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Mosley a Big Bear Mainstay
By Steve Kim (Sept 14, 2007) Photo © Everlast

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Back in the late 90's and at the turn of the century, Big Bear, California - a mountain resort town which is about a hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles – was quickly becoming known as much for the boxers that called it home as for it's skiing and snow capped mountains.

Three Southern California standouts - Oscar De La Hoya, Fernando Vargas and Shane Mosley - along with a multitude of other world-class fighters and trainers, would make the trek up the mountain, which is surrounded by the San Bernardino National Forest, to set up their training camps. It was an ideal setting, with clean air, privacy and friendly natives.

De La Hoya, Vargas and Mosley, even went so far as to build their own homes and gyms up there.

But recently, De La Hoya sold his property and trained in Puerto Rico for his last bout with Floyd Mayweather. Vargas is also in the process of selling off his dwelling, and has gone to various locales to conduct training camps in recent years.

Mosley though, is here to stay.

"I love Big Bear because of the seclusion, being away from everything and everybody," said the native of nearby Pomona, California. "The elevation, the people are great up there. They're like my family up there. When I'm up there I can go anywhere I want to go and ask anyone for plumbing and its right there for me. So it's a great place to be."

Yeah, he's the big man on the mountain.

For the whole Mosley clan, there is a familiarity that can't be replaced.

"It is a home away from home," says his father/trainer, Jack. "The whole family can go up there and relax when there's no fighting going on. The gym can be rented out, you can make money with other fighters and their camps coming in that want to come in and stuff like that."

Mosley, an avid snowboarder, has his choice of Snow Summit, Bear Mountain and Snow Valley from which to choose from.

"You can go fishing, you can go camping, you can go to the movies up there and just relax for the weekend and stuff like that," mentions Jack.

Many go up the hill because of the high altitude it provides. Big Bear ranges between 7,000 and 9,000 above sea level, the thinking being that training up there will give them an advantage in the lower altitude.

"A lot of fighters feel that they're in better shape when they come down. They have more oxygen, more stamina and stuff like that. In my mind, I believe you can get the same training, you just have to work a little harder when you're down the hill. But up there, if you work hard and come down the hill, you're going to have more energy. Because I know when I go up, I have to catch my breath sometimes when I first go up there. After a while, I settle in and get acclimated."

Robert Guerrero, who was slated to face Martin Honorio this Saturday in defense of his IBF featherweight title, stayed at the Mosley house and rented his gym for this past training camp. He says of training in that altitude, "It's a whole different level coming up to Big Bear. The elevation takes a big role and just being out here, out of the mix, concentrating and focusing on nothing but boxing."

Whether altitude training really benefits a boxer is debatable (more on that later) but it's clear, everyone that goes up there must adjust to the new climate.

"Down below I would spar 10, 15 rounds no problem and still come up and do a complete workout," Guerrero would say. "But as soon as I get up here, four, five rounds, I was already starting to gasp for air and I can feel the difference right away, just the first day of training down here, getting out there, going for the run and you can see why all the pound-for-pound top champions come out here."

But less and less are doing so it seems. Floyd Mayweather, who once camped in Big Bear, now trains in Las Vegas. Vernon Forrest, who trained for his initial defeat of Mosley back in 2002 in the same city as his opponent, felt suffocated by the rural surroundings. Vargas will flat out admit to you that there really wasn't much to do out there, which is one of the reasons he left.

Some love the focus and concentration it provides in a training camp. Others get cabin fever and are bored to death by the monotony. And for others, life changes.

Oscar De La Hoya, who led the migration up, got married and had kids.

"As I became a more experienced veteran in the sport, I said to myself, ‘Y'know, I'm old enough, I'm wise enough to make the right decision. Let me spend more time with my family while I train. Let me kind of break that image that fighters have to be away from everything. Let me try and do that for just one fight.' And it actually worked for me because I was spending time with my family, with my wife. And so I just decided, 'Y'know what? If it worked once, why wouldn't it work again?'

"But it's great to train in Big Bear," adds Oscar. "If I could turn the clock back, I would probably still be up there."

For a fighter like Guerrero, who attributes last year's loss against Orlando Salido to having a training camp where his wife and kid were a constant presence, the privacy and focus it fosters is invaluable. Salido would eventually lose his title after failing his post-fight urinalysis for steroids. Guerrero would then leave his family at home for his last training camp in Los Angeles at Freddie Roach's Wild Card Boxing Club. His sacrifice would pay off as he would dominate Spend Abazi to regain his belt.

As Roach had other commitments, the decision was made to train with his father and co-manager Bob Santos in Big Bear for the assignment with Honorio, which has been rescheduled for November 3rd.

"It's not like being out in L.A. where it's so busy, it's all congested, you're driving everywhere to go to the gym and getting stuck in traffic. Out here, I'm five feet away from the gym," said Guerrero, who had a chance to move around with Mosley for a few rounds of sparring inside the gym that is built inside the their garage. "The town is very peaceful out here, I can go for a nice walk and just clear my mind, concentrate and focus on what I gotta do and it's great."

To pass the time, 'the Ghost' says he has taken up fishing.

Fighters may come and go, but Mosley, who faces Miguel Cotto on November 10th at the Madison Square Garden in New York, will be the one constant.

"That'll always be my training camp for my fighters or myself."

ALTITUDE TRAINING

OK, it sounds great in theory, but does training in the high altitude actually work? Or, are its effects evaporated as fighters come back down the mountain too early before a fight to actually gain a benefit from it. Nowadays, for most big fights, a fighter will leave between 7-10 days before the fight, as they participate in open workouts for the media, the final press conference and other various obligations in hyping their event.

"That's true," says Dr. Margaret Goodman, the former Medical Advisory Board Chairman of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, who was ringside for numerous championship bouts throughout the years. "I just think that too often they don't understand or they're not given enough information on the entire process to know whether or not altitude training would benefit them."

To her, it's important that boxers acclimate themselves to all the surroundings in which they will be performing, which means replicating not only the altitude, but every other variable associated with the fight.

“The most important thing to do for a fighter is acclimatization," says Dr. Goodman. "And that not only reflects on altitude training, but time zones, the time that they're going to fight. All of those things are important for a fighter to maintain when he's getting ready for a fight.

"For example, when Lennox Lewis fought Hasim Rahman the first time (in Johannesburg, South Africa), basically in that fight Lennox went down to Johannesburg very soon before the fight. And for that particular reason, I think, it contributed to him getting knocked out so easily. To take nothing away from Rahman, Rahman was down there training, training in the correct time zone, had no jet lag and also was prepared for the change in time and training in the exact time of day the fight would take place.

"Too often, fighters don't do that, and Lennox was here in Las Vegas working on 'Oceans Eleven' and so he didn't have that particular advantage. The same thing goes for altitude training; it's good for you to be at the same altitude where you're going to fight. In other words, if you're going to be fighting at a high altitude, a fighter shouldn't all of a sudden go up to that altitude within a few days before the fight. And vice-versa. It's just not beneficial."

Ironically, Lewis had trained regularly in the altitude of Big Bear and more often, in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. For that bout, he trained in Vegas.

So just what is altitude training and how does it work?

"It's essentially legalized blood-doping, that's the intent," answers Dr. Goodman. "Trying to train at a higher altitude and then fighting at a lower altitude. By training at a higher altitude, the fighter essentially manufactures more red blood cells and therefore the theory is they're able to carry more oxygen, it gives them increased energy and increased oxygen capacity and you would anticipate that they would be able to fight well when they returned to a lower altitude.

"But the effects can be variable more often than not for boxers because the effects are worn off long before the fight. They want to come down and get ready and then it's just too late."

But maybe, just maybe, believing you made that extra sacrifice gives a fighter an important psychological boost.

"I think that's true and I think that all of boxing is psychological to an extent, at least 75-percent of it. That's what Teddy Atlas always said and I think that's certainly a truism," states the doctor. "Whatever makes the fighter comfortable. But the bottom line is, you’re fighting at 10 o'clock at night or 9 o'clock at night and you're constantly sparring and training in the morning, and you're not going to have as much a benefit as the guy who strives to alter his schedule and start sparring and training a little bit later in the day to adjust and the same thing goes for training in a time zone."

When asked if the effect of training up high is more beneficial between the ears than in his lungs, Mosley would say, "I think the boxing game is more mental anyway. So yes, I got more of a security with the mental game, being at peace with myself and everything around me.

"Although being 7,000 feet in the air definitely helps."

TEN GOOSE

My condolences to the Goossen family for the loss of Ann Goossen, the mother of Dan and Joe Goossen, the matriarch of what became 'Ten Goose Boxing'.

She passed away several days ago at the age of 86.

A service will be held Monday at 5:30 pm at the St. Francis De Sales Church in Sherman Oaks, California.

THE CONTENDER

Hey, since I'm not watching or covering season three of 'The Contender' on ESPN, does anyone have the results or anything?

FRIDAY FLURRIES

Is anyone else going to miss Friday Night Fights on ESPN2? I am. No, the fights weren't always great (what do you expect for $25,000?) but they always put on a good show overall....No fights on Saturday night with the cancellation of 'Fireworks', but some great pigskin this Saturday with Tenn-Florida, USC-Nebraska, BC-Georgia Tech and Southlake Carroll-Miami Northwestern (yes, a high school game)....Yeah, I know, I didn't mention Notre Dame-Michigan, but that's far from 'great'. Carl Moretti may not even care by this point...If there was any doubt about the severity of Juan Manuel Marquez's hand ailment, check out the picture of his hand on Fightnews.....Is the Ring Magazine now the 'Golden Bible'?