The three things that these three very tough men have in common, is that they all helped to shape me, mold me, And make me a tougher person. All three taught my lessons on mental and physical toughness the good old fashioned way… by causing me pain, and teaching me not to give up when the going got tough.
Andy Ganigan was a lightweight southpaw boxing champion, who was known for his knockout power, Much more than he was his boxing skills. I think all of one of his wins whereby knockout, In fact he knocked out Sean O’Grady to win the lightweight title. Andy lived and trained in Waipahu. I was about 10 pounds heavier than Andy, but I was still an in high school. I was one of the few people that would spar with Andy, so his manager would pick me up after school and driving me out to the gym where Andy trained. I would spar three or four rounds with Andy, finish my workout then I would get a ride home, and $20 to show for my usually very sore liver. Andy was a very powerful body puncher, And since he had fights coming up, sparring with him wasn’t about teaching me anything, I was just there to be his “Sparring partner” translation, Punching bag. Sparring with Andy was never fun, causes it was always a fight, but it did teach me a lot about myself, and made me a lot tougher.
Andy Died at 59 years old… here’s a story about him
Jose Caba was a heavily muscled featherweight boxer from La Romana, Dominican Republic. He was a top 10 contender, and he moved to Hawaii after fighting there and falling in love with it. He was married and had four children. The Hawaiian promoter moved him into a small two bedroom bungalow in the bad part of Waikiki. Since we both worked out at the same gym every day, We’ve became friends, and started training together. He was a lot lighter than I was, so we never really sparred, But just training with him on a daily basis showed me how hard a world-class contender really trained. I was still an amateur, and though I thought I trained pretty hard, training with José t I can check, took it to a whole other level. I remember that though he did pretty much the sam workouts I did, he did them with a lot more intensity. Heavy and speed bag work, jumping rope, even shadow boxing was taken to another level. I would meet him at Kapiolani Park at 4:30 am for our road work/hell. We would warm up for about five minutes, then we would take off in a sprint. This “Sprint” would last the entire three mile run. I was used to regular roadwork where we would jog for a while shadowbox, and then maybe some sprints at the end, but José just hit the ground running in a full sprint and do to slow down till the end. It was never fun, and it was very painful, but it top me a lot about myself, and made me much tougher.
Jose fought for the World featherweight title, and lost in an action-packed war to one of the best featherweights of all time Danny “Little Red” Lopez