it was 36, so that’s why I retired when I did. I was getting lazy to wake up, when it was time to go run I didn’t want to and that’s when I decided its time to call it quits. My dad had to wake me up, he had to force me to go to the gym, so I decided on my own and I said this is it. There’s no need to be fighting anymore, I could do other things and at that time I wanted to join the police academy and be a police officer in Oxnard but little by little I decided to do other things. Boxing is a hard sport and I had some hard fights and you just can’t go in there and risk your life when you’re not 100% dedicated to the sport
You recently opened your own gym, the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy, how is that going? Tell us a little bit about it and what made you decide to open your own gym?
Things are going great; the gym is here in Oxnard and well, I decided to open up my own gym because of all the work I have been getting with all the professional fighters. I have quite a few fighters in my stable and the La Colonia Boxing Club, the gym where I’ve been my whole life, is a city operated building. I had to move on my own because I didn’t want to have problems with the city about training professional fighters that were coming to me. That’s the main reason why I had to open up my own gym.
Who makes up Team Garcia, who are some of your assistants and how long have they been working with you?
Well, of course my dad has always been a big part of the team and just recently retired and isn’t going to be involved in boxing that much, but he’s still here to help me so I go to him when I have a question. Francisco “Paco” Navarro and I have been working together for about six-years-now. I also have “Blue” Eduardo, that’s my other assistant and I also have Dr. Anderson on our team, who’s my cut man as well as Cameron Dunkin who is the manager of some of my fighters. Not all of my fighters, but some of my fighters, and we’ve been working together for quite a few years.
You’ve recently added another fighter to your stable, Antonio Margarito, can you tell us a little about that, how did that come about and what do you think of him as a fighter?
Well, I was in Vegas at the Manny Pacquiao vs Cotto fight because I was with Alfonso Gomez who was on that card and his manager approached me and asked me if I was ready for Margarito and I told him, “Hey I’m ready!” They finally called me and decided that they wanted to use my assistance and of course I welcomed the opportunity. He’s one of the top fighters in the world and hopefully we can do great things together.
A few months back you made a comment, that training Margarito may not happen, what does it mean to you now that you’re training someone like Antonio Margarito?
When Margarito’s manager approached me, that same day Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. also approached me. He got my number and told me the same thing, that he wanted to come train here with me. I thought to myself, ‘Hey at least my name is being mentioned by top fighters,’ and I said, ‘Hey it may never happen because you never know in boxing, there are a lot of trainers and sometimes they want to stay in the area where they live and don’t want to come down to Oxnard and have training camp here but with Margarito they decided they wanted to do their training camp here in Oxnard and it looks like he likes it here and hopefully we can do great things.’
What’s coming up in the next few months for Robert Garcia, who’s fighting when and against whom?
Well, I have my younger brother fighting April 3rd on Fox Sports in Texas. He’s fighting Thomas “El Norteno” Villa, a tough guy who fought a war with Rogers Mtagwa a couple years ago and after that we’ll be working on May 8th, the day that Antonio Margarito will be getting back in the ring and Nonito Donaire will also be fighting on that same card and so will Brandon Rios
