Will Big Bear Lake Help Fonfara Defeat Stevenson?
Andrzej Fonfara is training in a place that did not prove lucky for his famous namesake, Andrzej Golota.
“Nothing happens here; there is nothing to do. Just birds, coyotes and more coyotes. They are everywhere, and they are not exactly friendly,” Andrzej Golota told American journalists about Big Bear Lake in California 15 years ago. At the time, he was preparing in the mountain town for a fight against rising heavyweight star Michael Grant. Today, his namesake and younger fellow Chicagoan is getting to know the valley, the lake and the surrounding forests. Just two and a half weeks remain until the WBC world title fight involving Andrzej Fonfara.
Relaxing in the hot tub
On May 24 in Montreal, the 26-year-old Pole wants to surprise those captivated by Adonis Stevenson’s knockouts of Chad Dawson, Tavoris Cloud and Tony Bellew last year. According to The Ring magazine, the Canadian is the best light heavyweight in the world. Second is IBF and WBA champion Bernard Hopkins, while third is WBO champion Sergey Kovalev. Fonfara arrived in Big Bear Lake a week after Easter. He will leave a week before the fight, when he flies to Canada.
The coyotes do not bother him.
“The town is quiet. It is the off-season because the ski season has ended. You mainly see tourists on weekends, when cyclists come down the local hills,” Fonfara says. The Pole is working hard enough to force Showtime to change its plans for the Stevenson–Hopkins unification fight. In his bid to pull off a sensational upset and defeat the 36-year-old Canadian, the Białobrzegi-born boxer invited unbeaten Australian professional Blake Caparello to spar with him. Earlier, back in Chicago, he was helped by former world champion Gabriel Campillo. A year ago, the Spaniard was Fonfara’s toughest opponent in the professional ring.
“I get up at seven. After warming up, I start running. During the first week, I covered long distances. We also did run-walks: first climbing toward the summit, then running downhill. After returning to the cabin, I have breakfast, rest and take a nap. Then lunch, and at three or four o’clock, boxing practice or sparring. In the evening, there is time to relax. A hot tub or a movie. We have fun. We watch Stevenson’s fights and our sparring sessions, which we record beforehand. I fall asleep at ten or eleven,” Fonfara relates. He shares the two-story cabin, located right next to the training gym, with his trainers Sam Colonna and Bogdan Maciejczyk, conditioning specialist Rafał Radkowski and his sparring partners—Caparello and another southpaw, like Stevenson, American George Carter.
Lennox was there too…
Big Bear Lake has hosted the world’s best boxers for years. Oscar De La Hoya, Mike Tyson and Shane Mosley have come there for training camps. More recently, WBA middleweight champion, the outstanding Gennady Golovkin, also trained there. Fonfara works out at the same place as the Kazakh—in Summit Gym, owned by trainer Abel Sanchez.
Lennox Lewis also visited Big Bear Lake once. He felt so good there that… we would rather not recall his fight with Golota. The mountain climate, however, did not serve the Polish boxer well. According to his longtime manager, Ziggy Rozalski, “Andrew” left California just four days before his bout with Grant. He lost by stoppage, despite sending the American to the canvas in the first round. After several decades, will the Golota curse remain only a thing of the past, and will Big Bear Lake bring Fonfara luck?
Przemysław Osiak, przegladsportowy.pl
