Before Brian Viloria became flyweight champion of the world and qualified as Hawai’i’s first Olympic boxing contender in over 40 years, he spent countless hours at the Waipahu Boxing Club under the tutelage of Albert Silva. The current Kaua’i resident
Before Brian Viloria became flyweight champion of the world and qualified as
Hawai’i’s first Olympic boxing contender in over 40 years, he spent countless
hours at the Waipahu Boxing Club under the tutelage of Albert Silva.
The
current Kaua’i resident is also largely responsible for the evolution of former
world champions Andrew Ganagan and Jesus Salud.
Born in Waipahu in 1917,
Silva moved to Kaua’i in 1992 to live with his in-laws in Lihu’e. After his
wife passed away, he could no longer bear to live alone in the home they once
shared and only returns to Waipahu a few days at a time for the occasional
training session.
Yet the boxing world is never more than a backyard away
for the diehard devotee.
Beyond the burgeoning garden, in the single car
garage at the back of his house, the walls are covered with news clippings and
posters featuring the numerous accomplishments of his famous
disciples.
Silva earns no money from training boxers; he does it out of
love.
“I’ve said (before) I was going quit training, but it’s hard. When I
stay home and I’m not training I get down-hearted because I got this little bit
of talent that I could pass along instead of keeping it for myself.”
Having
already trained three Kaua’i-born fighters who went on to win amateur
championships — Nathan Miguel, Eddie Yasai, and Eric Carvalho — Silva
currently works with four youths from Hanama’ulu, but with no boxing facilities
readily available on the island he is forced to train out of a garage turned
into makeshift gym.
Began with a licking
Ironically, Silva’s boxing
odyssey began in a similar setting. Having always played sports, he would often
spend time at the gym, which he describes as being only slightly larger than
the closed quarters of his garage.
Challenged to step into the ring by one
of the boxing trainers, Silva, then 20, called the bluff and entered the ring
despite knowing nothing about boxing. Only after the fight did Silva find out
that the trainer put him in the ring with the current Featherweight Champion of
the State of Hawai’i.
The outcome was as “dirty a licking” as expected,
but to the trainer’s surprise Silva returned the next day ready to start
training. He said he did not mind getting beaten by the best, but he also
decided that was not going to happen to him again. Thus began a 63 year sojourn
of sweaty gyms, endless
training sessions, and countless students.
Silva continued fighting through his five years of service in the army,
winning the title of All Service Champion for the armed services. After
finishing his duty in 1945, he fought for one more year but rather than turn
professional, he turned to training. And of all people he returned to the same
man who put him in the ring for his first beating.
The man was Johnny
Yasui, the premier boxing trainer at that time. Over the next five years, Silva
worked with Yasui until the latter retired and Silva took over his training
duties at the Waipahu Boxing Club. Silva has since trained over 200 children
for Waipahu summer programs, and that is aside from the numerous parents who
bring their children in to be instructed by the man known for turning out top
caliber boxers.
A means to teach about life
But really, boxing is
merely the means to teach his students about life. Says Silva, “showing the
youngsters between right and wrong, trying to teach them to be good citizens,
that’s my main [goal].”
Silva employs a “tough love” training philosophy,
expecting nothing less than the best each student has to offer. “Boxing is a
hard game, it’s only you in that square, nobody else and the only time you’re
going to get any advice is in that one minute between rounds and it’s
important.”
He tells the story of one fighter who told Silva and his
trainers not to give him any advice, just give him water.
“Do you know
what I did?” asks Silva, “I whacked that boy right in the corner and I walked
out of the ring.He lost the fight and the next day when he came down to the gym
to train he was told we’re not training him anymore.”
The story was not so
much about ego and sports as it was about respect and discipline. Silva gives
everything he can to the sport he loves and the students he trains, in return
he expects they act accordingly, in and out of the ring.
He says, “I
expect when they go out, they act like citizens not like a bunch of
punks.”
“I don’t drink and I don’t smoke so I spend my money on boxing.” If
his boxers can’t afford a physical, he’ll pay the bill for financially strapped
families.
“I like the sport, I don’t know why, maybe I’m stupid or
something, it’s one of those things that once I got the hang of it, I couldn’t
get enough,” says Silva.
Oftentimes he would pay his own way to see his
students fight on the Mainland and his ceaseless dedication continues to be
appreciated by even his former students.
He trained Salud for 16 years,
recalling when the former champion was only eight years old and he would catch
the bus down to the gym, rain or shine.
“I asked him how come you’re here
when it’s pouring, and he said, I want to train.”
Then the two of them
would work together in an empty gym. Even now, Salud invites Silva to his
fights.
“[Salud] always wants me there, I’ve never missed one of his
fights on O’ahu.” And the two remain in close contact, rarely going for more
than a couple weeks without speaking.
Valerie’s chances? 110
percent!
Silva’s most recent standout is Valerie, whose chances at getting
a medal Silva ranks at 110 percent, saying, “this boy is good! Really good,
[Valerio] is better than Salud at that age.”
Silva discusses Viloria’s
merits as a boxer but is more apt to extol his virtues outside the ring,
announcing that the soon to be Olympian maintains a 4.0 average at school in
Michigan where he has been training the last two years on an amateur boxing
scholarship.
After the Olympics Silva says Valerio plans to return and
attend the University of Hawai’i —with an Olympic medal around his neck.
Silva attributes Viloria’s success to his upbringing, having strict
parents.
As Silva puts it, “if the parents tell the kids go to the
bathroom now, they better have to go.”
Likewise, Silva credits his own
success to the strict discipline he enforces though his course of action
usually entails running drills as punishment.
He tells the story of
training with Salud in Big Bear, Calif., and having Salud run routes through
the snow while Silva watched from inside the warmth of a cabin.
It was
this reputation as a disciplinarian with an uncanny ability to tap into the
potential of young boxers that had Valerio’s father bring his eight-year-old
son to Silva.
When parents bring their children to him, Silva lets them
know that once they step into the gym, he is the boss and anyone who gaffes at
that can find another trainer.
For his part, Silva was impressed by the
young Viloria’s focus when even then he knew he wanted to compete in the
Olympics.
“You’re not going to teach the boy your way of fighting, you’re
going to work with the boy’s ability. You have to make the best of the boy.”
At that young of an age, Silva keeps his students shadow boxing and
teaches the basic fundamentals of the game, not wanting them to begin sparring
too early.
How does he know when his students are ready to compete?
He points to his head, “I’ve been in the game so long I know when a
youngster is ready. If you are an experienced trainer, sometimes from the first
week you can tell if the kid has potential.
“Great boxers,” says Silva,
“set their plateau to where they want to be. If you don’t get in your mind
you’re going to be somebody, you’re going to be nobody.”
And this is the
man to help them reach that plateau.
With the interview over, Silva lifts
his lanky frame from the chair and the caption on the front of his t-shirt
stands out.
Blazed across the stark white background in bold red and black
lettering were the words to a simple philosophy – your mind can make you train,
your body can create power, but only your heart can make you a champion.
Silva has proven time and again, that he can educate their minds,
strengthen their bodies and match the hearts of his considerable
champions.
