Justin Gamber Q&A: I was afraid people would get killed while sparring with Andy Ruiz

Justin Gamber is one of the most underrated trainers in boxing. His greatest achievement is guiding Caleb Plant from amateur to world champion, but there’s a lot more to him than that. Gamber, the mastermind behind Blair Cobbs’ recent win over Adrien Broner, shared his thoughts on his own path into the sport as well as his time in the corner of Plant and Andy Ruiz Jr. in this second part of a recent conversation with BoxingScene.

BS: How was your path in boxing?

Player: I started boxing as an amateur when I was a kid and I would box as an amateur every now and then. I was never really consistent with it. I fought in some national tournaments, but in my mid-20s – I’m from South Dakota by the way – I moved to Nashville and that’s where I started training in 2006. I was a mentor under Coach Christy Halbert, and she was the Olympic coach in 2012 and maybe various Olympics after that. She was a great mentor to me and I started there. She had me work on some top national teams, initially with fighters like Terence Crawford, Keith Thurman, Rau’shee Warren, Danny Jacobs and Michael Hunter – all top amateurs at the time – and many of them went on to become great professionals.

Eventually I started working with lower level pros in Nashville and slowly gained experience. Eventually I moved to Las Vegas and worked as an assistant under Andy Ruiz for a year or two. Then I decided to move back to Nashville and open my own gym. I was in a long distance relationship at the time – my girlfriend lived in Nashville and I decided to move from Las Vegas back to Nashville. When I moved back, I really only had one fighter in mind. It was an amateur named Caleb Plant. I went back and opened my own gym and started working with Caleb Plant, turned him into a pro, turned him into a world champion and eventually moved back to Las Vegas. The rest is history.

BS: Any memories of Andy Ruiz?

Player: I’ll tell you this about Andy. I felt like I had figured out how to get the best out of him. But I had figured out that I had to push him hard when he was willing to work. If I could tell he wasn’t going to do anything, I wouldn’t even try. I would just give him the day off, just let him go, but push him when he was willing to work. And that was the mindset and strategy that I took with him, and I felt like I got the best out of him. In my last fight with him (in March 2013), we got him down to the lowest weight of his professional career – 246 pounds – to face a fighter that Deontay Wilder had fought before, a guy named Matthew “Gator” Greer, and Andy fought him in the last fight that I coached with him. Deontay had knocked this guy out in two rounds. So we wanted to do better and stop him in the first round. Andy knocked him down four times in the first round and stopped him in the first, the easiest round of his pro career. Top Rank, his promoter at the time, was never happier. I’m told it was a success. But after that fight, it was hard to get back in the gym with them. I think, honestly, we were supposed to go to the gym, or about 15 times, and then when we did go to the gym, he didn’t come very often. So I got frustrated and decided to move back to Nashville, open my own gym and try to make something out of this kid named Caleb Plant.

BS: The hardest puncher you’ve ever seen?

Player: Andy Ruiz. I don’t think he’s the hardest puncher, but I will say this: I’ve never been more concerned about the health and well-being of my sparring partners than when Andy was sparring with them. He had the ability to really do damage and permanently injure people. I was even afraid that people might get killed while sparring against him. He was dangerous back then. We’ve spoken a little over the last few years, but I haven’t seen him in a while. But he was dangerous back then.

BS: Best gym fighter?

Player: I started training in Nashville, and people might not remember Jonathan Reid. He was on The Contender, I think Season 1. In the mid-2000s, he fought William Joppy for the WBA middleweight title. It was actually on the undercard for (Felix) Trinidad vs. (Fernando) Vargas, and he lost. He was stopped in four rounds and never really made much of an impression in the pros. He was never very successful, but he was a brutal guy in the gym and sparred with a lot of different guys. I think I heard Antonio Margarito got him. I kind of think of him when I think of the best gym fighters I’ve seen.