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Taking the blood out of boxing

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, NEW YORK
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2003, Page 16

The cut man's stock and trade is blood, sweat and tears. He works furiously in the 60 seconds between rounds to repair the damage that a fighter absorbs during a fight. A good cut man in a fighter's corner will stop any bleeding and have the fighter ready to return to the ring when the bell sounds. If the cut man can't stop the bleeding, the referee may stop the fight.

Few cut men are as good at getting fighters ready to go at the bell as the legendary Al Gavin.

"Al Gavin is the best cut man in the business," said John Beninati, a boxing matchmaker with Final Forum Productions in West Hempstead, New York. Beninati has set up fights for marquee boxers like Evander Holyfield, Felix Trinidad and Oscar De La Hoya. "It's like having Lloyd's of London in your corner," said Beninati of Gavin. "I've seen fights stopped on cuts that Al could have taken care of."

Gavin has worked with household names like De La Hoya, Lennox Lewis and Mickey Ward but he is still relatively unknown outside boxing circles.

"I just come to work," Gavin said recently in his gravelly New York accent. "People like to put titles on people like, `Oh he's the greatest cut man in the world.' Maybe some people look for those accolades, but I truly don't. I just want to feel that when I get my money, I've earned my money. And maybe they'll say, `Al's a nice guy too.' That's good enough for me."

Gavin grew up in Brooklyn and was drawn to boxing at an early age. He won't disclose how old he is, saying only, "I'm younger than Job, but not by much." He says that he has been involved with boxing since he was nine years old.

"Everybody in my neighborhood used to fight in the street," Gavin said. "The next progression was to get in the ring with gloves on. It was a little harder in the streets." Gavin quickly realized that he did not have a future as a fighter. But he had fallen in love with the fight game.

In the late 1950s, Gavin was working as a landscaper for the New York Parks Department. In his free time, he would go to Stillman's Gym on Eighth Avenue. Stillman's was one of the eminent New York gyms during a time when the city was considered the capital of boxing. It closed its doors in 1959.

"I went there because I wanted to be a trainer," Gavin said. "All the top fighters in the world trained there. Willie Pep, Sandy Sadler, Ray Robinson, Rocky Marciano. It was like the Palace Theater. The who's who of boxing was there."

Once there, Gavin immediately gravitated toward the cut men.

"I saw a group of guys off to the side and they were the cut men," he said. "I wanted to know what they did. They were like the elite of the people in the gym because they could do something that no one else could do." Gavin has been a cut man ever since.

What separates Gavin from other cut men is his innate sense of how to treat each fighter. All cut men use coagulants like thrombin and avitene to stem blood flow. Cut men will coat a fighter's face in Vaseline to prevent abrasions. They all use Q-tips, gauze, ice bags and a flat rectangular tool called an enswell to reduce swelling.

But the great cut men watch a fight closely and can tell what kinds of cuts are coming their way. They must calm a fighter in the corner to reduce the boxer's heart rate and the flow of blood. And most importantly, they must know how and where to apply pressure to a cut to stop the bleeding.

Gavin himself has a hard time describing how he practices his craft. "I can't explain it," he said. "It's just something you get a feel for. It's like you see a dancer and you say, `How did you do that?' And he says, `I really don't know. I just have a feel to do it.' That's the way I'd describe it."

Although Gavin would not say how much a cut man makes, he did say that when he works for a fighter of Lennox Lewis' caliber he pockets a "considerable sum." But he makes it a point to give back to the sport that has defined his life.

"Al's the kind of guy who makes big money with Lennox Lewis and the next week you might find him working with a four-round fighter for nothing," said Sal Musumeci, a promoter and the owner of Final Forum Productions, a company that promotes and organizes fights.

"You got to keep your craft going," Gavin said. "You get stagnant if you don't. So I work with a lot of the four-round kids. A lot of them, I don't charge. I'm always willing to give a hand to the sport because I want to see it keep going."
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