A glove affair

NICK TOLERTON | 24th February 2010

Twenty-six years after his Olympic silver medal, Kevin Barry is head over heels in love with boxing again.

At 50, and after his long running legal battle with his former charge David Tua, it would be understandable that his enthusiasm for the ring had palled.

A hulking 26-year-old from Borat country, Kazakhstan, changed that.

Barry trained Beibut Shumenov to win the WBA world light heavyweight title three weeks ago - Barry's first world title success as a trainer.

And he is hungry to achieve more at this level.

Back from Las Vegas for a visit to his parents Kevin and Myra Barry last week, Barry said he had to be persuaded by his wife Tanya to take on Shumenov.

Barry's training had been low key for a while. He'd been coaching boxers, Muay Thai fighters including US national champion Shawn Yarborough, and corporate clients.

He also ran three boxing shows at the Hard Rock Casino in Las Vegas last year, pitting hosts from different nightclubs against each other, and worked with top Vegas plastic surgeon Frank Stile on a reality TV show The Doc Star, with an offer of a bigger role for him in the second season.

"So I'd been dabbling with fighters but having a lot more fun with these other things," he said.

And after six years and more than $1m in legal fees, he'd finally got the Tua case settled.

"Beibut came to see me with his agent and initially I turned him down - I was at a stage where I felt my life felt settled."

However, his wife told him it was something he needed to do.

So at the end of January, Barry fulfilled what had once been a major goal - he'd trained a world champion.

It must have seemed all too easy after what he'd tried in the past. Barry spent eight years getting Tua in position for a world title fight, five years with Aussie Robbie Peden who won a world title four years later, and four years with Maselino Masoe, who retired and came back to win a world title.

"So I'd been all around it but never in the ring with a guy whose hand was raised as a world champion. And Tanya said 'That's missing - you need to do that for yourself.'

"I said we'd trial it for a week and see if we have the chemistry.

"By the second day I realised he was a really good kid, highly intelligent, and we more or less had immediate chemistry.

"It was refreshing for me to be again coaching and conducting business at the highest level. And I realised how much I'd missed it."

Barry pointed out that Shumenov, who fought at the 2004 Olympics, had only nine fights - but beat two former world champs - before winning the title.

"That's nothing short of remarkable and speaks volumes for his potential. The earliest anyone had won the title previously was in his 19th fight."

Barry has scaled back his work with the surgeons and bankers to put time into Shumenov, and expects he'll have his first world title defence in May, possibly in Vegas.

Unlike other fighters he'd worked with, the Kazakh did not have his hand out all the time, draining him, he said.

Which inevitably brings up the topic of Tua.

It was good to finally have that behind him, he said.

"It was so important to put it to sleep - all it did was suck the life out of all of us for six years."

It made him very bitter for a long time, he said, and was a very expensive exercise (it's said to have cost Tua more than $4m) and a very damaging exercise on people's reputations.

The other name Barry will be forever associated with is Evander Holyfield, sensationally disqualified for illegal hits in their 1984 Olympic semi-final.

Barry has seen him frequently over the years, been to church with him several times, and hung out at his house.

This month Holyfield's third wife took out a protective order after claiming he hit her, and the former world heavyweight champ is still appearing in the ring.

Barry said he was saddened by everything Holyfield was going through, and it was hurtful that the greatest cruiserweight the world had seen was still in the ring at 47 against C class fighters.

"However, it's been repeated over and over again in the sport of boxing," he said.

It makes Barry count his own blessings. He's enormously proud of what his family has achieved.

Daughter Jordyn, 17, is a straight A student who has been offered numerous scholarships and will do law at Stanford. She is also a talented debater who is captain of her school team and has represented Nevada in national debating competitions.

Twins Taylor and Mitchell, 14, play for the Spartans American football team which won three state titles and a national title, and had an amazing 97-match winning sequence with Taylor at quarterback. They are both already over 6ft, and Taylor has size 14 feet. Barry thinks both are good enough to play college football.

And, he admits ruefully, Taylor is also nagging his father to let him get in the ring.