Ayi Bruce: The "unknown" Champion

In March of last year, 24-year-old Ayi Bruce kissed his wife and daughter goodbye and boarded a westbound plane out of Accra, Ghana – all because of a dream.

“I will be a world champion,” he said when we spoke at Schott’s Gym a few nights ago. Then he instinctively raised both fists to let them say what his English cannot yet elaborate upon.

A dream will make some people do just about anything. “He knew he’d never accomplish what he wanted to in Africa. For that, he’d have to come to the U.S.,” said trainer, Andy Schott.

Dreamers pretty much start out alone, with nothing but faith in themselves and a champion’s heart. Then, things begin to change as people catch on.

For Bruce, what started a few months after the flight from Accra became, in time, a circle of three more believers: manager Gunther Fishgold, and trainers Schott and Kyle Provenzano. But on December 4, Bruce defeated Shamone Alvarez to win the IBA welterweight belt. The circle is about to get a lot bigger starting right now.

“His win against Alvarez was huge; it’s the best one we’ve ever had,” said Schott.

But let’s go back to Ghana for a second. After an amateur career that earned him an All-Africa championship, Ayi turned pro and started to rack up some fast wins, going 13-0 before facing Albert Mensah (13-3, 10KOs) for the African Boxing Union light welterweight title. Mensah stopped him with a TKO in the 9th.

That’s when Bruce began to re-think his boxing life and decided to take a big risk. After one more quick, stay-busy victory, he came to Maryland, USA. It would be nice to say that the decision resulted in more fast wins, but that would be Hollywood, not real life.

The fact is, Bruce’s first two American bouts were against still undefeated Emmanuel Taylor (10-0, 8KOs) and Raymond Serrano (14-0, 7 KOs). He lost both contests. Time to go back to Ghana, right? Wrong. Remember the dream.

On both of those cards were fighters from Schott’s Gym. So Fishgold, Schott, and Provenzano got talking to Bruce’s people and learned of some unhappiness with the Maryland gym. One thing led to another and, before he could say “Let’s go,” Bruce was on another plane – this one to Albany.

He moved into an apartment with four other Schott’s notables – Harrison Cuello, Manny Lucero, B.J. Antoine, and Steve Tyner (God help the hapless character who tries a home invasion there, right?). The work began in earnest.

“Ayi is like a lot of name fighters from Ghana – like Ike Quartey and Joshua Clottey,” said Provenzano (Bruce is friends with Clottey), “in that he’s got a really quick jab that just snaps.”

But Schott and Provenzano started making some changes. “He really wasn’t moving his head much or thinking about counterpunching,” continued Provenzano. “He was pretty straight-up.”

Signing to fight Shamone Alvarez for the vacant IBA title should have been a huge mistake. Alvarez was on his way up and was being looked at by the Andre Berto camp as a possible next stop. At 21-3, with 10 KOs, Alvarez had been in there with some real thunder like Joshua Clottey and Delvin Rodriguez whom he fought for the USBA title.

But Bruce had a few aces of his own no one had seen. First, he was sooo ready, after sparring for weeks and weeks with solid lefties like Cuello and Antoine (“People pay $500/week for that kind of sparring,” said Provenzano.), and he really, really wanted the fight.

“There was no way I was going to lose,” Bruce said.

“Promoter Joe DeGuardia, who was at the Serrano fight, just said to us after Ayi beat Alvarez, ‘What happened?’ ‘Is this the same kid?,’” Schott said, proudly.

“The whole thing was a team effort,” Schott continued, “involving Gunther, Kyle, and Antoine and Cuello who couldn’t have prepared him any better for Alvarez.”

The judges at Bally’s in Atlantic City had it 97-93, 95-94, and 95-95, giving Bruce the majority decision. But let’s be mindful of a few things: Atlantic City is Alvarez’ home town, Bruce was only supposed to get him ready for Berto, and Alvarez used to work at Bally’s, for pete’s sake. “It was the 97-93 judge who had it right,” Schott said after the fight. “It wasn’t anywhere near as close as the scoring suggests.”

Ayi had been silent throughout most of my visit, but only partly because of his difficulties with the language. He is an utterly shy and unassuming young man. “He’s about as nice a kid as they come,” said Schott with Provenzano nodding in agreement. “All of his toughness is inside the ring; outside, he’s always a gentleman.”

But what was Bruce’s take on Alvarez? “He’s a big puncher,” said Ayi. Weren’t you a little scared, stepping into the ring somebody so favored to win? “No, no,” he said with utter disbelief at such a question. “You leave that behind you when you fight, or else you get hit.”

Andy Schott asked my next question for me, and he did it with the look of someone who knew what the answer would be. What’s your least favorite thing about living here?” “The cold,” came the quick reply from Bruce. No wonder. It’s 82 degrees in Accra today.

His favorite thing about living here? “This gym. I’ve learned so much here.”

So, what’s up next for Ayi Bruce? “It depends on the opportunities,” said Schott. “He might fight locally, maybe at Turning Stone or on ESPN. I just know we’ll be busy in 2011.” Team Bruce would like him to fight three or four times in the coming year.

“We know lots of people are looking at him,” Schott continued. The name Berto came up a lot the course of my hour visit, so who knows? “Lots and lots of people all of a sudden know who Ayi Bruce is and they’re asking lots of questions.”

That’s the way it goes with dreamers. They start out all alone, then if they’ve got what it takes and never, ever give up, it just might start to get a little crowded.