Ready for Takeoff : Training Camp for Boxers at Big Bear Airport Is Small, but the Client List Is Soaring

BIG BEAR —  For Larry Goossen, it started as a search for a secluded gym to get a 51-year-old boxer in shape.

That was two years ago.

The result is that Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino Mountains is rapidly on its way to becoming a major training site for professional boxers.

Goossen has a boxing gym in an unmarked airplane hangar at the Big Bear Airport, and in recent months the guest register has looked like a pro boxing ratings list.

Oscar De La Hoya, Rafael and Gabriel Ruelas, Greg Haugen and Michael Moorer are among the boxers who have chosen to train in the seclusion of Big Bear’s 6,744-foot altitude.

Goossen, one of the eight boxing Goossen brothers, says his mountain training camp came about by accident.

“I’d long wanted to run my own gym, and I’d been looking around L.A. for quite a while,” he said.

“Also, I was working with a builder from Denver, Steve Wickliff, who was 51 and wanted to turn pro. He was serious. So he found this available space in this hangar, and we set it up.

“We did it as partners, and neither one of us had any idea there’d be a big demand for it.

“See, at the time we were putting all this stuff in here, it hadn’t occurred to me that we’d have the only high-altitude camp around. Then Reggie Johnson (now a Goossen middleweight) heard about the gym, and he came up and trained and loved it.

“So word started getting out. When we started out, I was making a lot of calls to get boxers up here and I was getting maybe a call a week. My brother Joe started bringing boxers up here, and so did Kenny Adams, from Las Vegas.

“Now, I’m getting maybe three or four calls per day.”

The Larry Goossen Training Camp consists of 1,500 square feet of hangar space.

There is a 17-foot boxing ring, exercise and weight training equipment, a variety of punching bags and a small locker room and single-stall shower.

Boxing photos, posters and mirrors decorate the otherwise bare walls. And on a small table near the locker room is the busiest piece of equipment in the place--the telephone.

“I can’t believe the calls we’re getting, now that word of the place has gotten out,” Goossen said.

“We almost got Riddick Bowe to train here (for his match with heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield on Nov. 13),” Goossen said.

As it turned out, Bowe’s manager selected a site on the Deschutes River in Oregon.

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Nevertheless, in recent months Goossen has been operating his little gym at near-maximum capacity. Already, larger quarters have been secured.

“We’ve found a building on the other side of the airport, where we’re going to have more room,” he said.

“If we want, we could even put in a second ring and have plenty of workout room left over. We’re moving there Jan. 1.”

Why such success so quickly?

Goossen smiled and said: “Because I know how to run a first-class joint, that’s why.”

Three world-class lightweights are training daily at Goossen’s gym. The Ruelas brothers, lightweight Rafael and junior-lightweight Gabriel, and Olympic champion De La Hoya are all working daily.

Rafael Ruelas is preparing for his Forum bout with Jorge Paez of Mexico next Friday. Brother Gabe is awaiting word on his next opponent. He was training for a Nov. 7 title match with Azumah Nelson when the fight was scrubbed two weeks ago after Nelson demanded more money.

The Ruelas brothers box for Goossen’s brother, Dan, who heads Ten Goose Boxing, the Van Nuys boxing promotion and management company.

De La Hoya, the only U.S. gold medalist at the Barcelona Olympics, will turn pro at the Forum on Nov. 23. He is managed by Steve Nelson and Robert Mittleman of New York.

The Ruelas brothers and their trainer, Joe Goossen, live in a rented house at one end of the village of Big Bear Lake. De La Hoya, three sparring partners, trainer Robert Alcazar and a cook live at the other end of town in a four-bedroom rented house.

The boxers do roadwork in the mornings around the shores of Big Bear Lake or its quiet, hilly shoreline neighborhoods. At mid-afternoon, they head for Goossen’s gym.

Haugen, another Goossen fighter, arrived in Big Bear this week to train for his fight with Julio Cesar Chavez in Las Vegas on Dec. 5.

Another fighter in residence is Moorer, a top-10 heavyweight.

Other prominent boxers who have trained at the airport gym include middleweights Reggie Johnson and Brett Lally, heavyweight Jimmy Ellis, junior-featherweights Kennedy McKinney, Eddie Cook, Vince Phillips and middleweight Mike McCallum.

For major fights--such as a heavyweight title fight, or a major pay-per-view attraction-- boxers are routinely advanced expense checks than can range from $50,000 to $150,000.

For a boxer in training, costs can be enormous. Sparring partners earn anywhere from $500 to $1,500 a week, and often earn bonuses. Mike Tyson used to bring six to eight sparring partners to camp.

Housing and cars must be provided, and many boxers hire cooks.

Goossen said the cost to lease his facility varies from $5,000 to $10,000 per month. He can also serve as a training camp cook and trainer, he said.

His gym isn’t open to the public. You have to get through a locked security gate to even find it.

“Actually, very few fighters today go away from home to train because very few promoters will advance them training expenses,” said Bruce Trampler, matchmaker for Top Rank Boxing in Las Vegas.

“That usually happens only for major fights.

“Some promoters won’t advance training expenses to any fighters. Mickey Duff (prominent British boxing promoter) once told me: ‘Boxers don’t advance my office staff expenses for handling their paperwork, why should I advance them training expenses?’ ”

A camp such as Goossen’s offers seclusion as much as altitude, veteran California promoter Don Chargin said.

“Trainers talk a lot about training at high altitude, but the fact is they like the seclusion of training camps about as much as the altitude,” he said. “For major fights at Reno or Tahoe, the hotels there will readily set up a training camp. They offer lodging, and will often set up a ring on their property where guests can watch the sparring.”

Goossen said Big Bear nearly became the site of the Bowe camp.

“Eddie Futch (Bowe’s trainer) was here with McCallum and really liked it,” Goossen said. “So he recommended it to Bowe and his manager, Rock Newman.

“I got a call from Hedgemon Lewis, who’s with the Bowe people, and he told me, ‘Looks like we’re coming.’

“I got pretty excited, but then I got another call. Bowe decided he wanted to train closer to home (Washington, D.C.), so they picked a place in the Catskills for their pre-training work, then moved on to Oregon.

“After I started running this place, the more I realized we’ve got a great future. We’re three hours driving time to Las Vegas and 2 1/2 hours to L.A.

“Also, you can fly to both places from this airport,” he said, pointing to the runway a few yards away.