Harry Arroyo

I had the pleasure to interview Harry at The Korner Restaurant on Mahoning Ave. in Austintown, OH. He was the IBF Lightweight Champion of The World from 1984-85. He defeated Charlie "Choo Choo" Brown with a TKO in the 14th round on 15 April 1984. Harry defended his title three times. The first on 14 September 1984 against Charlie "White Lighting" Brown and against Terrence Alli on 12 January 1985 with a TKO in the 11th round. On 6 April 1985 Harry lost the title to Jimmy Paul by a 15th round decision. Harry's record was 40-11 and was rated in 1984 as the best lightweight boxer in the world. You can reach Harry at Harry_Arroyo@yahoo.com Also, visit his website at

First of all you have to love boxing. I slept, drank, ate boxing. Boxing was my life and I put that as a first priority. On my part this was a mistake. I lost my wife, friends and was not able to balance boxing and life. To receive 100% from boxing you have to put in 100%. Now that my career is over I can do all the things that I was not able to do during my career. A boxer can not balance a social life with boxing. A social life means to go out and have fun and do the things that you need to do for total training. After your career is over then you pay attention to life. Being married during my career was very stressful on the marriage and my home life. When I started my career I was living at home and before work would do my roadwork and after work I went to the gym. I did not put any time into my family life.

I expect the trainer to tell you the mistakes that you make. There are a lot of trainers that tell you when you look good in a round or spar good but do not help you work on specific areas. For example, you are always dropping your left hand. You may never get hit but you can get hit. When the trainer scouts another fighter and when you come back to the corner the trainer should tell you that he is dropping his left hand or he is making mistakes. Some trainers just tell you to keep your hands up and get out there and keep doing what you are doing.

A manager also checks out the opponent. He tries to find out the strengths and weakness of the opponent. You need an aggressive manager. He should be always checking things out and promoting his fighter. He should be out there looking for opportunities for his fighter. When I get paid, he gets paid. The more I make, the more he makes. I am trying to think of a good thing about a manager. It boils down to honesty and being up front with your fighter. I put my trust in a manager and took a few fights that had other things going on that were not to my benefit and I wound up being on the short end of the stick. I don't think any fighter should manager his own career. You have to worry about the fight game and the training not to worry about the opponents and financial end of the fight game.

With my trainer there was no shortcuts. A promoter offered him extra money on the side if I would accept a certain fight. He said no way. He (trainer) said everything he gets, I get. I really respect him for that.

My contracts were fair but I think that the percentage rates should be changed. I think the trainer should keep 10% always but the manager's percentage should drop as the money increases. For a manager to pick up the phone for a million dollar bout and get 30% is ridiculous. It should be more like 15%. Once you get to that amount of money the boxer is the draw not the manager. Once you reach the bigger money level around $50,000, the contract with the manager should be changed for each bout.

I would never have gotten married during my career. If you have problems at home this can screw up your head mentally. I would have liked to have someone to invest my money for me or watch over me financially. I needed a financial advisor that was not in boxing. More promotions and publicity. I had none. Even at my peak I had none. Now I have Mike Elliot. I should have had him at the beginning of my career.

I have always wanted to have a fight with Ray Mancini. I sparred with Ray for years. When it came to real life he would not fight me. He turned down fights with me and it will always be in the back of my mind what would have happened. In my mind I would have won. No one will ever know the outcome. Now, it would only happen if we bumped into each other and something started. Ray was easy to hit, strong with a big heart but that is not going to get it. His losses were against top notch fighters. Ray kept ducking me. I honestly believe that in Ray's heart that he never had the confidence to beat me. All the times we sparred in the gym, he not once took the better part of me.

After talking with Harry I noticed a few things that seemed very important to him. One was his married life and the problems that come with mixing boxing and home life. You could see the emotion as he talked about this. The manager aspect of boxing was also not a favorite subject with him. I feel that some part of the financial end was not to Harry's liking. But the most emphatic pronouncements Harry made was the lack of a bout with Ray Mancini. He really wanted that one. It would be interesting if two old war horses stepped into the ring to relive a past that never happened.