Enter the Hand Shop

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“I’m old school,” said Rooney, as we began what would become a two-hour backroom interview. “I don’t have a cell phone and I don’t have a computer. You don’t need that stuff. When the answering machine first came out, I was OK with that. I could listen to who called and choose to answer or not answer, to call them back or not. Everything changes. You just have to hope it’s changing for the better. I’m not so sure all this new technology stuff is for the better.”

When I asked Rooney about recent advances in strength and conditioning methods, he responded with trademark bluntness.

“Yeah, well, with boxing it comes down to a simple question: Do you want to be a fighter?” he said. “It doesn’t matter what routines somebody is following. It doesn’t matter if they’re doing all the latest stuff. If, in the deepest core of their heart, they do not want to be a fighter, they will not be a fighter.

“I’m old school for these reasons but also because every day I walk into this gym, I think of one of my most powerful memories with Cus,” Rooney added. “When he was dying in 1985, he said to me, ‘You know, most people when they die, they’re just forgotten.’ I said, ‘Cus, I’ll keep this place alive. I’ll keep you alive.’ Every day I walk into this gym I want to keep his spirit alive in here. I believe in the peek-a-boo style. I look for fighters who I think can best use this style. Look, Cus always made you feel safe in here. I just want to continue what he started. My only regret is that I didn’t record everything he ever said. The man was absolutely brilliant.”

Rooney went deep into the past, discussing details I had never heard about Tyson’s rape trial, the events that occurred before several of Tyson’s fights and even his thoughts about boxing promoter Don King. He believes the rise of MMA might be a fad and that boxing is and will always be here to stay.

“Boxing just needs a dominant, exciting heavyweight that can move like Mike. Once that happens, it’ll go mainstream again,” Rooney said. “Right now, boxing has Manny Pacquiao. He’s great, no doubt about it, but a great lightweight fighter simply cannot capture and enthrall the media’s attention like a great heavyweight fighter. We’re hoping in the next few years that our gym will find and develop the next heavyweight champion.”

Ernest Westbrooke, the gym’s current assistant trainer, hopes to give rise to such a fighter.

“I’m new school,” Westbrooke said.

In his early 50s, Wesbrooke has an infectious personality that seems perfectly suited for television. His eyes light up when he talks. He articulates each thought with his whole body. The guy could have sold me a Shake Weight. The sweet science of boxing consumes his every waking moment. He views his young fighter, Victor Kokonis, the way I imagine D’Amato viewed Tyson.

Westbrooke is new school in that he is a huge fan of mixed martial arts and he is constantly trying to learn how technology can improve a fighter’s motion and promotion. He has a cell phone and a laptop and knows how to use all the social media sites. He realizes times have changed and that there are now better, smarter ways to train fighters than there once were. So how does he try to blend modernity with legendary tradition?

“Look, a loved one of mine was with us last week and is no more,” Westbrooke said. “This gym will never change its name, nor will it forget its roots, but our goal here is twofold. We want to provide the youth of this city with a safe place so they can stay out of trouble and learn strong life lessons, but we also want to find and mold our next world champion.

“Change isn’t something you have absolute control over,” he added. “It happens, and if you aren’t up with the times, you’ll be left behind the times. I see change not as something that creates adversity but as something that builds diversity. I’m a strong believer in the benefits of education. You know, in boxing, people say, ‘Speed kills.’ But so does knowledge. In the real world, knowledge kills.”

Fighters travel to Gracie academies to touch up their guard position. They travel to muay Thai schools to learn the subtleties of leg kicks. Westbrooke is the best “hands coach” with whom I have ever worked, and I highly recommend that MMA fighters who are looking to improve their boxing skills pay him a visit. He is incredibly knowledgeable about how to create, as he put it, “thoroughly integrated fighters who can fight inside and find angles but also maximize their reach when on the outside.” His grasp of MMA allows him to tweak boxing techniques to accommodate the demands of a fighter who needs to worry about stuffing takedowns and defending knees.

Despite the minor clashes Rooney and Westbrooke have because of their polar views on certain subjects, they care deeply about each other and know they need each other. Regardless of their differences, one similarity will forever bind them -- they love Cus D’Amato and this gym’s legacy, and they know what this gym can offer the community. That said, they could be doing much better financially and occasionally have fears that the gym may close down. Neither trainer is paid for the work they do here, not the 30 hours per week they spend training fighters, not the many trips they take to get the fighters to tournaments.

Rooney and Westbrooke want the gym, free to anyone under the age of 18, to stay alive and want what’s behind the name to always remain. Cus D’Amato is alive and happy here and not just by name.

Cameron Conaway, NSCA-CPT, CMMACC, was the 2007-2009 Poet-in-Residence at the University of Arizona’s MFA Creative Writing Program. He is the author of “Caged: Memoir of a Cage-Fighting Poet,” (forthcoming Fall 2011 from Tuttle Publishing) which has received endorsements from UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, BJJ legend Saulo Ribeiro and writers Glen Cordoza and Dinty W. Moore. He’s 2-1 as a mixed martial artist. Visit www.CameronConaway.com for more information.