Cornering the market on boxing legends

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Staff Writer

Over the verdant fields and dusty cane haul roads Al Silva traveled in a career as a supervisor for the now-defunct O'ahu Sugar Co., the talk would invariably turn to his "chickens."

Al Silva, right, will once again be in Jesus Saludâs corner Tuesday. Salud says Silva taught him about boxing and life. Advertiser library photo • Dec. 5, 1998

Along the Leeward side, where he ran the bustling Waipahu Boxing Club for nearly four decades, Silva's fighters, the ones whose faces peered out from the yellowed newspaper clippings on the wall of the late Waipahu Gym, were a point of community pride and interest.

Their names — Andy Ganigan, Paul Lucas, Jesus Salud, Brian Viloria, among others — and exploits were legend.

This week, the last of his two active champions, Salud and Viloria, come home to roost.

Their careers have taken them around the world — Viloria to a world amateur title and the Olympics; Salud to a series of professional championships. Silva, 84, has retired to Kaua'i and their old stomping grounds, venerable Waipahu Gym, has been torn down, a new one slowly rising in its place.

Yet, once more, this time on Tuesday afternoon's nationally televised boxing card at the Hawai'i Convention Center, they will reunite around the ring with the man they still respectfully refer to as "Mr. Silva."

Silva will work in Salud's corner as he did when the former world junior featherweight champion first began as a raw 9-year-old no bigger than the biddy boxing gloves he wore in P.A.L. competition. And Viloria's management team said it would welcome Silva in the flyweight's corner, too.

"I love that old man," Salud, 38, says. "It wouldn't be the same without him in my corner. I still talk to him all the time on the phone, no matter where I am. He's been like a father figure to me. He's taught me so much; not only about boxing but about life. About everything."

A former territorial lightweight champion, Silva took over the Waipahu club from Johnny Yasui after World War II, teaching the finer points of the sport to generations of young hopefuls. "We'd take anybody that wanted to work," Silva said. "The only rule was that when you came into the gym, play time was over. It had to be all business."

That's what made for a quick and lasting attachment to Salud and Viloria. "They were there to work; they wanted to become champions," Silva said. "Jesus would come on the bus all the way over from Nanakuli, even when it was raining. When it rained so hard you couldn't see across the street and even the Waipahu kids didn't come, Jesus would still be there. I'd ask him why and he'd say, ' 'cause I want you to make me a champion.' "

Salud recalled, "Mr. Silva built my foundation just like he did Brian's and a lot of other fighters. It is like a building, once you have a strong foundation, you can go from there. That's what he's given all of us."

Said Silva: "It makes an old man proud to see them come back; it makes me happy to see what they've become."